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A letter I wrote to the CIMS department at Clayton State:

To Whom it May Concern:

I would like to address the extreme troubles the ITFN 2123 class is facing. Our instructor, Bakhtiar has not taught the class in over a month and a half. We are supposed to be working on a group project during this time when he was absent and completed this assignment in its entirety yesterday. We handed him a 55 page deliverable, and had a very professional powerpoint presentation to cover the scope of the project. After the presentation had concluded, Bakhtiar asked “Is that it?” and wanted to know if we had anything else to present. We answered no, and he asked a specific question about the “Analysis phase” of the project. We didn’t know what he was talking about, and asked him to clarify, and he shrugged his shoulders that he didn’t know. The presentation was backed up to re-cover the slide dealing with the customer analysis, and he was not pleased. He said the presentation was not enough, and he wanted us to create another presentation for Thursday.

The team had made the effort of locating him in his office (when he was supposed to be in the classroom, teaching) and asked him what he wanted the presentation to include. His response was “Whatever the group decides”. This is what we went with on Tuesday, and was obviously not to his liking. If he had a problem with our presentation, he should have given us more guidance about what he was expecting. We have had absolutely no direction.

The only instruction that he has given was several brief powerpoint presentations that came with the textbook. He read from the slides, and then stopped teaching all together less than a month into the semester. Even before he stopped showing up to class, he would habitually arrive half an hour late, unprepared.

He has only appeared in the classroom briefly for a minute or two over the last month and a half. He has not done any instruction during this time. We have taken one test only, and he has not yet graded this assignment and notified us of the results. No one has any idea of what their grade is in this class. On test day, he arrived to the classroom half an hour late, and administered this test, taking the time he was late unfairly out of the time we had to complete this test.

I sent him an email on Monday asking about if there was a final, and when it would take place. He ignored the email, but addressed the class as a whole when we asked him about it. He said he didn’t know and needed to see a syllabus. He looked at the syllabus and discussed what time we wanted the final to be held. The class doesn’t even know what material will be covered on this final. We asked him what would be covered, and he again didn’t know and asked to see a textbook. He look at the textbook, and announced after some time that it would cover chapters 3 through 8.

We have never been past chapter 5 in this class. I asked him when he covered this material, and he said it wasn’t important and that it would be on the final. No one knows the grade for the one and only assignment that has ever been issued, so we don’t know where we stand going into this final.

I am fearful of getting a bad grade in this class because of bad marks on the project that we worked so hard on. I don’t know my grade now, and I don’t know the material that the final is covering. This class has not had an instructor. Bakhtiar has been the worst teacher I have ever experienced at Clayton State, and I am seriously considering changing schools if this type conduct from an instructor is to continue. I feel I have wasted my time, and my resources, and gained nothing from a class without a teacher who even cares enough to show up.

I would like to discuss this situation with the people in charge of this departments as a class, or have someone from the department sit in on our class on Thursday. Bakhtiar will arrive late, as always, and give no instruction whatsoever, and I would like an authority to witness this behavior. I would like to discuss my grade in this class as well, as I will not let a class that has been so poorly conducted drop me from HOPE eligibility, and lower my GPA.

I would have addressed these issues sooner, however the class felt that we would receive good marks on this project, after having no instruction, and that we would leave the class with good grades. I am skeptical about this being the case now, however, so I am appealing this matter to the department.

If Bakhtiar continues to teach in this manner, at this college, I will no longer be attending Clayton State.

Thank you for your time and concern,