Professors should be required to take a sensitivity course. It wouldn’t be a bad idea if it became mandatory that every semester professors had their titles stripped away for a weekend and became students themselves. Then maybe their brief experience would jog their memories on what it feels like to be a student.

Okay, that kind of wishful thinking will never materialize. And even if it did, professors still probably couldn’t grasp the life of an average working student.

Usually at the end of the semester, professors seem to forget that being a student is extremely hard nowadays. With the increase in rent and bills, students who have to work for a living have to work even more outside of school to compensate for the increased cost of living. Since no one can live off of a mere $7 an hour (which is the typical standard of payment for young bloods today), students who have to earn a living in addition to going to school often receive no breaks whatsoever.

And the pressure is added even more so during the crunch-time of the semester final exams.

Sometimes things that happen outside the classroom are way beyond a student’s control. At times like these it is extremely vital that a professor be reasonable with their demands, even if it may disrupt their lesson plans.

Heaven forbid that a lesson plan be tampered with!

But, okay, it would be presumptuous to assume that all professors are devils in disguise. There are professors on this campus who genuinely care about their students and their well being. Students value those kinds of professors and want to impress them even more so when they see that their professors are willing to work with them. But where can the line be drawn? If a professor gives one student an extension, then he/she has to give every one an extension too, right?

Well that depends.

There are circumstances in a student’s life that sometimes force them to focus elsewhere besides school. And if a student quickly becomes aware that a situation outside the classroom could somehow affect their education, then it’s up to the student to be responsible and express concern to their professor. That’s all a student can do?the rest is in the hands of the lord-professor.

Professors who don’t want to appear lenient because they want to send a stern message of how the real world works need a reality check. Most of the students at Sac State or any university already has an idea of how the real world works.

Pay bills on time or get harassed and bad credit. Break the law, go to jail, and receive bad karma. Life is never fair. Birds of a feather flock together. Oh and Murphy’s Law is always in effect. And that’s about all there is to really know about the real world. By a professor not giving students an extension or a break when they need one shows that the professor is out of touch and jaded with the whole learning process.

It’s true that students are here to learn, but the hardest lesson they will get is when they can’t teach their professors that it’s all about compromise and being reasonable when the situation calls for it.

Georgette Todd is a Journalism major. She can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].