u/Local_Indication9669

116 years. Who’s on the last ever train?

"Reasonably modify attendance policy to offer additional absences and the ability to

reschedule exams/quizzes within a week for disability-related reasons if it does not

fundamentally alter the essential requirements of the course."

Has anyone managed an accommodation like this before? I think I'll schedule a meeting with our disabilities office; but, was wondering if anyone has managed something like this before?

I have taught the same Intro class 12 different times in person over a five years period. Nine of those sections were capped at 55 students, two at 70, and one at 100. This term, our department is offering 16 sections of this course. Of those 16, three sections are 200 capped at students. I have been assigned both of those sections, a section of 100, and another class of 55. All my sections are full; instead of having 165 expected Intro students, I will have 500 (plus the 55 in my other section). No other professor in our department has been assigned to teach this many Intro students to my knowledge.

I have been speaking with my union's contract enforcement representatives. Our contract states, "Individual workload assignments of members of the negotiations unit shall be consistent with the practice and policies of their department, program, or unit. Claims of inconsistency with such practices and policies by members of the negotiations unit shall be grievable as a Category Two grievance under the contract grievance procedure (Article 9)."

I've asked around to my collages. There appears to have been sections as large as 150 to 300 students, in the past. I don't know how often but they have all been taught by the same professor before. In deciding how to move forward, the union needed to determine if these "mega-sections" are assigned in a consistent manner. Is there an expectation of a lighter load in the future? What is the process of assigning these classes? Is there a rotation? Can faculty decline? Etc.

After gathering information, the union believes that this increase in workload is a violation of my contract. They recommend that we contact our administration first and not file a grievance at this time. They told me, I could also work with my chairperson directly. I told them to proceed. I am worried about the school and my new chair seeming me as a "troublemaker." Any advice is very welcome. Classes start in less than two weeks.

This is the time of year that I'm usually excited for. New classes, new students, new schedule. But, this year, I am terrified. My old chair raised the caps of my classes from 55 to 200 without warning. I currently am looking at 555 (mostly) Freshmen this term.

I am completely and totally overwhelmed. Historically, our department limited these specific sections to Sophomores and above. Freshmen are not ready for these sections and now I have over 500 of them. 555 students will be emailing me questions, asking for extensions, accommodations, policy questions, asking for extra credit, etc. There are no guarantees that I can get any course assistants (they won't even check until the week before classes start).

I am tempted to just quit three weeks out; I can't focus since I discovered the class sizes a few days ago. I'm strongly considering completely stripping down the syllabus: such as dropping group work, end-of-term papers, and presentations entirely. I don't know what I am going to do.

(Ps, Before you ask, yes, I have already contacted my faculty union. They believe these increased loads are a direct violation of our collective bargaining agreement, especially since I am the only professor in the department targeted with these increased limits for the Fall. I am pursuing that avenue, but I still need a survival strategy for day one.)

For my entire career my sections were capped at about 60. Just logged into our LMS and noticed those classes have 200 students each.

Somehow my classes aligned so that I had the same large group of students for three straight years. They all graduated yesterday. I’ll probably never see any of them again and I feel sad about it.

First they email me directly. I sent them information about FERPA and our FERPA office. So, they start calling and emailing my department chair.

I've seen an unusual increase in inappropriate or aggressive behavior both in the classroom and via email, particularly for Freshmen students, this semester.

For instance, after I posted a paper grade (with rubric and notes), I received 17 emails within about a 36 hour period. "How is this my grade?" "Looking forward to an explanation" "I saw cheating in the class, if I knew you'd fail me I would have reported it" "Please acknowledge" "Please respond" and so on. Also had a student verbally accosted me in class twice. Now I have a student who's outside "mental health professional" is emailing me asking me to consider a change of grade. (I FERPAed the last one).

I had PT in May of 2025. EOB came to me in July, my share was $0. this week I received a hospital bill for about $320. I checked my insurance again, they issued a second EOB (for the same service) with a different “my share” amount. One EOB states my share is $0 but the claim says my share is $320. I’m having a hard time understanding. Why am I being billed a full year later? Why was there a second EOB issued? Somewhere in the EOB it states changes due to a law changing. How can that be retroactive?