I’m a 3rd-year college student and I’ve always been one of the top in class honor roll, high grades, professors know me for being the quiet but consistent type. What people don’t see is that I’m also broke. I juggle two part-time jobs to pay for school, bills, and help out at home. I skip meals, barely sleep, and sometimes attend class running on caffeine and 2 hours of rest. There’s this one subject that’s super time-consuming and detail-heavy tons of reports, weekend requirements, and random group outputs. I was managing it at first, even if it was draining, but I started slipping when both my jobs increased hours due to peak season. I tried to keep up, but my health took the hit. A few weeks ago, I was hospitalized for physical exhaustion, and because of that, I missed a major deadline. I talked to the professor about it and explained everything, but he looked me straight in the eye and said, “You just didn’t have enough dedication.” I laughed not to mock him, but because it felt surreal. I told him, “Sir, I’ve been working two jobs, studying at dawn, skipping meals just to pass your class. You think I’m not dedicated because my body gave up?” I said, not everyone has the privilege to just be a student some of us are surviving. He’s new, so I get that he doesn’t know me or my track record, but it stung. What surprised me though is that after word spread, a lot of my classmates actually sided with me and said it was unfair, especially since hospitalization is a valid reason. But now I keep wondering. AITAH for laughing and finally saying what I’ve kept quiet about for so long?
AITAH for laughing when my professor said I “lacked dedication” after I failed a subject from being hospitalized?
r/AITAH
Comments
Talk to your guidance counselor or faculty advisor. You were likely perceived as TAH because of laughing and the tone that you used. Not sure it matters
NTA. You were calm and said what needed to be said. A lot of people would have cursed a blue streak. You didn’t do anything wrong. The professor needs to wake up.
What country are you in? In the UK, you’d need to speak your student union branch and then your head of department, before raising this your dean. Taking the approach of ‘I want to ensure that the school/department can organise training to ensure that others aren’t put in this position and choose to raise concerns about disability harassment of students through the appropriate channels’ will be seen as productive while also being extremely effective at getting justice for you.
Former professor here, that’s unhinged. Talk to the disability office (might be called something like accessibility or accommodations office) with paperwork from your hospital visit as this is presumably having a negative impact on your time-to-degree progress, your GPA, and possibly your financial aid. CC the professor’s department chair + the dean of students + the provost
I was hospitalized for 2 weeks while I was attending college. When I came back, I submitted my late assignment and showed teacher my Dr bill, showing I was in the hospital when the assignment was due. She immediately accepted it and acted concerned, asked if I was ok. I suggest you bring it to the office’s attention if he punishes you for being in the hospital.