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Office-Hour Habits of the North American Professor
An anonymous reader writes "For those of you who wonder just exactly what it is that your advisor is up to when you try to find him and meet with him, The Chronicle of Higher Education has a study on the
Office-Hour Habits of the North American Professor."
I can't wait to see the documentary of the North American Professor on the Discovery Channel, even though it would probably be the most boring thing ever aired.
When you don't have a leg to stand on, don't even get up.
I've known quite a few Early Birds during my tenure as a student, and upon accusing any of them of this practice, I have in every case been met with a grin of non-denial.
The Active Techophile. This variety of faculty member, usually an Assistant Professor early in their career, tends to enjoy the pleasures of technology during her or his office hours: browsing the net, casually searching for the latest online manuscripts, and, most critically, engaging his or her fellow Assistant Professors in hardcore LAN gaming. Students tend to like the Active Technophile, as he they sympathize with her or his interests, but they seldom interact except for periodic fragging.
Tenure seems far more detrimental to the North American University than it is useful.
We've got here a fine specimen of the North American Professor! He's a feisty little one, so you better stay back.
Hey little fella, hey there... AGH! CRIKEY! HE'S GRADING ME TERM PAPER!
No, seriously folks, I'll be here all week. Thank you, no, thank you.
using namespace slashdot;
troll::post();
Professors with fricken laser beams on their heads!
I loved office hours. It was when I knew I had uninterrupted time for pleasure reading. The only time the students would show up was around midterms and during the last two weeks of classes. For the most part, it was a nice block of uninterrupted time.
I've pulled funnier stuff out of my ass (no, really!).
Sadly, your reply was not one of them.
Finally, math books without any of that base 6 crap in them.
I think they made a documentary about this. I believe Miko Lee played the innocent student and Ron Jeremy was the distinguished professor...
"Why the hell is this on slashdot?
Christ next thing you know I'll be writing an article about my families crapping styles.
Not necessary. "
When you said "not necessary", you weren't referring to your post by chance, were you?
"Derp de derp."
you obviously haven't been at college lately
I never said I was smart, I just said I was smarter than you
1. Students often don't come to office hours.
2. Rather than sitting there waiting for Godot, I always tried to get some work done.
3. Depending on the hallway, noise can be very high; door closing may be the best solution.
4. A sign on the door indicating "Please knock" or clearly showing office hours should be enough impetus for an intelligent student not to hesitate from knocking.
But I'm not sure the Slashdot audience is ready to comment on the office habits of the professoriate.
When you have achieved that station, then you may speak.
Damn students'll have to grow up sometime ... no point in coddling them.
Ron Jermey playing a professor .... Hah!
There's no way that you could possibly get enough slime off of him to make him pass!
I personally like the professors who pile on about 25 hours of work per week, including all those mundane multiple page homeworks and lab write-ups that you know they (or the TAs who can't speak quarter-way decent english) never really read. You know that if you go to the professor to talk about it, nothing will get done and you would have simply wasted another precious hour (or two) of sleep and/or other work.
Perhaps it is because that professor too is tired of dealing with non-english speaking TAs/grad students, or perhaps it is because he actually has to teach students rather than simply letting the herd bask in his infinitely superior knowledge -- a classic case of transference where all the anger, hatred, and frustration is directed to the poor unfortunate souls who inadvertently signed up for his section.
Of course, in retaliation, sites like http://www.engrish.com are written instead of doing those thousands of projects, leaving the ingenious creators with a mere C for the semester. :-)
Post
Why the hell is this on slashdot?
Something had to fill the relevance void left first by Katz's disappearance, and then by the fact that Buffy articles won't be showing up anymore.
this is a LIBERAL ARTS professor critique....
Most of em are massive bullshit artists anyway. Give em tenure and they become workshy bullshit artists. Teaching gets shoved off to whatever grad student is currently being suckered by the mirage of a tenured professorship for herself as a reward for such gruntwork: as for research, enh, this is liberal arts, just paint a painting (hurl some paint at a canvas) instead or something and call it interdisciplinary arts or some such crap. Hold a party every now and then and enjoy the carnality of those who're away from home for the first time. Rinse, lather, repeat, buy new Tweed Jacket, red wine, reggae albums, Volvo SUV and whatever hip liberal gobshite is the flavour of the we(e/a)k.
