r/Professors

Just got the official confirmation email from HR today that I've been tenured and am now a permanent faculty member! I had a hunch before from colleagues' behavior, as they treated me as if they were pretty sure I'd be there next semester, but it is now confirmed!

My family and friends are absolutely out of the academia loop and have no idea how much it means to me, so I don't really have anyone to celebrate this with, so here I go sharing it with you guys!

So this has only happened twice in my 11 years teaching. You pretty strongly suspect a student has some sort of learning challenge but they aren’t working with the office of Accessibility.

I can’t very well say “Hey kid, you don’t seem like the other kids”. And I know for a fact that this student isn’t working with the office because after class they asked for more time on a quiz they didn’t finish and I said “Sorry, I can only do that if you have an accommodation. Do you… work with Office of Accommodations?” and she said no.

Here’s what makes me suspect some sort of disability:

• handwriting - I have never, ever, ever seen such handwriting. When I say that it’s worse than a first grader’s, I’m not exaggerating. It’s huge and horrible.

• emails - literally puts the whole email in the subject line. This isn’t a “shortcut”. They start with Dear Professor, wrote the whole email and then signs off with Thank you, Student

• in-class behavior - laughs to herself sometimes? Like… 4 times per class (2.5 hours)

• can’t keep up cognitively - ever the other students have noticed this student isn’t at their speed. Their groupmates came to speak to me about how they can’t get through to this student and no matter how many times they explain things to them, the student still doesn’t get it.

I’ve tried giving her extra instruction but their eyes just kind of trail off. You can see it’s not registering.

Now, I’m at a CC, so I’ve seen a huge range of incoming skill sets. Also, I’ve seen some students get past high school when they clearly shouldn’t. That might be what happened here. They thought “finding the average” meant take all your grades and divide by four. I don’t know why.

They also mistake instructions all the time.

But this student isn’t really frustrated. I should also point out that this is the student’s first semester. A mistake to make a summer intensive your first semester, but that’s another thing.

How would folks handle this?

In my face to face college algebra courses, the exam average sits at about 70%. In my online classes, the average is closer to 45%. I provide lecture videos, the same guided notes which is intended to be completed while watching the lecture, and many more resources to help students succeed.

What can I do to get more out of my online courses? I reiterate over and over again in announcements and course introduction videos how important it is to watch the videos along with completing the notes. Yet, about half of the students even click on the video links and fail the midterm exam horribly. I don’t know what else to do.

I earned tenure at a previous institution. Due to life circumstances, I had to make a pretty major geographic move, which meant starting over on a new tenure track. I'm now going through the tenure process a second time. (At a different community college.)

It feels both tiring at times and motivating at others. I'm being pushed, later in my career, to grow as an instructor in ways I don't think I would have otherwise. At the same time, the process feels very different this time around.

In some ways, I'm more relaxed because I know I can meet the expectations. On the other hand, I'm much more aware of how subjective the process can be and how much departmental culture and institutional fit matter.

Overall, I think I'd describe the experience as mostly tiring but worthwhile. Clearly I miss the professional freedom that comes with tenure but I know I’ll get there again.

It has me wondering whether anyone else here has been through this. For those of you who have earned tenure more than once (or started over after already earning tenure elsewhere, as I did), what did it feel like for you the second time around?

I received a message a few days ago from someone in my field who requested that a paper I recently uploaded to arXiv include two citations to his papers. Now, I am all for giving proper credit when it is due. However, in this case, the guy wanted me to cite him for using a mathematical technique that has been around for 50+ years. And, I will note that I cited the original source for this technique. What's more, the problems he and I solved are only vaguely related.

The guy is actually well-known in my community as a citation monger. Nearly all of my colleagues have experienced outlandish citation requests from the same person.

I'm tempted to respond to this person and let him know exactly why his request is ridiculous. But, the more level-headed person in me is telling me to just hit the delete button.

How do you deal with citation mongers?

I’m assuming this is a type of student because I’ve had them multiple times before.

