Journal Entry 45: Tyranny of the Majority

I am no longer surprised by anything that happens at the university. The lecturer for one of my classes has missed many lectures and told us to come early one day to make up for one that we lost. She said we would meet at 9:30 am at a lecture hall that is pretty far from our dorms, and then we would meet again at our regular time at 11:30 am in the other lecture hall the same day. When I walked in the room, one of my international friends said to me, “She’s at the bank” with a “you-already-know” face.  We sat there waiting for her for over an hour and just as we were about to leave, the teacher’s assistant informs us that she’s coming. She arrived at about 10:40 and told us we would do some quick dictation and move to the next location. Students from the next class were in the back of the lecture hall waiting, and she made sure to take the time out to address them and tell them to please wait outside until we’re done.  Midway through the notes, she informs us that we will be having another double-class time next week to make up for the time we lost (because she couldn’t make it—for whatever reason).  A few international students raised their hands, “but that is our revision week. We are supposed to study for exams” a girl said. (Because of the strike, the international students have their exams separately so they can leave on schedule). The lecturer responded, “Oh, well you can come or not come. If all your other classes are canceled, it should be okay for you to come. I was not informed of this. Your exams start the 4^th. Talk to me after class“. 

She continued to do dictation when more and more students from the next 11:30 class started to pour in. “Please, you are disturbing our lecture, please come later” she said. By 11:15, a huge swarm of students flooded through the lecture hall and decided to kick us out. “Tyranny of the majority!”, the lecturer said. The 300 of them came in and started taking seats asking people, “are you leaving now?”. The lecturer continued to yell to them through the mic, but she was barely heard.

We made our way to the other hall and waited for her for the next class period. When she finally arrived (later than all of us even though she has a car), she spent a few minutes lecturing us about what just happened, and then went on to do a little dictation, describing reading we should have already done. “The table in the reading is set up like this”, “Dahlerup says this”.

After class, I along with a small group of international students went up to her to ask her about exams, but she claimed it wasn’t the appropriate time and that she had to run to the department. She said she couldn't really tell us anything but that she would meet with us during the week, if we called to remind her. As I headed downstairs a few minutes later I saw her talking to another group of Ghanaian students, laughing and smiling. I looked at my international friend and said, “Wow—she must really be in a rush”.