r/Professors

Ok so I've always been a supporter of Greek life, so don't get up my nose, I'm the last person who would usually say this. Overall, my students have been incredible this semester. Less AI, less absences, more participation. But the frat boys. My God. They showed up at the start of the semester, sweet and lovely. Then after rush it all hit the fan. Probably about 20 out of my 100 students, from various houses. Talking over me, showing up drunk and high, answering calls in class, betting on horse races during lecture and cheering or groaning when they win or lose. I'm more concerned for their welfare than anything. Anyone else having this experience?

Throwaway, obviously, but it'd probably be relatively easy to figure out which university.

Public, Teaching-Focused, Unionized Northeast US school. School already offered VSIPs and I guess just not enough people took them (but honestly would it ever have been enough?)

I'm one of many TT professors. We have a handful of full-time NTTPs and Tenured folks as well; apparently we're laid off in order of 'years of service' if there's a layoff coming to your unit, so I think there's a possibility TT professors would get let go before NTTPs if the NTTP has more years.

Regardless, I'm obviously stressed and upset, but I can't imagine others aren't.

Aside from the typical advice (publish, network, etc.) does anyone have any support/kind words they can give? I'm just down about all of this. I'll likely apply for other jobs in the meantime but it feels like I'm being dragged by a wave.

tl;dr: Layoffs imminent. Worried it'll be me :(

Seriously, what is happening? Students turning nothing in. F after F after F. Advisor emails. Early Alerts. Conferences. Nothing. Not even a little progress. Yet, they are still here. Do they think we are bluffing?

I have students who do no work unless they are sitting in the room. They then stare at a blank screen. Maybe do a little. Literally today, after a student over and over said she didn’t know what to write, I said, just write what you did yesterday. Just so I‘d have something to look at. She wrote, TikTok. That‘s it.

I have students who in a process-based course skip over difficult steps and try to complete only what they think are the easier steps. Fs. Email reminders. Advisor reminders. Skip more steps. More Fs. Plow ahead.

Students weeks behind. Couldn‘t pass now with a miracle. I’m catching up; I promise. More nothing.

Hey, the Google Doc you shared has me as viewer rather than editor. I need to see the revision history. OK, I fixed it. Not fixed. OK, I fixed it. Not fixed. Finally, after 5 tries, fixed. 1,000 words copied and pasted into the document at once. F. Next, assignment. Same thing. More Fs.

If you think things aren’t worse, I have to assume you’re older faculty who still want to seem with it, or you‘re younger faculty who don’t know how students used to be.

Their incompetence is off the page. They literally just exist. That’s all they do. Breathe in. Breathe out. They barely function. What the fuck?

My god almighty.

I am 11 years post doc and been faculty for 8 years. I have experience and get good feedback and such from students and colleagues. Today, I fucking bombed. I was asked by the students to go over X with them that another prof had covered which I am an ‘expert’ in. I am in the middle of looking at proofs for two essay collections I am editing and have a heavy teaching load this semester. That and I fucked up my back in the gym and am hobbling around the place.

I set Sunday aside to prep for this additional revision class. I got my slides all sorted with activities and such. I went through them and thought they were fine and did what I had intended to do.

Every slide had spelling errors. Every slide had a contradiction to the former slide because what I thought I knew about subject X has changed since I first investigated it. I closed the laptop and started doing chalk and talk today. I then froze. I couldn’t explain this subject for the life of me and was so thrown by the slides that I felt incredibly stupid and incompetent.

I have confused the students further in a subject that is challenging. I then had a great night class just there and on my way home now on the train thinking I should just throw in the towel!

One of those fucking days.

Looking for similar fuck up stories to massage my hurt confidence.

Blank stares. Jokes during lecture that used to evoke smiles and even laughter don't have any effect on the vacant stares. Grades are worse than ever -- and no one cares. Exam grades for two classes are in the mid 50s. Not one email, question -- nothing. Silence. Is this a game of chicken? Do they not realize they'll get the Fs they earn? No one's emailing, period (silver lining).

We've been trending this direction before COVID but now.... I'm concerned about their future not as students but as humans

After 30 years I'm retiring in May (nonselective public regional). I used to love my job - students were constantly in my office chatting, doing research, being alive and present. Colleagues say the same thing. Dept is a ghost town. I can go a full day without seeing a colleague on my floor - and students? Ha. It's depressing. And I have a 90 min commute for this. Sitting in my office is the highlight of my day.

I feel bad for our new hire. They're so young they'll never know what we've lost. Not sure if that's good or bad.

Anyway, venting... not looking for advice, just comiseration. Boo

The heat of summer has cooled and it's finally fall. So here's the latest campus fashion update!

Young men continue to wear shorts that are quite short and rather tight. A significant difference from the oversized basketball shorts and cargo shorts of several years ago. Jeans are almost completely absent from young men's wardrobes, except for farm kids/ag students. For long pants most men seem to prefer jogging pants/sweat pants of some variety. No khakis or chinos. T-shirts and hoodies still rule as tops.