--- Jump!! Fire!! Bullet time!! - Lego version of the Matrix
I realize there are good reasons for getting upset with the tenure system, but I think it's important we keep in mind the reason why tenure exists: academic freedom. Tenure is not supposed to protect an instructor who is incompetent, unethical, or burnt out. And there is nothing in a tenured professor's contract that would imply otherwise. Nonetheless, it does sometimes does wind up doing that, because professors who abuse the system will wave the tenure contract around and threaten lawsuits, and most departments would rather keep things quiet than actually fight these people. Frankly I think that's a failure of will on the part of such departments. But tenure contracts are essential in any occupation where academic freedom is an issue. Otherwise it is too easy to imagine instructors fired for dissenting views or research. This isn't always about politics either -- imagine for example an agriculture professor whose research is critical of factory farming. Imagine that professor teaches at a university in Iowa whose board of regents comprises factory farming interests. I think the academic freedom implications of the First Amendment demand something like tenure in the public university system (and I think all serious universities should have some legal assurance like that).
But I do not think tenure should be used as an excuse not to deal with professors who have stopped doing their jobs, who are simply incompetent, who constantly prey on sexy coeds, etc. Universities have a post-tenure review process to keep track of what professors do after tenure, but these reviews tend to cover up some of the worst problems rather than rooting them out. It's not a failure of tenure but of the people charged with implementing it; tenured and non-tenured faculty alike should demand better, IMHO.
These are never in their office, even during office hours. Occasionally they tape a piece of paper to their door politely explaining where they are, which is always nowhere within reach. They are likely to have a couple of chairs outside their office with boxes for delivering and picking up homework. They are never available immediately after class; the only way of contacting them is through e-mail, which they discourage for long-winded homework questions. On the rare occasion when one actually manages to catch one of these in person, there is nothing actually unpleasant about them, indeed they are often very amiable. They benignly take no notice at all of their unavailability, and gently manage to teach their students the art of complete reliance on textbooks and classmates.
The coolest voice ever.
The reason he's a fugitive, of course is because of the spouses. Office hours are simply for hiding from the authorities. Tenure helps.
To this day I can't understand why professors think that I should give a crap because they are a prof. It has been my experience so far that professors don't think that they need to follow the rules. I'm not sure where this attitude comes from, but I don't see it in any other profession except for politicians, and professors are usually too anti-social for politics (or too left-wing radical).
I just took a class at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the prof decided not to lecture for the last month of the course.....and the school let him get away with it!
I thought that professors were supposed to be at a school to teach. Most of the ones that I have dealt with have done everything in their power to avoid as much as possible of their teaching responsiblility.
Why do we tolerate that?
"No Comm, No Bomb"
you summed it up, no matter what rules are made they still need to be enforced. The sad part is that every time I've had a crummy professor and tried to do something about it I have gotten nowhere because noone would touch them because they had tenure. They people in charge of that particular department almost admited that the particular teacher was worthless and wasn't doing their job. It's almost like a get out of jail free card from the department. I was literally told that short of one professor killing a student there was no way they could fire him.
The ability to speak freely is definitely a good thing though, in my experience tenure still does more harm then good.
It's not the OS it's the user that sucks. If it's user friendly, you get stupider people. - clinko
We finally got some webcams set up so we could see his parking spot and the desk he likes to work at. For a bit we had one in his actual office. And it's _still_ impossible to track him down...
Well, at my school (a military academy), you'd probably be surprised to know that the teachers are the most accessible teachers I have ever seen. I know this because I attended two small liberal arts colleges before. Not sure if there is a category for the 24/7 professor.
I propose another "subspecies":
The Be-All: This individual pretends that s/he can satisfy all needs of all comers, be they students, other faculty, or administrators. Almost no request for help or information is turned away, regardless of how busy they may be. They are involved in all manner of teaching activities, advising, research projects, and innovative technology initiatives. They live in terror of being faulted for any shortcoming.
These individuals are typically on the tenure-track and eager to please. Consequently, they are well-liked by students, skeptically admired by colleagues, and occasionally praised by administrators. They secretly sneer (though with jealousy) at other more established faculty who actually know how to set limits, manage their time, and handle all the constantly shifting pressures inherent in the job.
Sometimes, though, Be-Alls fall victim to their optimism. Too many early mornings, missed lunches, and late nights take their toll. A few gain wisdom in time and become more focused on that which is needed to obtain tenure. Some, however, become physically, psychologically, and emotionally exhausted and migrate to a normal life.
