Student email troubles college professors

[KurtNYC]

Some of this doesn't sound so bad. College students are customers and they SHOULD try to get what they have paid for. I know how much I hated sitting in the hallway waiting for a turn to ask a question of a prof who was receiving a fat salary and was only available 4 hours a week.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/21/education/21professors.html?incamp=article_popular_1

One student skipped class and then sent the professor an e-mail message asking for copies of her teaching notes. Another did not like her grade, and wrote a petulant message to the professor. Another explained that she was late for a Monday class because she was recovering from drinking too much at a wild weekend party.

Jennifer Schultens, an associate professor of mathematics at the University of California, Davis, received this e-mail message last September from a student in her calculus course: "Should I buy a binder or a subject notebook? Since I'm a freshman, I'm not sure how to shop for school supplies. Would you let me know your recommendations? Thank you!"

At colleges and universities nationwide, e-mail has made professors much more approachable. But many say it has made them too accessible, erasing boundaries that traditionally kept students at a healthy distance.

[Goblinmonger]

1. Don't write anything in an email

you wouldn't want published in a newspaper.

Especially to a public school who has to keep all emails as a matter of public record.

Those don't seem too bad. 1st one could kiss my ass. 2nd one--whatever. 3rd one--heard that before. 4th one--cut the cord, freshman.

[Science Of Myth]

2. Devil's advocate

so you want me to

1. not to try to make up work that I might miss over the course of the semester

2. be so uninvolved in my studies that my grade (ie your evaluation of my performance) doesn't matter to me

3. come to class hungover/have no fun whatsoever

4. never experience any transition pains going from high school to college. maybe I would be better applying for credits due to "life experience"?

So, umm, where do you teach and what courses do you offer?

[SOteric]

7. Advocating Devils

I see it more like:

1. No. But I do expect a student to find more appropriate resources rather than asking professors to perform their work repeatedly for any and all students who may have missed courses at no additional salary or compensation. Surely a fellow student or a grad student in the program can be contacted for notes and/or tutoring for a small fee.

2. How about our students learn to suck it up and take responsibility for their grades and evaluations. My students have a number of resources available to them if they feel my grades and evaluations are genuinely inappropriate, none of which involve writing me pouty little e-mails.

3. Possibly they expect that there are more fun things in a collegiate experience than just drinking to excess. Perhaps they actually expect the students to be sufficiently self-possessed to moderate their social behaviours to a level that will not interfere with their coursework. Or at the very least, perhaps they simply feel that anyone so ill-disciplined as to miss out on a class for reasons of having gotten a snootfull ought not be silly enough to think such an explanation will garner an excuse.

4. Experience transition pains? You betchya. Expect my professors to hold my hand will I shop and learn the subtleties of the dining hall? Not a chance.

Welcome to DU :hi:

[Science Of Myth]

8. My only point

if I even had one ;) was that if these student issues had been presented in a different, less negative light they would be the type of thing that can easily be salved by a professor with an even-handed temperament and calm demeanor.

It comes across rather one-sided to me since a) I've been on the other end b) there are alot of asshole professors out there too

[Goblinmonger]

18. Some clarification

I taught at college for 5 years. I am now teaching high school again and enjoying it much more. But to your specifics (which I think apply to my high school students, too).

1. I give my lecture/have a class discussion once. If you skip class, that is your decision, but you need to live with it. Find someone willing to give you notes. I am not doing it again for you because you decided not to be there. I post my assignments on a blog and link any handouts.

2. You grade can matter. The example in the OP sounded like bitching and whining which I don't need to deal with.

3. Yep. Go nuts. Drink all you want. But class time is set and you know when it is. I came to many classes hungover so that I wouldn't miss anything when I was an undergrad. I took several tests while still drunk. Didn't bitch about my grades when I felt I could do better, either.

4. Sure there are transition pains. Your prof is not the one there to deal with it.

[6000eliot]

22. I'll give you number 4

but I'd have a talk with her about how college students typically communicate with professors. Keep in mind, though, that teachers have to negotiate a lot of student correspondence.

[henslee]

16. My friend had an arguement at work via email w/ his girlfriend....

It was not pretty and it was read by his bosses. He was fired.

[Reverend_Smitty]

3. I rarely if ever e-mail professors...

I prefer talking face to face with them. But then again I go to a pretty small school and am in a pretty small major so I have a good personal relationship with most of them. I generally save all my stupid questions for when I see them on campus. :P The only down side of it all, is you can never skip class without being noticed

[Radical Activist]

4. Right! You're only supposed to see professors once every 3 weeks

and have to chase after a GA before he/she rushes out the door of the lecture hall with 400 other students. That sure sounds like a more "healthy" system. :eyes:

[JVS]

5. Don't forget the ones who skip their own office hours

[Maddy McCall]

15. So make an appointment.

Have you tried that?

