unexpected hurricane fallout...

so, in a horrible turn of events, one of my favorite professors at the law school has fallen ill and isn't teaching my evidence class anymore. my thoughts are with him as he goes through his treatment and i wish him the speediest of recoveries.

had things gone according to plan, he would have been teaching a 9:00 and an 11:00 evidence class. i'm enrolled in the 11:00, but due to scheduling conflicts with other classes, i have to go to the 9:00 session on thursdays. my professor okayed this at the end of last semester and there should have been no problems.

but now, since he's sick, he's only going to teach the 9:00 course, and it's still up in the air as to whether he'll be able to teach the whole semester.

so, we've got this professor from tulane law who is in the area staying with family, since new orleans is, well, katrina'ed. he taught today. and i hate him.

a certain amount of arrogance and/or self-absorption is to be expected in law professors. academia can be pretty insular, and brilliant minds are somewhat predisposed to being in their own worlds. but this guy is just obnoxious. he made several comments about how he was from new orleans and how he has to go shopping and buy new clothes and how he was interviewed on the news last night and how he was from new orleans and how he was from new orleans. oh, and how he wrote the civil procedure casebook we used last year and how he went to law school with the clintons and blah blah blah blah blah...

first of all, i definitely think the situation that has brought him here is tragic. i do not at all want to belittle how horrible it must be to have lost his home and his hometown. but all i ask is a little perspective. there are thousands of people out there who are not only homeless, but jobless and stuff-less and penniless. there are people living in sports arenas. there are people who are only getting one meal a day (if that) and who don't have working plumbing. a law professor who is still getting paid through his university and who is able to pick up a few classes at a different law school has it, relatively speaking, pretty good. and i did not sign up for a semester-long pity party. not when i've got family who are going through this, too. not when i see on the news how bad things are. not when people are starving and sick and dying. no way.
second of all, that civil procedure casebook was the worst casebook i used last year. hands down.

third of all, this guy told the 11:00 class (that he's going to be teaching full-time) to throw away the syllabus that the original professor had given us, because he's not going to be following it. this is colossally bad for those of us (there are about 8 of us) who are having to do the weird split schedule because of time conflicts. a split schedule that had been approved back when we had to sign up for classes and when the same professor was supposed to be teaching both sections. now the add/drop period is over, and this guy has announced that it's his way or the highway.

fourth of all, this guy actually was giving out HIGH FIVES to students who volunteered answers in class. high fives?!?! dude. i'm almost 29 years old and i will NOT give a high five to a professor in class. this is not high school and i'm not on the pep squad. call me un-school spirited, but i'm a woman of principles and i am not playing stupid woo woo class games.

fifth of all, a little humility goes a looooooooooooong way. somebody should tell this guy.

so, i checked ratemyprofessors.com to see what tulane law students had to say about their displaced professor. the comments weren't good. not at all.

it figures that i'd have to have one dark cloud in my semester. six fantastic classes would be too good to be true.