"Tenure decisions are made at the time of hiring." Or so it has been said.
That's the theory, anyway. During the last term I came to the conclusion that my supervisor was actually fictional, and the department was drawing a salary from the university to fund some kind of secret project (probably involving alcohol in some way). Eventually I suggested to the Dean of Science that he (my supervisor) should be electronically tagged. This idea was not met with nearly as much scepticism as I had expected...
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Anything is better than the fsck'ing psycho next door to my office. This idiot lives in there (no shit), and his department chair knows it. (No he's not a grad student, he's a tenured Math prof). No one from his department wants to do anything about it, though my advisor and I have reported it several times.
He bathes (reportedly) late at night in the bathroom, and is constantly seen at all hours of the day and night cutting veggies in the sink, making food in the department, etc. The moron thinks he's being clever and no one knows.
$5 says you'll be reading about him in the papers some day. Thank God I'm leaving this summer. Dr. Spooky is just too much for me anymore.
As seen here:
d =09345
0 85
MOD ME DOWN NOW. Cause I linked to p0rn pics.
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If they are mad scientists they could be working on Weapons of Ass destruction:
http://jadedvideo.com/yz_result.asp?PRODUCT_ID=71
Tenure is definitely not a detriment however often abused by both granting institutions and grantees. Just because a mechanism is not perfect does not mean it carries no value, nor that it should be abolished.
What happens with tenure? The non-tenured junior professor works his or her ass off doing what may well be the best work of their career. Once tenured, there is undoubtedly a relaxation, but if the granting faculty have done their job, they selected someone who will continue on at a strong pace. Although my experience is clearly limited, I know of no cases where a tenured professor has relaxed to the point where he has become a burden on the institution. That, dear reader, does not mean it does not happen, just that my experiences at research universities has been otherwise.
There certainly are times when bad decisions have been made, either for or against granting tenure, but to my experience they are by and large carefully made and good ones. Harvard or MIT, for two ready examples, would not be what they are today were it not for tenure.
And what are the alternatives? Periodic contract renewal? Northeastern University has phased out nearly all of its tenured faculty in favor of part-time professors (my mother among them). I fear greatly for the long-term prospects of NU, as they will not be able to attract world-class faculty by offering renewable short-term contracts. Remember, a university is NOT a business, and there is no reason for it to be run under a business model.
Imagine the following difference in job offers: "hey, you're pretty good, stick around for 3 years, and we'll see if we still want you," or "we believe in you, here's a job for life." Which system encourages far-sighted research plans? Which system encourages making good long-term decisions rather optimizing short-term gain? Which system allows development of highly devoted faculty?
Tenure, frankly, one of the major differences between business and academia, is one of the main reasons my career is firmly on the professorial route.
The biggest detriment to the university system, in my opinion, is athletics. There is no defensible justification for big athletic programs except greed, and that has no place in the university system. Get rid of professional athletes masquerading as students, get rid of athletic scholarships, get rid of lower standards for athletes, do all this and the American university system will be driven more towards a meritocracy and *then* you'll have something. Get rid of tenure? Either the person suggesting that is just confused, works at a lower-tier school where the long-term future isn't a real concern, or is a bean counter at heart.
Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
There is some truth to what you say--it is hard to fire a tenured professor. BUT places that have post-tenure review can be forced to buck up and put sanctions into place for professors that have chosen not to stay active.
The most effective way of maintaining standards is to require those who are not professionally active to teach more, and to keep pressure on them to teach well. This should happen at the level of the Deans, precisely to avoid the department-level politics.
Tenure does not always help either. Look at the university of montana environmental studies program for example. Right now the logging and mining industries are bribing the Montana legisture to cut off funding for the program because the professors are not advocating unilimited logging. Once the funding is cut off it won't matter if you are tenured or not the entire dept will dissolve.
BTW. The Montana legislature is extrememly cheap. Their votes can be bought for what a NY congressman pays for parking!.
War is necrophilia.
Want to complain about that last test? Want to try and change your grade because your cat died the night of your midterm? Go stuff it, because he ain't budging, after all, what can you do? He has tenure!