Yknow, the one that has to comment on EVERYTHING. Initially they do it with their hand up under the guise of contributing to the class, “oh we did that in my family’s firm too”…. Then they just start blurting shit out over the person who’s talking.

Sometimes it’s the exact thing you just said followed by an “oh yeah that’s right” or something.

When you have other students presenting and they want to talk through their presentation.

She does it in normal conversations too. With everyone, not just me. It’s 100% some kind of insecurity.

My question; should I tell this person? She’s 20, so very good chance nobody has ever said that it’s absolutely annoying. I control it in class obviously to keep other students from being distracted but I truly don’t think she realizes it annoys the fuck out of anyone who talks to her. Other professors have even made this note who haven’t taught her yet.

Otherwise she’s really a bright person and has a great future if she can get a handle on this. Do I say something, or just let her figure it out one day?

Edit: I do agree this may be adhd related, and I do appreciate those reminding me of this. I also have Audhd and want to be clear I don’t think this makes her a bad person or anything, but rather questioning is it my place to point this out so she can improve in a professional setting. Thanks for all the advice so far!

Does anybody know of any workarounds to remove old online course materials from Canvas—even just partial deletions? This when the institution’s policy keeps the course shells in the university’s clutches for a minimum of five (5!) years?!

I’ve revisited my old modules, discussions, assignments, and even the files areas; none of them allow/offer options to delete. Neither bulk, nor individually. Same deal in the Settings menu. . . .

This is my former institution’s policy, and it’s frustrating that IT refuses to help remove any old course creations, citing “records retention requirements” of the state library. Even more frustrating, given that most of us know to assume the worst w/ how our data can be / is getting “scraped” and consumed for LLMs, AI training, and just good ol’ state surveillance, etc.

I have been teaching for a number of years and always responded to student emails. I thought it was my responsibility and part of my job, I guess. I wanted to help students and guide them through whatever difficulty they were having. As the emails have become increasing absurd, stupid, manipulative, written by AI, etc. I found myself getting angry and upset. "What has happened to the youth? How could they ask such a question? Can they really be this (enter adjective)?" And so on. I would read an absurd email and then stew about it for hours, not because I was personally offended, but because I would be affected by seeing what a sad state my students were in. It was honestly taking a toll on me (and I would not identify as a sensitive person).

Last semester I realized: I don't have to answer emails that are absurd, stupid, manipulative, AI, etc., in fact, I should not. For my own benefit and for that of the students. I then designed new syllabus policies so that common questions were answered in the syllabus (like what to do when sick, when an assignment is late, etc.). Why should you have to respond to an email to give a student information they already have access to via the syllabus? You shouldn't. They can read it themselves. I want to instill in them some sense of responsibility and agency over their own learning - they should know to have the responsibility to check information they already have. What about a question concerning course content, like a question about an assigned reading, or what is on the exam in 2 weeks from now? Well, they have 3 hours per week to ask that question in class, and more often than not, it is a benefit for the other students to hear the answer.

In fact, there are very few cases that I can imagine require a response over email. Either check the syllabus, or if the answer isn't there, ask it next class! If a student has been in the hospital for 3 weeks and needs some help keeping up - fine - I'll reply to that, because I understand that student can't wait to ask the question in class. But 99% of emails I receive can be answered by the syllabus, or its a question that can wait until class time.

I really cannot come up with any justified reason for replying to such emails. And now, I let my students know that I won't - and then I don't!

Thoughts? Am I wrong here? Like you, I never questioned the need to respond to emails, but once I did, I found it has been a revelation.

I’m curious about anyone’s experiences dealing with students that are Karens or students who think they’re entitled to things like grades, how you’re teaching, or other things.

I mean, they could have completed week one by today if they'd really hustled.

Fellow higher ed peeps

Daughter's 22 yr old boyfriend on student visa. Second year of computer engineering masters degree. 3.9 gpa- great kid. Double major in electrical and computer engineering. Does math for fun. Super hard worker. Good communicator. I'm a professor- trust me, this kid is top notch.

