Favorite student emails

[apl68]

I received this one this morning from a student who isn't anywhere close to passing. Coming late to class because you were being tutored for that class? I don't get it. How about you leave the tutoring session early to get to class on time?

Good morning Dr. Mode,

The reason for this email is because I will be late to tomorrow's lecture. With where all my grades stand right now, I realized that I needed to get a tutor to get help with my assignments. The only time that I could get was 11:30pm -12:30pm. I will be 10 minutes late since the start of lecture is at 12:20pm. I just wanted to let you know about this. I have read what we will be covering during lecture class and understand what I will miss.

Best,

Stu

Given that email, I'm not certain the student knows how to tell time.  Either that or they have signed up for 13 hours of tutoring and have gone entirely nocturnal.

The inability to tell time is only one of Stu's many, many problems.

Hence the need for 13 straight hours of tutoring.  Whether it helps or not, it sounds like an heroic effort.

[Caracal]

It's not where they go, or how long it takes, it's who they visit (and how many of them, and how many are unmasked, etc.) which can't be monitored while an individual is out of state.

They bring the risk back with them, is the potential issue.

For schools trying to maintain some kind of sanity, this is not harsh, it's a simple necessity.

Have you ever visited someone in an ICU on universal precautions?

No, probably not, because only absolutely necessary individuals are allowed in, and they have to de-mask and de-gown, and wash up before leaving the area, to prevent iatrogenic contamination. (From personal experience as a unit coordinator often assigned to the ICU/CCU: I had to post the signs, so I know what they said...and replenish the mask/gown/soap rack right outside the room in the attached lav...so I know they were used).

We're all, still, really on universal precautions. Or we should be.

Sorry, the whole selfish, entitled "I don't wanna wear a mask or refrain from seeing my friends because it's considerate of others" is what's taking us so long to get back to any kind of "normalcy" (Hoover's oh-so-apt neologism) within the next year.

Sorry, /rant over.

M.

Well, it can't be monitored when they are away from campus. If the student is visiting vaccinated parents or family, what they are doing is probably far, far safer than a group of students who go to a restaurant or bar 5 miles away from campus. I get where you're coming from, but trying to shame people into better behavior around public health never works.

[Langue_doc]

I'd just go ahead and use the whole whiteboard. If a student arranged to travel when they should be in class, oh well.

This does not appear to be a COVID or illness-related absence as the student has chosen to travel. Not using the whole whiteboard to accommodate this student would mean that the students who are in class would be penalized.

[Puget]

I'd just go ahead and use the whole whiteboard. If a student arranged to travel when they should be in class, oh well.

Yep, if I got that email I would reply with a link to our university travel policy, which is currently "don't travel" and tell them they can get notes from someone.

That seems a bit harsh. We don't really know the circumstances. The student might well be visiting family who are fully vaccinated. That's not dangerous as long as they are taking appropriate precautions. Fine to tell them to get notes, but no reason to judge the student.

My judgement doesn't matter-- the university policy is they can't travel out of state unless they get emergency clearance from the dean of students. And no, I don't think it is harsh to judge students for traveling recreationally *during times there are classes*. They can go visit their family during break, not during the semester.

Its a long tough semester. Worth cutting students a break. Not your policy, but I also have a hard time really seeing the logic of prohibiting out of state travel. Driving four hours doesn't really carry more of an exposure risk than driving two...

For faculty too, but you don't see us skipping class to travel. Sorry, but we're going to have to agree to disagree on this one-- I am compassionate toward student stress in many ways, but enabling irresponsible travel during the semester is not one of them.

[Caracal]

I'd just go ahead and use the whole whiteboard. If a student arranged to travel when they should be in class, oh well.

Yep, if I got that email I would reply with a link to our university travel policy, which is currently "don't travel" and tell them they can get notes from someone.

That seems a bit harsh. We don't really know the circumstances. The student might well be visiting family who are fully vaccinated. That's not dangerous as long as they are taking appropriate precautions. Fine to tell them to get notes, but no reason to judge the student.

My judgement doesn't matter-- the university policy is they can't travel out of state unless they get emergency clearance from the dean of students. And no, I don't think it is harsh to judge students for traveling recreationally *during times there are classes*. They can go visit their family during break, not during the semester.

Its a long tough semester. Worth cutting students a break. Not your policy, but I also have a hard time really seeing the logic of prohibiting out of state travel. Driving four hours doesn't really carry more of an exposure risk than driving two...

For faculty too, but you don't see us skipping class to travel. Sorry, but we're going to have to agree to disagree on this one-- I am compassionate toward student stress in many ways, but enabling irresponsible travel during the semester is not one of them.

Oh, I don't think there's any need to change the class to accommodate the student. I just would leave out the judgement about travel.

[marshwiggle]

My judgement doesn't matter-- the university policy is they can't travel out of state unless they get emergency clearance from the dean of students. And no, I don't think it is harsh to judge students for traveling recreationally *during times there are classes*. They can go visit their family during break, not during the semester.