On the flip side I have a instructor who hates profs with tenure and has specifically avoided getting on the tenure track because he hates the idea of the system. And you know what? He is the most understanding and friendly instructor I've had during my college career. He memorized my name within two sessions of my first class with him, and constantly has his door open for questions, gassbagging, scuttlebutt, whatever. IMHO, we(US college-types) need more professors like that.
So while tenure is a good idea, in my school its abused way too much. Also, the post tenure review board is a OBN and I have never heard of someone getting let go from it.
Objects in the blog are closer then they ap
I've occasionally gone down to the CS department at 9am and found every single door shut, as the faculty hadn't rolled out of bed to come in to work yet. At 1am, meanwhile, you'll always find at least one prof. still there...
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Between the Door Closer and the Counselor, he neglected to mention the quantum physics prof who believes that his door is simultaneously open and closed.
I agree that it can be misused, but I think tenure is on the whole very positive. It's to protect academic freedom, but this goes deeper than you might imagine. It's not just to allow controversial research to continue without the professor being pressured into reaching desired conclusions (though that is an important part of it), but also to allow important research to happen at all with education and advancement rather than money in mind. Without a tenure system, it's quite likely that professors would be pressured only to do research that would directly bring money to the university (whether in grant money or in patent licensing).
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
I find my professors all the time, sometimes at 10pm, sometimes at 1am. They're likely to be in their office at the very least anytime 10am-5pm except during lunchtime and when they're actually teaching classes. Of course, I go to a college with no grad school and hence no TAs to do their teaching for them (or big research grants to take up their time)...
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
At least many liberal arts professors know they have nothing better to do than meet with students (ok, maybe you're writing a book, but certainly that can wait an hour). Most science profs, on the other hand, are "too busy researching" on big NSF grants to bother spending any time at all teaching or meeting with students (except perhaps their PhD students, since they're the ones doing all the actual work).
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
What? Do you sp+ecific time to see a professor and ask him\her questions???
:|
Here(Portugal) we just go to the professor office and knock, if he has time, he generally is very gald to talk to us...
But hey... this is my opinion on my small course here...
At my school, only the freshman lectures that everyone (non-cs majors included) has to take are at 8 or 9am (more commonly 9am). Any CS class past that is 11 or later, with 1:15 being the most popular timeslot.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
He could get a degree at a non-accredited university for "work experience," but you don't want to know what the major would be called.
Professorship positions, especially in prestigious universities are filled in on the basis of the research publications and professional contacts, while the educational aspects of an academic career rarely do make any difference. This, perhaps, might be unfortunate in some cases, but that's how it works.
The parent posting eloquently raises a number of excellent points.
... extreme measures which are rare by design), there are a number of lesser punishments, if you will, which can be meted out. Tenure is not the only means of enforcement, just the most severe within academia.
The general Slashdot reader might be surprized at how much influence the perceived behavior of a professor has on things like the number of committees he is assigned to, the number of students he is allowed to have, how much office and laboratory space he is allocated, and things of this ilk. While it is rare to a professor to have tenure revoked (which, to my mind, is not unlike disbarring a laywer or decertifying a doctor
When a student complains to the faculty about one member in particular, it can have far-reaching consquences. When the student writes a cogent letter to the dean of the school, it can make a big difference. But do you want to revoke tenure for someone who isn't teaching well? No, you want him to teach better. Ignoring his students? Make him pay attention. Violating some student-faculty handbook rue? Make him honor it. Revoking tenure is for eggregious cases such as when a professor sleeps with his students, misappropriates funds, or commits scientific fraud.
Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
That's why I'll hide if I want to get any research done.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
The Senile Tenured actually are in their office during their declared office hours, and often for most of the day, sometimes including when they should be in class. Often, when a student comes in with a question, they will begin answering, but trail off into a rambling story, then forget what the student asked (this behavior is often also seen during lectures). Sometimes they will ask students what their opinion is of the class, but remind them that they probably won't remember what they said after they leave. And they usually don't.
When I was in physics college back in the 80's my professor wrote a computer program in which he plugged in all of his students class hours, and with a few seconds the program would generate his office hours precisely when his students would be least likely to be able to attend without missing their other classes. I actually saw him plug this data in his computer and laugh. Planet P Blog
www.enthea.org
I did a couple terms as a TA (before I got my research assistanceship, whoohoo!) and rather than keeping regular office hours (which I found to be generally pointless from the perspective of making my availability jive with the students) I just had an "open door" policy. That was when I learned what 5 AM looked like as a starting instead of ending point for the day, because shortly after adapting this policy, getting to the office before 6:00 was the only way I'd ever have any guaranteed time to get my own work done before the students rolled out.