[JVS]

19. I'm not going to go into details because I don't know who's reading

But that wouldn't do it. Some professors do not want to be bothered. Besides, office hours are an appointment already.

[Maddy McCall]

14. Profs have office hours. And I've yet to meet one that won't...

make an appointment with you, if your hours conflict with theirs.

[JVS]

20. If the person takes a long time to answer the email and make an appt...

it's as good as refusing. A meeting indefinitley deferred is a meeting denied. Not that a meeting helps when you can't get a straight answer from them anyway (I'm talking about administrative stuff, not the subject matter itself)

[Wapsie B]

6. I had much more contact with profs

through distance ed than face to face. I'd email a question to my instructor and receive a prompt reply. To me the only difference was not having so sit in class with someone snoring away next to you, hung over from the night before or having little lovebirds behind you giggling to each other. Well that and not getting invited to the next beer bash.
Of course many distance ed students are older and more mature than those cited by the op.

[TimeChaser]

9. I'm glad I go to a small, private school

I often get emails from professors, and I email them questions or tell them when I'm sick and can't make it (if it's a small class)

[Orangepeel]

10. you know, that "fat salary" really isn't for teaching

If the school is teaching oriented, the salary will not be fat. If the school is research oriented (generally a prerequisite for a salary that is even slightly chubby) the professor is probably supposed to spend less than 40% of their time on teaching (with, maybe 50% on research and 10% on committee meetings and such). Take away time in the classroom, time grading, time prepping, and time answering stupid emails and 4 hours of availability is a lot.

Is that the way it should be? No, probably not. But that's the way it is.

[TheProphetess]

11. I've taught at a large university and am now at a small, private college

I've found that email can be very helpful and can be a pain in the ass at the same time.

Personally, I like the small college feel which allows for much more student-teacher interaction. The funny thing is that I don't get the annoying emails at the small school compared to what I got at the larger university. Now, my weird interactions with students tend to come face-to-face, mostly in the form of students divulging way too much personal information than I need to hear (or am comfortable hearing). But the emails aren't really bothersome. I welcome my students to email me with exam questions (although I do tell them that if they have a huge number of questions, they should really come to my office for more complete answers than I can type out in an email). I also encourage my students to email me their papers a few days before the due date if they would like feedback on them. I do stress that I need some time to read and respond to the paper requests, and my students comply quite nicely (I don't get emails the night before papers are due, for example).

It was a different story at the large university, where I taught classes ranging in size from 12 students (an honors class) to 350 students (an intro course). There, I got some weird emails. One came from a student, about 3 days after grades were turned in at the end of the course, telling me that he needed to do some extra credit to get his D up to a C. (Keep in mind that I had offered extra credit that was due about 2 weeks before the end of the semester and he did none of the options at that time.) I did not respond to that email.

Another weird one came from a female student (about 2 days after grades were posted at the end of the semester) telling me that she belonged to a sorority and needed to keep a certain GPA and her dad was paying a great deal of money for her sorority membership, so was there any way she could get her C up to at least a C+? (Keep in mind that this school was NOT on the plus/minus system!) She signed her email (which was extremely informal) "love, Jane" which completely freaked me out. Love? Were there no boundaries or formalities? I did respond to her, saying that I could not ethically change her grade even if she had very good reasons for me to do so - the points she earned determined her grade, not me personally. Her reply was literally, "thank you."

As always, technology has its advantages and disadvantages. I think if it gets to be problematic, then setting guidelines for email usage with your students is perfectly appropriate. Just my two cents...:)

[Maddy McCall]

13. Oh hon. We could share some horror stories. :D

Off topic: How are you feeling? Is your back any better?

I go for my third injection tomorrow. I'm still feeling good, although some of the stinging ache has returned to my leg. If the injection tomorrow doesn't work, we are going to look at surgery next. :(

:hi:

[TheProphetess]

17. Yeah, I didn't even mention the inappropriate stalker-student!

He was very unnerving and I had to be sure that I had colleagues around during my office hours just in case. Oh, I have stories!

I am feeling like a completely different person than I was just over a week ago. The drug combo I'm on is doing a lot for the pain. I just wear out very easily - today was my longest day at work (9-3:30) and I was counting the minutes until I could get home and lay down with the heating pad. I have an appointment with a neurosurgeon next Friday afternoon, so I'm hoping that he'll be on the same page as my doctor who recommended surgery (and I hope it can happen soon). I got information about the injection series but, unless the specialist says otherwise, my other doctor said that I need to remove the ruptured disc to relieve the pain permanently.

I wish you lots of luck with your third injection! I hope it does the trick for you. My fingers are crossed for you. :hug:

[JVS]

21. An office mate of mine had one of those last semester

After one visit she informed the rest of us that if we see this guy come in for help that she'd appreciate it if we stayed in the office.

[Maddy McCall]

12. We've been discussing it in GD. Here's the link.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=478703&mesg_id=478703