Favorite student emails

[Caracal]

I am a TT faculty, but I do not think my chair or my dean for that matter have my back when they read students' complaints about my courses.

Honest question: What would it mean to you that your chair "has your back"?

Probably be able to evaluate if a student's complaint is legitimate or not. A complaint like "this professor demonstrated a harassing behavior throughout the semester" is different than a comment saying "the assignments were tough". The former is something that should be further investigated, but I would expect in the latter case to understand that students do not want to do the work and that's why they complain about the assignments, so the problem is not with the faculty but with the students. But this will not happen, because as I said students are the university's customers and we need to keep them happy.

In our case, if anyone's wondering, 'having your back' would mean, at minimum, telling the students the same thing the administration tells the adjunct union during negotiations, namely that adjuncts do not do office hour service. That way students would not be expecting it, and would not be thinking of it when filling out the comments section of the evaluation forms.

Students don't tend to know or care about the employment status of their instructors. I'm lucky enough to teach at one school and so I think I'm about as available to meet as the permanent faculty members. I can see how it would be more difficult if you were teaching at multiple schools.

As an aside, I wonder if this is something where the pandemic might have changed things. If I'm back on campus in the fall, I'll probably have some meetings on Zoom. Individual Zoom meetings work fine, and would mean that I don't have to try to cram every student meeting in between classes on my teaching days. I'd assume it would be particularly useful for people teaching at multiple schools.

[downer]

Maybe I am not paying sufficient attention to my student's needs, but I've never had a student question that couldn't be answered in an email. So I don't really see the need for individual Zoom meetings.

There have been a handful of occasions in the last 10 years where I have had phone conversations with students about their personal situations, and sometimes it might be more personal to interact live with someone. But even there, it doesn't seem really necessary.

[dr_codex]

Maybe I am not paying sufficient attention to my student's needs, but I've never had a student question that couldn't be answered in an email. So I don't really see the need for individual Zoom meetings.

There have been a handful of occasions in the last 10 years where I have had phone conversations with students about their personal situations, and sometimes it might be more personal to interact live with someone. But even there, it doesn't seem really necessary.

I routinely warn my students -- and colleagues -- that our email is not confidential. It is all archived, and subject to FOI requests.

[downer]

Maybe I am not paying sufficient attention to my student's needs, but I've never had a student question that couldn't be answered in an email. So I don't really see the need for individual Zoom meetings.

There have been a handful of occasions in the last 10 years where I have had phone conversations with students about their personal situations, and sometimes it might be more personal to interact live with someone. But even there, it doesn't seem really necessary.

I routinely warn my students -- and colleagues -- that our email is not confidential. It is all archived, and subject to FOI requests.

As someone else pointed out on the thread about giving out your personal number, that might be seen to be an advantage. It is good to have a record of all interactions with students. These days there are good reasons to worry when students start disclosing confidential info to you. And faculty certainly don't want to be disclosing confidential info to students.

[FishProf]

I am a TT faculty, but I do not think my chair or my dean for that matter have my back when they read students' complaints about my courses.

Honest question: What would it mean to you that your chair "has your back"?

Probably be able to evaluate if a student's complaint is legitimate or not. A complaint like "this professor demonstrated a harassing behavior throughout the semester" is different than a comment saying "the assignments were tough". The former is something that should be further investigated, but I would expect in the latter case to understand that students do not want to do the work and that's why they complain about the assignments, so the problem is not with the faculty but with the students. But this will not happen, because as I said students are the university's customers and we need to keep them happy.

That's a pretty low bar.  Something akin to: Protect you faculty by putting out the trivial fires, investigate real concerns, but don't assume guilt on the part of faculty just on student say-so?

[research_prof]

Student posting publicly on piazza asking for clarifications regarding midterm questions that essentially give away the answer. Would it be my fault to give him directly 0/100 on his midterm?

Instead, I sent him a private message asking him to delete his questions from the public piazza forum and discuss with us in private, since answering his questions give away parts of the answers. I am waiting for him to delete the questions, otherwise I will do so tomorrow morning. This is something a senior student should be able to understand on his own at this point of his life. How would this student graduate and deal with real life if he cannot even understand what is appropriate and what is inappropriate to ask?

[Anon1787]

Last semester, I made the mistake of scheduling a Zoom meeting with a student on a Saturday. The following Friday, the student insisted on another meeting during the weekend. I referred Stu to the course policies (email responses M-F) and that the Saturday meeting was a privilege because professors typically do not schedule Zoom meetings during weekends just as they wouldn't make a trip to campus to meet with students who were taking classes on campus (pardon the convoluted sentence--it's been a long day).

ETA: I would meet (Zoom) with students during office hours as well as at other times. I also scheduled 30-minute sessions with each student just to "meet" them.This was an entitled student who complained about everything--assignments, grading policies, and everything Stu could think of.

Unfortunately, faculty who agree to meetings in addition to regularly scheduled office hours unintentionally help create the expectation that all faculty should be willing to do so.