Young women have almost completely abandoned the short pleated "tennis" skirts that were so popular just a couple years ago. They are back to shorts, or loose fit (often ripped or distressed) jeans, usually with tighter tops. Just when I think shorts can't get shorter, they do. Not a lot of leggings/yoga pants yet, but they may come out again in cooler weather. Women too tend towards t-shirts and sweatshirts as tops, but in cooler weather are more inclined to have a sweater on. I've noticed more extra fuzzy sweaters this year and warmer colors like orange. Women's clothing tends to be better fitted than before. The overly loose styles of a few years ago have given way to tighter and fitted styles.

So what are the fashion trends on your campuses?

I’ve been teaching full time for three years in a lecturer role (4/4). My classes are small, never more than 25 students, and I only teach upper division and graduate level courses.

Since I am a Lecturer, the only measurements of my ‘success’ is student evaluations. Because of this, I feel I have to be extra accommodating.

I’m an excellent teacher and course creator. I have over a decade of experience in the training sector and thoroughly enjoy public speaking, education, and course creation.

But holy shit I was not prepared for the emotional labor of feeling like I’m constantly being taken advantage of.

Of course I have a syllabus and of course of have rules around attendance and late work and AI and all of the other things that should theoretically protect me. But I still get 5-10 emails a week from students wanting to be the exception because they have been sick, stressed, on their honeymoon, fill in the blank.

I did one semester of being really strict with due dates, AI usage, and attendance and my student evaluations TANKED despite me still being a great, understanding, and engaging teacher.

So now I feel like I just have to let students do whatever the fuck they want or my job is at risk. And I feel so mentally and emotionally defeated by that. For the most part my students are great, but sending the email that says “sure, you can complete that assignment late, here is a document you can fill out to make it up” takes something from my soul every time I send it.

Not looking for advice. Just ranting. I feel like I’ve become a doormat and that’s not my natural disposition. It doesn’t help that I am a young, extroverted woman which makes students feel even more so that I should be accommodating to them.

I just don’t know how much longer I can do this and work in a job where it feels like I’m getting taken advantage of and ignoring my morals and integrity constantly.

I feel like I am participating in some strange evolutionary arms race with my students.  Or perhaps it’s a pedagogical Red Queen scenario: I have to keep redesigning assignments just to maintain the same amount of actual learning.

I design an assignment that I think will force them to learn something.  I make it hard to cheat on and as AI-proof as I can.

The students discover some way that I did not anticipate to invest as little work as humanly possible while staying within the bounds of the assignment.  

Example:

This semester, I decided to give my students points for handwritten notes.  We did a mini-lecture on how to take good notes, and to increase buy-in, I explained how note-taking in lecture is active learning, how this will help them on future exams, yadda, yadda, yadda.  It seemed a great way to encourage attendance and good learning habits, while throwing them a couple of extra points.

Now I have a giant stack of “notes” in front of me where clearly students did not attend lecture and just hand wrote the three words I type out on my slides, which I do post on Canvas.  I attempted to select for note-taking behavior and instead selected for increasingly convincing note-shaped objects.

So now I’ll go alter the rubric to discourage this behavior. I innovate. They counter-adapt. I add another line to the rubric. They discover another loophole. Neither population gains any lasting advantage, but both expend increasing amounts of energy.

And all I can think of is duck penises and cork-screw vaginas. 

I did an activity with my final students the other day as this is their last class before graduating, and I wanted to inject some 'workplace reality' into our last couple of sessions. In my industry, job interviews include practical assessments like case scenarios, role plays, simulations etc. Soooo, I gave my class a case scenario and gave them 20 minutes to read it and then put them into pairs in break out rooms and gave them the list of mock interview questions they would ask each other.

I then joined each break out room to see how they were going, and most of them (8 pairs) had their cams and mics off and had not interacted with each other at all. I didn't say anything and then recalled them all back to the main room. The 8 pairs had the most magnificent responses to the case scenario mock interview questions - all 8 pairs had used friggin AI instead of taking a real-life opportunity to just have a go as all of their responses were pretty much the same.

This wasn't an assessment. It isn't mandatory to attend my classes.

I give up.

I teach anatomy.

My students got back a practical today and they are allowed to keep them.

When there were only a few students left in the room, one asked me about a question she got wrong and, yeah, my key was wrong.

She asked how many points she would get back. I told her.

She said, "What about everyone else?"

I said, "Well, since most of the class already took theirs, the fair thing to do is to give everyone credit for that question."

Student: So, everyone gets the points, even if they actually got it wrong?

Me: Yes. Since everyone answered in pencil, they could change their answer to make sure they get the points.

Student: But how would they know?

Me: You know this is a small school. Word would get around. Its easier this way.

Student: But that's not FAIR! I studied really hard and some of them obviously didn't so I don't think its fair that some get points they didn't earn!