Trouble making decisions? Just flip for it.
You: Anything? : Would you...
...paint my house?
Her: ANYthing!
You (in a whisper, close to her ear)
(Pause. Look nervously around for observers.)
DT
Is this thing on? Hello?
I had one prof who was an inveterate door-closer (and -locker) ... he'd even stop typing when someone walked past, so they wouldn't think he was in there. He'd ignore knocks (even during office hours).
Departmental legend had it that this pissed one student off so much that he kicked the door in.
Actually, tenure is not "guaranteed immunity". Contractually, all it really means is that if they want to fire you, they have to go through due process. In a company, they can fire you with no explanation or recourse; with a tenured professor, it has to go through a review. If the review board thinks the prof is a detriment to the department, they can fire him.
In practice, however, most departments don't bother to let things go that far. But that's a matter of lax enforcement, not tenure itself.
Here's some advice to bright-eyed undergrads hoping to glean knowledge from the professorial elite: Do not be surprised if they just don't care.
My graduate advisor is one of these shooting-star big shots on his way up. He's been tenured for a while, and now holds several high-powered positions of responsibility under his belt, federal grant review committees, editorships, directorship of a research center, yadda yadda. He does not give a flying fuck about office hours or undergrads. Really.
He understands one thing: Science. If you ain't talkin the talk, you're wasting his time. He doesn't want to hear about your trifles and personal dilemmas. He doesn't want to hear your frustration with course conflicts and
hand-wringing about your grades. Unless you are a *brilliant* undergrad who has thought about research, preferably his research, and you have new ideas and are there to make your impressive intellect available at his disposal...you're meaningless.
Alas, I'm exaggerating for dramatic effect only a little bit. Yeah, he's cognizant of his duty to teaching. In an annoyed way. Yeah, he'll do his service to his undergraduate advisees--begrudgingly--but with the correct outward social demeanor. But, damn. He's BUSY. And not with you.
I mean shit..his postdocs and grad students barely get a moment of face time...which MAY, in his less sociopathic moments, give him a twinge of guilt...but how hapless are you if you think neglecting the UNDERGRADS gives him pause.
And so much for those of you who think tenure leads to lazy sitting on laurels. This guy is seriously busy. Just not with mentoring YOU. Orchestrating large-scale research endeavors? Yes. Marshalling serious funding dollars? Yes. Preaching the theoretic gospel to better-positioned colleagues? Yes. Shmoozing deans and politicians? Yes. YOU? No.
Not every prof is like this. Even some of the most elite are still very fond of the unwashed undergraduate masses. But when I think back, as an undergrad, to how important I thought my academic issues were to my professors, and how entitled I felt to their time, and how high priority undergraduate mentoring must be to research faculty. Wow. I was silly. Professors, in my experience, do not think in terms of the "merchant/client" model like most kids who throw out the "hey, I'm PAYING for this" argument do. Professors see their money coming from granting agencies, not your mom and dad.
OK, can ya tell I've got issues with this guy's style? He's brilliant, but what a dick.
Anyway...if you have a professor who's both a credit to his field and a credit to your education, give him your thanks. It's a rare combination.
(BTW, this guy's office hours are strictly "by appointment only," which, I've noticed, is a growing trend in scheduling office hours. You think he's got time to leave hours open for unannounced interruption?! No, no, no.)
That's because they probably view teaching as relatively important part of their job description. And, given the way the faculty reward system is structured, they're right! Tenure isn't the problem, the problem is the department gives no positive incentive for professors to devote a lot of energy to teaching -- it just takes time away from their research, which is what they're really rewarded for. By the time they're full tenured professors, the message is pretty ingrained.
I rarely went to the professors' office hours (I'm a senior... almost done!). In fact, I only went *once* by choice when I was actively enrolled in a class--and that was to drop the class (my calculus skills are... lacking:)
Other than that, I visited with my two favorite professors (both are psych. guys) after I finished taking their courses, and I still visit periodically.
