Professor misses more than a month; students question class' integrity
Scheduled guest lecturers have been filling in to teach graduate class so far.
Arin Mikailian
Issue date: 3/5/07 Section: News
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A professor's absence for a day might spell relief and a few extra hours of relaxation for students, but for some communication management graduate students, their instructor's absence has worn out its novelty.
Aram Sinreich, professor of CMGT 599 - Communication, Culture and Commerce in the Videogame Industry - has not showed up to his class for more than a month, leaving some students frustrated and lost.
Andrea Hollingshead, chair of the communication management program, said Sinreich originally missed class because he caught the flu.
Sinreich stopped showing up for the Wednesday night class after the second week of the semester, said Matt Rosenzweig, a master's candidate in communication management.
Rosenzweig said the situation grew worse after Sinreich failed to respond to e-mails.
Sinreich's condition worsened, preventing him from communicating by phone or e-mail, Hollingshead said.
Two of Sinreich's colleagues and professional friends have tried to fill in for his absence, but Rosenzweig said they came to class unprepared.
"They were not informed what they would be covering in the class until a few hours beforehand," he said. "They did not have enough time to digest the material."
Rosenzweig said the lectures given by both substitutes did not meet his expectations for the course and what it was supposed to teach.
"The transition up until this point has not been handled very well," Rosenzweig said.
"This is a $4,000 class. That's a lot of money to spend for not getting anything. It's going to compromise the integrity of the communication management program," he said.
The two substitutes who filled in for Sinreich were actually scheduled to speak later during the course as guests, and their rescheduling may have affected the flow of the course, Hollingshead said.
"Obviously moving the topics around to accommodate Aram's illness is
not ideal for the continuity of the class," she wrote in an e-mail.
Aram Sinreich, professor of CMGT 599 - Communication, Culture and Commerce in the Videogame Industry - has not showed up to his class for more than a month, leaving some students frustrated and lost.
Andrea Hollingshead, chair of the communication management program, said Sinreich originally missed class because he caught the flu.
Sinreich stopped showing up for the Wednesday night class after the second week of the semester, said Matt Rosenzweig, a master's candidate in communication management.
Rosenzweig said the situation grew worse after Sinreich failed to respond to e-mails.
Sinreich's condition worsened, preventing him from communicating by phone or e-mail, Hollingshead said.
Two of Sinreich's colleagues and professional friends have tried to fill in for his absence, but Rosenzweig said they came to class unprepared.
"They were not informed what they would be covering in the class until a few hours beforehand," he said. "They did not have enough time to digest the material."
Rosenzweig said the lectures given by both substitutes did not meet his expectations for the course and what it was supposed to teach.
"The transition up until this point has not been handled very well," Rosenzweig said.
"This is a $4,000 class. That's a lot of money to spend for not getting anything. It's going to compromise the integrity of the communication management program," he said.
The two substitutes who filled in for Sinreich were actually scheduled to speak later during the course as guests, and their rescheduling may have affected the flow of the course, Hollingshead said.
"Obviously moving the topics around to accommodate Aram's illness is
not ideal for the continuity of the class," she wrote in an e-mail.
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 3
William Broderick-Villa
posted 3/05/07 @ 11:45 AM PST
The past participle of "show" is "shown." Thus, the article should read, "...has not shown up to class for more than a month," not "has not showed." Please correct this error. (Continued…)
aramsinnreich
Aram Sinnreich
posted 3/06/07 @ 6:17 PM PST
I am the professor of the course in question. I would like to address a few factual errors and omissions in this article.
For the record, I was neither contacted for comment for this article, nor was my name spelled correctly in it. (Continued…)
Jason
posted 3/07/07 @ 12:05 AM PST
Way to go DT! another case of your brilliant reporting, this seems to be right on par.
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