As of today, victim of domestic violence from strict parents.

Has left his home and temporarily staying with me.

Going back to home country not an option. He doesn't know anyone there. Has spent most of life in U.S.

He needs one of two things:

1. A full time job that will sponsor him. (Design Verification is his jam). He's been applying but nothing so far.

2. Emergency funding for tuition to finish second year of Masters degree in Computer Engineering.

I need IDEAS. All of the ideas.

Resources. Ideas. Strategies.

Contacts for anyone at a uni that needs a researcher?

Thank you!

I'm an adjunct professor in public health and LOVE teaching and research. I'm applying to PhD programs for Fall 2027 and genuinely am so excited - I'm one of those people that can just talk and smile so much about my topic interests. ANYWAY, I just looked at my feedback from this past semester and got absolutely destroyed so bad I'm on the verge of tears and have a pit in my stomach. I taught this course last year and get relitively good reviews and people said they really enjoyed the course, found it to broaden their understanding, and loved my teaching style

For background, I did have a 2 month old baby when I started and I think I planned too much in my lectures/assignments for me to efficiently grade them, but I thought my lecutres were very up to date and relevant to the fields they were going into. I think being a new mom did for sure make me kinda scatter brained, but I know for a fact that I know my material and am extremely passionate about the topic.

This year omg, "too many tangents that weren't connected to the course" "if you want to improve the course, don't let her teach it", "she is lazy and incompetent", "whatever she "taught us" went in one ear and out the other", "she doesn't care and has an inability to teach the course", "she graded out papers too hard and required us to go to the writing center even though I've always passed my papers"

I guess I'm just looking for some motivation to stay at it and other stories you've gotten from your students. This is my first time getting majority negative feedback like this so it's a big disappointment. :(

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I was teaching a digital painting class with a strict no-tracing rule. Throughout the class I caught 3 students tracing. 2 students admitted to it and were given the opportunity to redo the offending assignment with only a -10% grade penalty on the assignments. The outlier denied that she traced even though it was the most blatant. In her first week she didn’t even trace, she just blurred parts of the image to make it look painted while other parts were pixel by pixel identical to the reference.
Her other assignments were clearly traced and she could only provide her video process for the painting segment, not her drawing, and said that her drawing videos were “corrupted” files and that’s why she couldn’t provide them. She said that her photoshop document should be proof that it’s real but you would still have a Photoshop document even if it’s traced.
Anyways the academic integrity committee, chair, and dean all agreed with me. They told me to fail her on all of her assignments. The student was furious and said that I did not properly explain why I think it was traced. In the first two weeks I gave her an explanation but to some degree I didn’t want to give her a guide on how to cheat better. But in the end I gave more of an explanation even though she will just use it to cheat. She left a horrible student review for me about how she would never be comfortable taking another class from me, that I should be fired, that it felt more like a trial than a class. She sent my chair a dean emails complaining about me. She’s refusing to take her academic integrity remedial course and is now at risk of being kicked out of the school. She’s also stalking my LinkedIn.

Despite how difficult my year was, it is helpful to recuperate and relax in the summer months.

I was recently reading some things from K-12 teachers regarding “the dark side of summer break” and boy howdy do I feel like I relate this summer. For reference I just finished my fourth year as TT prof in STEM. All of the previous summers have been busy with grant and manuscript writing along with field work. This summer I decided to “take it easy” given the fact that I was approved for early promotion, the last academic year was nuts, and federal grant writing for my field feels utterly pointless at this time. There are certainly things I’ve been chipping away at, but to be honest I’m feeling wonky, unproductive, and perhaps a bit depressed. Going full speed to essentially 1mph and the general lack of structure is I think what has gotten to me. I have done many personal things like traveling and spending time with friends and family, so I do recognize that benefit. But it’s just a weird feeling and now that it’s July I’m having a hard time getting my motivation back. Anyone else out there feel this way too and have some advice?