For what it's worth, at my institution, the office hours tend to be *short*. I was surprised when I saw people talking about 10-20 hours per week. Here it's more like 4-5 a week, mostly because professors here are either: A) super active in research, and/or B) have jobs in private industry outside of teaching (e.g. clinical psychologists that do teaching on the side, programmers that do teaching on the side, etc.).
I visit Professors for two reasons.
1) They're a good professor and I want to learn more.
This type of professor always has students in his/her office hours.
2) They're a terrible professor and their grading is illogical and/or unfair.
This type of professor only has students in his/her office hours immediately before or after grading/exams.
So, if no one is visiting you you can either be happy that your grading is fair or sad that you're not very interesting to your students.
The Barhopper Keeps his office hours in the bar located between the freshman dorms and the academic buildings at my college. Is often seen emerging late at night followed by a pack of slightly tipsy seniors discussing Nietzsche at full volume late at night. Is usually a favorite by the more alcohol-oriented students. I can't count how many times i've seen my professors coming out of a bar, blinking at the street light, on my way to an evening class.
The reason for tenure *and* academic free speech was that corporations and political bigwigs would make donations to universities in order to silence the professors. That is, they'd say "I'll donate $X if you will not teach ______ subject." Or "Professor Loudmouth is such a pain. I'll donate $X if you'll fire him."
... definitely not something you want to see at a university.
Deans actually hated this, because once you start down that path, there's no stopping it, and worse, each person thinks that his previous purchase should be enough to last forever, and that he, however, can simply pay a little bit more than the last guy who disagreed...
Unfortunately, this has started to come full circle in some areas, as (1) Universities became cash cows (2) corruption entered the administrative ranks.
For example at James Madison University a good while back, you would see stupid comments from the administration in the Faculty Handbook like "Academic Free Speech consists of the University's ability to determine what the professors can and cannot say."
Fortunately, the Faculty Senate voted it down, pointing out the the Faculty Handbook was their contract, and that until they accepted [signed] a new contract, the *old* one stood. Administration wasn't happy with that, but there was also the point that the new handbook was not even a legal contract, and could not be, because it included a clause that the administration could change it at will.
[Understand that this nonsense is not still happening at JMU, AFAIK]
Legally speaking, one-side-modifiable contracts are not contracts. EULAs, okay, but not contracts.
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
The article was very entertaining, but I noticed something that no one else has seemed to.
10 hours? Ojala I had such a window of opportunity. It's 4 hours per week, if we're lucky, and usually right after class when we haven't had time to formulate enough of an opinion to ask decent questions.
sadly what often happens, is the professor is no longer assigned graduate classes...they are simply asssigned a full load of undergraduate classes, so the grad students don't have to deal with them.
It is simply the case that despite your half-hearted attempt to be interested, you have ignored his very straight-forward answer.
The claim is that the benefits of tenure far outweigh the negatives of a very few professors abusing the system.
While the lazy tenured professor is certainly a powerful stereotype, I'm not willing to buy it just because of the claims of a few individuals who may or may not have been sober long enough at the university to make an accurate judgement.
You probably don't know this, but that is a fairly large punishment. Graduate classes are not only more fun to teach, and less work to boot, but give one an opportunity to refresh on a topic.
Trust me, a full load of UG classes is a major pain.
Don't laugh too hard. The man has, or almost had, a Masters in Education and IIRC taught special ed classes for awhile before his obvious talent landed him a gig in porno.
l
Ron Jeremy is a hero for large, hirsute men everywhere, even if I don't wanna look at his hairy ass, either.
Link: http://www.lukeford.com/stars/male/ron_jeremy.htm
-- I wanna decide who lives and who dies - Crow T. Robot, MST3K
Your moma is so poor that she got married just for the rice.
I'm American, but teach Econometics ('Forecasting Financial Markets' this term) one night a week at a University here in London.
/. while waiting for folks to drop by. Door closed but not locked, and I don't talk to my office mate and she doens't talk to me. Not sure what species I am.
I haven't quit my day job, it pays the mortgage and I actually enjoy it!
But in terms of office hours, my employment contract calls for two hours a week, at a time and place of my choosing. That means saturdays 9AM to 11AM and yes, I'm posting this on
I've got 23 students and these hours seem to work fine. Isn't ten hours a week a little much? Of course we don't know the class size or the topic, but let's face it - quality teaching means small class sizes.