Its a long tough semester. Worth cutting students a break. Not your policy, but I also have a hard time really seeing the logic of prohibiting out of state travel. Driving four hours doesn't really carry more of an exposure risk than driving two...

You do know that there are countries who have closed their borders to limit outbreaks? And regions of countries that have prohibited travel into them to limit outbreaks? Within a 4 hour drive of here, I can get to regions with big outbreaks and others with virtually no cases, and everything in between.

Because travel can create big risks, lots of places are forbidding it. People who refuse to take this seriously are responsible for many of the outbreaks.

[Caracal]

My judgement doesn't matter-- the university policy is they can't travel out of state unless they get emergency clearance from the dean of students. And no, I don't think it is harsh to judge students for traveling recreationally *during times there are classes*. They can go visit their family during break, not during the semester.

Its a long tough semester. Worth cutting students a break. Not your policy, but I also have a hard time really seeing the logic of prohibiting out of state travel. Driving four hours doesn't really carry more of an exposure risk than driving two...

You do know that there are countries who have closed their borders to limit outbreaks? And regions of countries that have prohibited travel into them to limit outbreaks? Within a 4 hour drive of here, I can get to regions with big outbreaks and others with virtually no cases, and everything in between.

Because travel can create big risks, lots of places are forbidding it. People who refuse to take this seriously are responsible for many of the outbreaks.

If a school wants to keep students from going off campus, or have a rule that they aren't supposed to go out of the nearby area, that's fine. I just think the "no travel out of state" rule is pretty arbitrary and nonsensical. And in general, shaming is just a bad strategy and tends to be counterproductive. The student went out of state, you have no idea if this is totally safe or risky. Expressing disapproval often feels productive, but it doesn't actually do anything and tends to backfire. There's no need to rearrange the class for the one student, but just tell them they'll have to get notes and move on.

[onthefringe]

I'd just go ahead and use the whole whiteboard. If a student arranged to travel when they should be in class, oh well.

Yep, if I got that email I would reply with a link to our university travel policy, which is currently "don't travel" and tell them they can get notes from someone.

That seems a bit harsh. We don't really know the circumstances. The student might well be visiting family who are fully vaccinated. That's not dangerous as long as they are taking appropriate precautions. Fine to tell them to get notes, but no reason to judge the student.

My judgement doesn't matter-- the university policy is they can't travel out of state unless they get emergency clearance from the dean of students. And no, I don't think it is harsh to judge students for traveling recreationally *during times there are classes*. They can go visit their family during break, not during the semester.

Its a long tough semester. Worth cutting students a break. Not your policy, but I also have a hard time really seeing the logic of prohibiting out of state travel. Driving four hours doesn't really carry more of an exposure risk than driving two...

For faculty too, but you don't see us skipping class to travel. Sorry, but we're going to have to agree to disagree on this one-- I am compassionate toward student stress in many ways, but enabling irresponsible travel during the semester is not one of them.

I actually went the other way when I had several students ask about remote attendance last Friday so that they could visit family over Easter. I emailed the whole class and said I would make the class accessible synchronously and remotely (the way I do it they can hear my voice and see my slides and annotations, but not see me or hear the other students). But I also told them that traveling right now was dangerous, and that anyone who attended remotely on Friday was not permitted back to in-person class until they have a negative result from a test taken at least four days after their return to Uni-city, meaning they would have to attend this week's classes remotely too.

Shockingly, nobody pushed back at all. I got several peoplee saying essentially "that's fine", two people who changed their travel plans, and three who responded to thank me for protecting them from their idiot classmates.

Obviously a determined student coukd lie their way out of it, but it was the best I could come up with.

[mamselle]

^ Like.

M.

[Liquidambar]

Update on this...

I need some help with email wording.  A student has asked me to record tomorrow's class.  I've told them in the past that I'll record if someone is out sick, and I've occasionally had to do this.  However, my classroom isn't well set up for it.

Now a student, who also happens to be my undergrad research student, has asked me to record tomorrow's class because he's away on personal travel.  I'll do the recording since I suspect he's not the only one traveling for Easter weekend, but I want him to understand that I'm doing this as a favor and it's not something he should feel comfortable asking me to do a lot in the future.  I drafted the text below, but Liquidspouse thinks it sounds too snippy so I haven't sent it yet.  Thoughts?

Nightshade suggested I email the whole class, which was a great idea.  I sent everyone a message saying they could watch this particular class remotely in real time, but it wouldn't be recorded. I also reminded them about my policy on recording (only for when someone is out sick).  I'm glad I did it this way.  I looked helpful(ish) without coddling them too much.  Two students tuned in who otherwise wouldn't have known they could.  Research student did not.  His loss!  I guess he'll have to get notes from someone.

I briefly considered chastising students for personal travel, but I decided not to.  I'm not sure of our exact policy on it, and our calendar this semester was poorly thought out.  To discourage student travel, we have a few scattered spring break days instead of a solid week off.  The Monday right after Easter was not a break, but Tuesday was.  Of course some students decided to take a long weekend.

We also gave them St. Patrick's Day off and were shocked--shocked, I tell you!--that students went to off-campus parties and got a lot of new Covid infections.