Me: Yeah, but it's less than 2 points on one of 4 exams that are worth 15% of their total grade. In the long run, it is really unlikely this will make or break anyone. However, I'm open to suggestions if you have a better idea.

Student: I really don't think that's fair but you're the professor.

Me: No. That's not how I do things. You tell me what you think is a better solution and we'll talk about it.

Student almost glaring at me as she packs up: I don't know, but its not fair.

I like this student. She really does work hard. She stays late, asks great questions, everything you would want in a student. She made a high A on the exam.

I've been teaching for almost 10 years now and this is the first near tantrum I've seen. I'm guessing the anger wasn't about the exam but likely other stressors and this was just the trigger for a small meltdown.

This is a general ed freshman seminar class.

They truly lack the basic skills of analysis. Sure, they know know what an intro, body paragraphs, and their conclusion does. But majority just seemed like they were throwing words together and hoping it makes a sentence.

And this was an open book exam. They were supposed to quote from the chapters assigned. Some wrote on random stuff I never assigned. Obviously some forgot their books and just came up with something vague. Even if they wrote on what was assigned (which we read in class and I had them answer brief questions on a notecard), some of their writing showed they barely understood what they quoted. Some choosing the most random quotes that have nothing to do with their argument.

I mean I don’t expect top quality prose from an in class exam but most could hardly even follow directions. And if they did, they could only barely regurgitate the most general observations.

I took a break grading because for one class, the highest grade I could give in good faith was an 80. Most were C, D, or Fs.

I could offer makeup exams for extra credit but I’m not sure how to do that without assigning it out of class. Or rescheduling to have a makeup exam day in class?

For those who have switched to in-class essays, how are you dealing with the horrific state of college freshman writing abilities?

walking to campus this morning and passed a group of students. they were all together talking, probably heading to class. one of them looked up and said "good morning dr.., how are you?" a couple others waved or said hey.

then one kid goes "hey professor, nice jacket." another one said "yeah you got drip today" lol. i laughed and said thanks, you guys look sharp too. then we just did the normal small talk. "how's your morning going?" "cold out here huh?" "you got coffee?" "yeah gotta have it." "you ready for class?" "eh not really." "same."

It's a small thing, but it made my whole morning. They didn't have to acknowledge me. I'm just their professor walking by. They could have easily kept talking among themselves and ignored me. 

Like others, I miss the days when people talked to each other naturally rather than silently staring at their phones/headphones before instruction. I officially made it a class policy last week, only half-jokingly, that students who show up early (which is a good problem) must greet one-two people around them and ask them about their day. I told them that I did not care that it was awkward or uncomfortable, and somewhat guilt-tripped them by telling them that literally every generation of human students going back to Greece and Rome talked with each other, and that at least in my classroom, we aren't going to break that sacred tradition. If they remained quiet, I still instructed them to move next to someone and talk to them. I know someone will critique this and say "what about students with communication issues," and I understand that concern. I have high functioning autism myself, and went through extensive therapy as a child to learn how to communicate. Nevertheless, I don't think anyone will feel "targeted" as I am not grading, and i'm not policing the content of what they are saying. I told them that "silence is for cathedrals, not class." I'm hoping this helps long term. I'm not sure it will, but it's a hill I want to die on :p

Sorry if this gets removed, but I just wanted to say, y'all are amazing.

It's a nearly daily occurrence that I experience some frustration with my job, think about coming here to post about it, and then immediately see that the same topic has been broached within the last 24 hours.

I'm not sure about my policy to withhold sharing slides with students?
Another professor just asked about it.

I feel baffled by my students' lack of engagement?
Another professor just asked about it.

I become despondent after reading a number of woefully subpar essays?
Another professor just posted about it 2 hours ago.

I am spiritually uplifted after a particularly enthusiastic and talkative class and decide not to march onto campus and resign tomorrow?
Another professor just wrote about the same experience.

I'm just thankful that y'all are so honest and active on this sub. It's helping me keep my sanity. And I can't afford to lose it in early October.

Thank you. And thank you for hanging in there. On behalf of your students, thank you.

Hi! currently I am brainstorming on different ideas on how to effectively verify and check student's attendance during class hours. I am an AnaPhy professor and handles roughly 35-40 students per block. Currently I am building a system using google sheet wherein, that system captures attendance and other grading parameters such as quizzes, projects, terms exams and all. It is in a form of dashboard for teachers and students as well. As for teachers, that dashboard will be my overall working area and not on the sheets. And every after quarter, that dashboard has an option to send another dashboard containing the grade report sent to every student's email. As of the moment, I was thinking of a group photo where the system will automatically identify each student. but this comes within the violation of data privacy act. Prior to this, what I did was to distribute a single paper containing their names and had them sign beside it. then I transfer the data to my sheet for auto-computation. Right now, I want it automated starting from the attendance to grade reports. Or I should just stick to QR code for them to scan then roll call them afterwards? thank you in advance.