This seems like too much hand holding to me. Deliver the material in a three hour, weekly lecture. Clear any preliminary issues then and there. I set aside fifteen minutes for this at the end of each lecture since if everyone has the same problem I screwed up in delivery. Assign the reading and make yourself available during office hours to resolve any one students intractable problems.
Remove the impediment, nudge the student in the right direction (additional reading, whatever is needed) and usher him or her out the door. No hand holding here.
My philosophy - and I state this clearly at the first lecture - is I will not pass or fail a student - they will pass or fail themselves.
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Ummm, at the two universities I've been to (undergrad and grad), 2 hours a week is typical.
Damn, you know you're going to get crappy evaluations from your students. And then you won't get promoted or tenure because of those evaluations.
Unless you already have tenure, and then you don't have to worry about the stupid evaluations.
scripsit El Nofx:
Clearly I am not familiar with your particular cases, but have you considered the possibility that ``he has tenure'' is often just a convenient excuse for ignoring your complaint? If either they thought (for whatever reason) that your complaint was unjustified, or if the target of the complaint was a friend or someone they felt compelled to protect, ``he has tenure'' allows them to play the good-guy rôle and not have to argue with you, while still not acting on the complaint.
In principio creauit Linus Linucem.
Indeed, many of the early birds I mentioned in my previous post were among the best professors I have ever had the privilege to meet/work with/be instructed by. Generally, they were also approachable at other times during the day if an appointment was scheduled ahead of time.
I once tried to call my advisor, who was also my professor for a class. I had a situation where I needed to pass along some information but really didn't want to speak to him. I suppose I could have e-mailed him, but decided against it and called his office at 1:30 am to leave a voice mail message, the phone range twice and he picked up the phone. Not only was he working in his office at that hour, but also this was shortly after finals in May, and before summer courses.
I hate all sigs, even this one.
Big universities are factories, mass producing fodder for the human resources departments of those who own the means of production.
I usually hold office hours right before class for several reasons- students are likely to be looking for me then anyway, and I can get some idea of what kinds of problems they were having difficulty with before class, if I want to address some of those in lecture. Similarly, holding office hours right after class is a good plan, since often students have questions right after class and that time may as well be counted as office hours.
I have another strategy for office hours, which relies upon the fact that I am fortunate enough to have several offices and a lab to work near where some of our Beowulf clusters are. All of my office hours are held in my teaching office, which is windowless and tiny but in the same building as most classes. I actually work in one of my other offices which are much nicer and where the only people who can find me are my research colleagues, my Ph.D. students and those who know where to look. This also has the advantage that my more social departmental colleagues who amble around to chit-chat and ask me to serve on committees don't find me casually either...
It's psychosomatic. You need a lobotomy. I'll get a saw.
Out for a minute:These species are chronic abusers of the "back in five minutes" note left on their door, and seem to think that disappearing to visit the coffee shop, check their departmental mail, get a bagel, chat with colleagues, and drop something off at the grants office can easily be accomplished during office hours. The telltale sign is that the "Back in Five Minutes" note taped to their door is yellow with age, or graffiti'd with sarcastic comments from students...
Constant traveller:This migratory species of professor has mastered the art of travelling during the semester. `Office hours canceled whilst Professor X is in France' is a characteristic identifying feature.
Geography 401- Office hours as a Navigational Challenge:To reach this professor, you must pass the Campus Map Reading Contest. Office hours are held in a non-descript building in the most far-flung corner of campus. To add challenge, the building is referred to not by its current name, but what it was known as during a brief period in 1972. Furthermore, the office numbers in that building are a remarkable example of discontinuous functions. For full credit, the office should be on a floor which can only be reached by a single staircase which does not connect with more than one other floor. There is normally no shortage of such maze-like buildings on campus...
Hazardous conditions:A relative of the obscure location species, this breed relies upon intimidating signs, sounds or smells to prevent students from turning up at office hours. There are several subspecies:
- Nuculear intimidation:
Impressive signs that say "Radiation hazard," and glowing hallways will cut down on student traffic, particularly among those students who hope to reproduce someday.
- Impending catastrophe: Nothing kills students' desires to linger like a noisy, clunking machine in the hallway which looks like it came from a 1950s sci-fi movie. Even if they can ignore a massive clanking machine that sounds like it could explode at any moment, having to shout to be heard will tend to shorten the student's visit.
