<p>MWFN, your position makes perfect sense to me. The main issue, from my perspective, is that the instructor is putting his own academic priorities **well **before those of his students. Perhaps that is only natural, but IMO he should at least be able to meet his obligation to the course he agreed to take on. If he has to cancel a class, he should make it up. He needs to build into his schedule time to prepare for his class and to thoughtfully grade student work.</p>
<p>A tenured prof, theoretically, is in a position to make his students his top priority. (Perhaps I am naive, but I like to think that is usually the case. I know that each of my kids has had at least some profs who went **well **out of their way for their students, and one in particular from Smith is still a mentor to my D.)</p>
<p>My D had one bad experience at Smith, and it was with a tenured prof. It was for a required course in her major and she was aware that the savvy students frequently took this course at Amherst to avoid that Smith prof. (It was not that the Smith guy was too tough, but rather than he was highly disorganized and not an effective communicator.) She preferred to keep things simple and take the class at her home campus, and she came to regret that decision.</p>
<p>Oh well, one bad apple “don’t spoil the whole bunch.”</p>