I've spent a couple of months organizing a crew of 5 vet students to volunteer at the American Holistic Veterinary Medicine convention in October. In exchange, the AHVMA covers our hotel room, most of our meals, and our registration fee. Good deal, right?
One of the students who signed up discovered that she would have to miss an exam to attend the convention. She emailed her prof about taking it earlier, and he said that because the convention is not an emergency, the answer was no (the only ticket out of his exams are emergencies, apparently).
I'm a little cheesed, but not because the prof was unwilling to make an exception for her. Whatever, it's his course, that's his right. But I'm grumpy because our Professional Skills course has emphasized more than once to go to conferences, attend symposiums, go to wetlabs, get out there in the professional world NOW, don't wait until you graduate! So on one side we have profs pushing us to attend these things, and on the other side we have profs that keep us from being able to. With one, two, sometimes three exams in a week, there is almost no way to attend a conference (in a topic of your interest) that doesn't conflict with an exam.
If the college wants us to believe that conventions are important to attend NOW, they should find a way to allow us to get there. If they won't let us get there, then telling us how important conventions are just makes us feel that much worse when our profs keep us from being able to go.
Hmph. At least my professor is willing to let me reschedule the exam that I'm going to miss.
3 comments:
Megan,
I was going to support you on VIN, but the last time I opened my mouth there, I had alumnae contact my dean and complain that I didn't have a good attitude. Sheesh!
So you have my sympathy.
Jesus, you're kidding! Was this over the horse-handling thread?
How do they expect us to participate in a "professional" environment if some are going to be so unprofessional?
Thanks for the sympathy :-) Much appreciated!
No, it was about a year earlier, when I was making a slightly sarcastic comment about one of the profs and the recommended treatment for an ER dyspnic cat. I'm sorry, but with 11 years experience in ER med, I feel very comfortable questioning the shotgun approach to dyspnia that was recommended. And then when I quoted the power point to the dean's office, I then got told that that info was intellectual property of the prof and I shouldn't go spouting it off. WTF?!
Yah, it's nice when people get on their high horse and act as if they can do no wrong.
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