At the risk of generalising hideously...
I can see why some tutors might well consider that what a student does or doesn't do is ultimately the student's business, and nothing to do with them. Certainly, a *responsible* sort of tutor should care whether his/her students are giving a bad name to the university's/college's film studies unit/cinematography course, by pissing off actors who are working for the students. But it wouldn't surprise me to find there are many who are interested mainly in the teaching side of their duties, and who feel that if the students (who have probably been told what the 'proper' etiquette in these situations is) aren't behaving themselves, then that is something for the student director to have to deal with the fallout from, not them. After all, they can always claim (with some justification) that as soon as a film project has been given over into the hands of their students, those students take on professional responsibility for themselves, and the tutor is no longer responsible, as they are not overseeing the project per se, merely marking it at the end of the day. The student director will have been the one who you auditioned for, who cast you, who promised you expenses or a copy of the DVD, who arranged your shooting schedule etc. etc. And, really, none of this had anything to do with the tutor, who merely set the student a piece of coursework and said, Go and get it filmed.
Dismissive behaviour is hardly appropriate for any tutor who wants to try and up the standing of his/her cinemetaography department...but it's hardly behaviour which is unacceptable or exceptional. Rather, it seems justifiable from a certain perspective. So, no wonder many tutors aren't helpful when it comes to this issue, unfortunately.