[Charlotte]

Student emails me and says she and her group want to meet with me today. Since I don't do group projects, I'm envisioning who this group might be.

Her friends? Her squad?
A group of classmates she has persuaded to band together and complain?
People from the community for support?

I'm intrigued enough to almost do the meeting just to see what this "group" is but schedule won't allow for it. Oh well, she should have read my office hours.

[Langue_doc]

Student emails me and says she and her group want to meet with me today. Since I don't do group projects, I'm envisioning who this group might be.

Her friends? Her squad?
A group of classmates she has persuaded to band together and complain?
People from the community for support?

I'm intrigued enough to almost do the meeting just to see what this "group" is but schedule won't allow for it. Oh well, she should have read my office hours.

Students have chat rooms, as I've been discovering. The "group" probably means that a few students in the chat room have decided that your grading policies are unfair or that the course is too difficult and that you should listen to their "collective" wisdom on how to run your course, and of course, give them the grades they want. I would ask for the names and emails of the students in the "group". This semester I had two students in the chat room submit identical assignments. They claimed that they were working on the assignment in their chat room.

[the_geneticist]

Students are registering for Spring classes here.  If a student wants to repeat a class, they have to fill out [certain form], someone has to read through and approve or deny each request, and then they get a reply email.

I've had a LOT of emails along these lines:

Help!  I'm a student trying to re-take [Basketweaving 101].  I filled out the form 5 min ago and still can't register.  What am I doing wrong?

The form is a request.  Patience.  I'm going to suggest that the enrollment folks update the form to include a message about "Expect a reply in 1-2 business days".

[onehappyunicorn]

Student emails me and says she and her group want to meet with me today. Since I don't do group projects, I'm envisioning who this group might be.

Her friends? Her squad?
A group of classmates she has persuaded to band together and complain?
People from the community for support?

I'm intrigued enough to almost do the meeting just to see what this "group" is but schedule won't allow for it. Oh well, she should have read my office hours.

Students have chat rooms, as I've been discovering. The "group" probably means that a few students in the chat room have decided that your grading policies are unfair or that the course is too difficult and that you should listen to their "collective" wisdom on how to run your course, and of course, give them the grades they want. I would ask for the names and emails of the students in the "group". This semester I had two students in the chat room submit identical assignments. They claimed that they were working on the assignment in their chat room.

I'm really hoping the group turns out to be a West Side Story style of gang where they snap menacingly at you.

I had a student email me on Friday telling me that they didn't know what to do in the course. They somehow managed to stumble into completing two assignments (poorly) prior to this communication so I admit I am a little baffled. I responded that they needed to complete the modules and that all of the assignments and projects had due dates, I haven't heard back.

[AmLitHist]

Students are registering for Spring classes here.  If a student wants to repeat a class, they have to fill out [certain form], someone has to read through and approve or deny each request, and then they get a reply email.

I've had a LOT of emails along these lines:

Help!  I'm a student trying to re-take [Basketweaving 101].  I filled out the form 5 min ago and still can't register.  What am I doing wrong?

The form is a request.  Patience.  I'm going to suggest that the enrollment folks update the form to include a message about "Expect a reply in 1-2 business days".

Good lord.  If we did that here, it would require hiring another entire staff of admin minions (probably all better paid than I am) to handle the retake requests.  Oh-oh.  I've probably jinxed it . . . if it shows up on the next BoT agenda, it'll be my fault.  :-/

[AvidReader]

Stu (Email 1): I am moving to [adjacent state] for a family emergency for 3-4 weeks. My advisor said to email my instructors to see if I could do school online while I am away.
Me: Not a problem. You can attend class via Zoom.
Stu (Email 2): Oh, I won't be available during class times or before 6 p.m. any day. Can I make up the class work another way?
Me: Because our class is classified as remedial, attendance is mandatory, so you would need to get administrative approval to miss class.
Stu (Email 3): Oh, 3-4 weeks is too long. I would only need to miss class for a month or so.

??? How long does Stu think a month is?

AR.

[Langue_doc]

Stu probably has to work until 6 PM. Advisor is the one who needs hu's head examined. Most likely Stu told advisor that Stu has to be away for a week.

How about copying advisor or your chair on the email to Stu?

[the_geneticist]

Stu (Email 1): I am moving to [adjacent state] for a family emergency for 3-4 weeks. My advisor said to email my instructors to see if I could do school online while I am away.
Me: Not a problem. You can attend class via Zoom.
Stu (Email 2): Oh, I won't be available during class times or before 6 p.m. any day. Can I make up the class work another way?
Me: Because our class is classified as remedial, attendance is mandatory, so you would need to get administrative approval to miss class.
Stu (Email 3): Oh, 3-4 weeks is too long. I would only need to miss class for a month or so.

??? How long does Stu think a month is?

AR.

Better kick that one back to the advisor and up the chain of command.  It might be better for the student to take an incomplete or leave of absence.  Or see if the university offers any short-term emergency financial assistance.  I'm guessing that a family member got laid off and the student is expected to provide childcare and/or an income.