- Biohazard: Students sometimes will get discouraged from finding a professor's office if they must pass by stern warning signs and through several hallways in which everyone else is
wearing masks and some kind of spacesuit-looking outfits with radcards.
- Olfactory challenge: I once taught a large state university in a rural setting which had some graduate student offices near the Pig Barns. Students came to my air-conditioned office near the center of campus instead.
- Bells and sirens: To reach this professor's office, there is a "Door is Alarmed" sign which must be ignored to sucessfully leave the stairwell.
Gauntlet of Sneers:This species makes sure that the office lies past a hallway filled with grumpy graduate students themselves desparate for the professor's time and thus willing to throw themselves in the way of any possible interlopers.Adminstrator runaround:This twisted species become department chairs, associate deans or worse for the protection offered by having an office staff who can ward off students from their plush, carpeted, panelled habitat.
It's psychosomatic. You need a lobotomy. I'll get a saw.
"...where he majored in Animal Husbandry until, one day, they caught him at it..."
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
That's great. I think I'll pluck my eye balls and mail then to Bill Gates to let him know I refuse to look at the awful color schemes on XP.
Theirs something to be said for the fact that one of my professors was honest when I asked him: I hoe my self out at the local arcade write letters to my boss to blackmail him and then demand a pay raise every other day.
On the other hand the hole dynamics of state schools is well a mess to say the least and not the least of wich is the most common question: Any advice for ____? with the equally common respons: yeah, write it and make it good..NEXT!!!
Because my school sucked. You slipped a schedule underneath a random door each term, and later it appeared in the office with a scrawl on the bottom. This allowed you to pay more money to stay there another year. The punch line comes when, in April of your senior year, some other random professor with the "Department Head" title tells you that you can't graduate because your courses haven't fulfilled a requirement. Yes, this happened.
The faculty doesn't give a crap about the students, the students have no desire to be there, and the 'Tute keeps raking in the money.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
My history professor just got tenure.
Example pre-tenure test outline: 15 or so sections asking me fairly specific questions about specified people and things.
Example post-tenure test: "be able to write an essay about any of the following 6 major figures. Know biographical information for all 28 people discussed in the past week."
Um.. we have a difference, ladies and gentlmen! What is up with that? Now that tests are impossible.
Spoon not. Fork, or fork not. There is no spoon.
about how bad life is when you are insulated from the real world.
Stupid, stupid, ivory tower liberals.
I know a couple of these guys. They are older than dirt and use their seniority to flaunt university anti-smoking policies. One history prof of mine has a "designated smoking area" sign on his door. The stench of pipe smoke and french cigarettes fills the whole office well. Inside his office is a huge free-standing ash tray, a couple ancient but comfortable chairs, a coffee pot, and multiple cookie jars. He encorages students to come into his office, smoke, and listen to him ramble. It's hard to tell if he's talking about the Persian wars or his own military service in Korea, as he goes back and forth between the two without notice. It's still quite entertaining.
I teach a part-time marketing/communications course at a private college. Since the teaching is essentially a hobby, I really enjoy it and encourage my students to see me during my office hours, which are right after class at noon.
During the whole year, not a single student came. So as a bonus question for the final exam, I asked them what my office hours were(extra 5 points on a 100 point exam). The hours are on the syllabus and posted at the course web site. I think I got 3 correct answers out of 150.
I'll try it again next year.
This topic is near and dear to my heart. However, my rant is on an off-topic note. I never completed my PhD. because of how my advisor treated his students during my period at the uni. He was always interested in getting research grants and could care less about the progress the students were making towards their program. I got so disenchanted with my PhD. work that when a part-time web job came up in 1995 I took it up in a snap. Eventually that job turned into a full-time job and a career and the PhD. was forgotten forever. In some ways, I regret not completing it and in other ways I am glad that I never completed i.
Corporate Gadfly
Jonathan Archer: the most beaten up Enterprise captain in Star Trek history
When a student complains to the faculty about one member in particular, it can have far-reaching consquences. When the student writes a cogent letter to the dean of the school, it can make a big difference. But do you want to revoke tenure for someone who isn't teaching well? No, you want him to teach better. Ignoring his students? Make him pay attention. Violating some student-faculty handbook rue? Make him honor it
Ok, how? How do you make him pay attention if he doesn't want to? How do make him honor rules if he doesn't want to? What far-reaching consequences are there? What big differences are made?
I know this because Tyler knows this.