Summer is halfway over.

We will return full-time to the fold in about 6 weeks.

Plan accordingly.

How's the time going for you all? I've been able to rest, exercising regularly, watch some movies, volunteer, and travel.

However, I still want to get some dental work done, get to the beach, check on elderly relatives, read more for pleasure, clean out kitchen cabinets, have lunch in the city with friends, and on and on.

Is anyone else in the US also getting spammed by AI-generated emails from students pretending interest in your research? I have gotten 2 today. The template is:

Title: Question/Inquiry about [research topic]

Dear Prof X,

Paragraph 1: I came across your 2021 paper on [...]. I was surprised / I did not expect that [...]. Do you think that [...]?

Paragraph 2: My name is X, and I am a Junior at X High School. [Some background about the student]. [Express interest in doing an internship]. Do you have a few minutes this week or next to chat?

[Edit] I wonder if this this is the tool they are using: ProfPing?

I'm an AP in a large public university (equivalent of R1 in the US) in the humanities. My situation is a bit tricky, as I am required to teach in my fourth language, which I've learned for around maybe 2 years in total (my uni gave me a year to study the language). Current level is probably somewhere B2.

Also note that English is not my first language but my second. My academic specialty is my third language. In other words, I am going to use my fourth language to teach about the culture in my third language. I only have to teach one class next Fall. It's a large lecture class.

This is my first time teaching (only TAed before, in English), and I've finished my class slides with the help of many translation tools and am currently practicing with my private tutor (assigned by university). I will definitely practice a few rounds myself after going through round one with my tutor, and what I plan to do when the semester begins is that I will read out loud the texts on the slides or write a script (although the idea alone exhausts me, to be honest), but I am receiving conflicting advice. My colleagues who aren't native speakers said they always read from a script (translated from DeepL), but the tutor insists that I speak "naturally," that as a student they would rather hear me struggling a bit in my own words than just hear me read out "blandly" from a script.

But how can that be possible? Even if I am going to teach in English (which I am definitely more comfortable in), I think I will need some sort of script? When I present at conferences, I always prepare a script, as I thought that is the responsible mode (I hate it when people go over time or not knowing what they're talking about...). A colleague of mine also suggested that I never make a presentation by reading from a script, but they have been learning the language for many over ten years? Also, their native language is English.

Obviously, if I devote all my time in perfecting my language, I can probably do it??? but I also need to publish a book and do lots of other research. I simply can't devote all my time into the new language, so I am a bit torn of what I should do. Should I stick to the plan to read from scripts or not?

I've been teaching for many, many years. As a student, being respectful was the norm (at least for me) and I always followed the syllabus and took ownership of my errors. Lately, students seem to be ruder and more entitled than usual. I blame a lot of stupidity (questions they can easily get the answer to like, what assignment is due next class or when are office hours?) on COVID and the amount of hand holding students received by most/ all teachers (including by me). But lately, they seem to expect that they will get the grade they want without the work. I'm not an easy grader (I am fair and you will learn, but I do not just give a check plus for a submission) and I do expect assignments submitted in a particular way that I explain. I also think late work is idiotic (what is the difference between a deadline on Tuesday or on Thursday?), and everything is laid out in the syllabus. Lately, however, students are getting upset because they miss assignments and don't submit things on time, or they mess up instructions I have shared, or they are angry they didn't get the grade they think they should have. I get yelled at through email, lied to my face, and treated like sh*t by students who messed up on their own.

I'm starting to wonder if either a) others feel similarly, or b) I should change careers. I am so sick and tired of being yelled at, lied to, threatened that they will file a complaint for something that is THEIR fault and I know will just be a nuisance but not an issue for me. I also am sick of not caring for the struggles they are going through but I am so tired of hearing how they are struggling due to anxiety and depression (who isn't?) and that's why they deserve special treatment.

What advice to other professors have? Hopefully you aren't being yelled at and treated so poorly. I teach at a CA community college if that matters. TIA!