[Aster]

Stu Dent: "Professor, I don't know why I'm getting a D and I keep failing the exams. I have read and memorized the entire textbook."

Sure, man. Sure you have. I'm not sure why you're telling me something this stupid-sounding, as we only use the first third of the textbook in this course, and we were only about halfway into those handfuls of chapters when you contacted me. But okay, blow this rainbow unicorn smoke up my butt. You're still flunking all the exams because you don't understand the lesson content, which is directly found in the textbook and marked in the class notes.

"Memorized the entire textbook." Man, that is RICH. There's over 1200 pages in that thing.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

Stu Dent: "Professor, I don't know why I'm getting a D and I keep failing the exams. I have read and memorized the entire textbook."

Sure, man. Sure you have. I'm not sure why you're telling me something this stupid-sounding, as we only use the first third of the textbook in this course, and we were only about halfway into those handfuls of chapters when you contacted me. But okay, blow this rainbow unicorn smoke up my butt. You're still flunking all the exams because you don't understand the lesson content, which is directly found in the textbook and marked in the class notes.

"Memorized the entire textbook." Man, that is RICH. There's over 1200 pages in that thing.

Such imagery!

Yep. They are full of it.

[apl68]

By "memorized" the student may mean "ran a highlighter over every line on every page."  I've seen books like that.  Unfortunately some of them actually belonged to the university library.

[the_geneticist]

By "memorized" the student may mean "ran a highlighter over every line on every page."  I've seen books like that.  Unfortunately some of them actually belonged to the university library.

I'm tempted to hand some students a black Sharpie and say, "it might be faster to just cross out the important bits".  Some books look like a rainbow barfed on them.

[Caracal]

Update on this...

I need some help with email wording.  A student has asked me to record tomorrow's class.  I've told them in the past that I'll record if someone is out sick, and I've occasionally had to do this.  However, my classroom isn't well set up for it.

Now a student, who also happens to be my undergrad research student, has asked me to record tomorrow's class because he's away on personal travel.  I'll do the recording since I suspect he's not the only one traveling for Easter weekend, but I want him to understand that I'm doing this as a favor and it's not something he should feel comfortable asking me to do a lot in the future.  I drafted the text below, but Liquidspouse thinks it sounds too snippy so I haven't sent it yet.  Thoughts?

Nightshade suggested I email the whole class, which was a great idea.  I sent everyone a message saying they could watch this particular class remotely in real time, but it wouldn't be recorded. I also reminded them about my policy on recording (only for when someone is out sick).  I'm glad I did it this way.  I looked helpful(ish) without coddling them too much.  Two students tuned in who otherwise wouldn't have known they could.  Research student did not.  His loss!  I guess he'll have to get notes from someone.

I briefly considered chastising students for personal travel, but I decided not to.  I'm not sure of our exact policy on it, and our calendar this semester was poorly thought out.  To discourage student travel, we have a few scattered spring break days instead of a solid week off.  The Monday right after Easter was not a break, but Tuesday was.  Of course some students decided to take a long weekend.

We also gave them St. Patrick's Day off and were shocked--shocked, I tell you!--that students went to off-campus parties and got a lot of new Covid infections.

Yeah, I think there's a tendency to blame students and then try to control them. Universities gave up so long ago on the en loco parentis thing that they forgot that they are actually an institutionalized setting and can exert huge amounts of control over students lives. For the larger population in the US, COVID rules have been basically suggestions, something that is especially true for middle class people. College students live in a really different world, at least those living in dorms do and they have to deal with really intense rules governing all sorts of aspects of their daily lives. Most of these rules are necessary, at least they are if you're going to invite a bunch of 18-22 year olds to live in close quarters with each other, but that doesn't mean they don't feel pretty oppressive if you have to deal with them all the time.

When you have a lot of rules you have to follow, by their nature some of them often seem arbitrary or capricious. I don't even know what the exact mask rules are in my state right now. They are certainly required inside and I always wear them. Outside, I basically take the approach that if I can stay six feet away from other people with ease, I don't need a mask on. If I'm somewhere where there are enough other people around on the sidewalks that that might not be possible I put it on.

The students who live on the campus near me don't get to make those choices. They are supposed to have their masks on at all times, on campus or off. I was with my kid at a satellite park area of campus. I had a mask in my pocket but I didn't have it on, because there was literally no other person there within hundreds of yards. I'll admit to feeling kind of annoyed when a campus cop rolled up and told me I needed to have a mask on. Its annoying to be told you don't get to use reasonable discretion. Now before anybody yells at me, I understand why that rule exists and is enforced the way it is. They are trying to get students to just always wear a mask because campus is crowded and full of people and you want to avoid a bunch of endless arguments and I'm sure they have specifically told the cops to not make distinctions about visitors or exceptions. But if you're there all the time, that's going to start to feel oppressive really quickly.

So, I guess that's just a long way of saying I think you made the right choice on that. Maybe the student is doing something ill advised over Easter. Maybe they are visiting fully vaccinated people they haven't seen in a long time. I'm sympathetic to them right now and I can't see how grumbling about the rules will accomplish much.