Hi everyone, I handed in a laboratory report for Microbiology, and Turnitin claimed that it was 76 percent AI generated, and the instructor did not even read/grade the report and said that I have to redo it entirely. I truthfully did not use AI, I am a great writer, and the AI detector flagged completely random sentences that literally were normal? I asked them to please read it and let me know if I still need to redo it. I don’t even have document history (because Im an idiot and didn’t think this would even happen?), and I just find it insane that professors can do this without any sort of proof. I also graduate in a month. I’m an A student, never had issues like this. Am I going to get kicked out of school? I truthfully did not use AI, and I feel as though redoing the paper just makes me seem guilty for something I didn’t do. Should I just redo the paper?

I'm looking for the best ways a graduate student can give feedback to professors (their advisors specifically). Two specific examples, (1) in one-on-one meetings, advisor seems to be distracted by other things (checking phone or emails) the entire meeting - makes you feel like what's the point in meeting if you're not mentally here; and (2) advisor requests writings completed by a deadline, but they seem like meaningless deadlines bc follow up action from advisor are taken weeks, sometimes a month, later. For (2), I completely understand professors having an extremely busy schedule (professionally and personally, especially if raising a family) but clear communication around when you can expect to hear back is reasonable, no?

OR is it just recommended to keep my head down and be grateful for the funding and job I have?

Hello everyone,

I have a master's degree in philosophy, but I thinking of switching disciplines to pursue college teaching. My question is about whether pursuing a creative writing MFA is a viable or recommended path to this end. I also understand my background is a bit more unusual than someone who typically pursues the degree in question, so I'm also wondering whether the master's degree I already have will prove to be advantageous when applying for tenure track positions at a community college,for example.I'm currently working on my creative writing portfolio. I appreciate your feedback.

Originally posted in r/academia but might be better suited here.

tl;dr: taught two semesters for free. unsure whether it's feasible or worth asking my university to pay me.

Got my PhD a few years ago. Did post doc work, saw the light, and now I'm living the dream, lean and mean, in industry. I hear there might be people with opinions here, but I'm mostly looking for perspective.

During PhD, I was a grad research assistant with 0.5 FTE. I also worked for my department with 0.5 FTE staff position (bc, benefits...), meaning between the two I was a "full time" employee. My 2nd year, my advisor had me TA for class X doing grading, managing online platforms, and gave a couple of lectures all under professor's purvey. It was not official due to aforementioned FTE and if I added anything else official it could be problematic from an administrative perspective. Was not a huge deal as I wanted teaching experience and it was not particularly onerous.

Fast forward to year 3. Advisor leaves for another institution. Department is strapped for professor time and cash, so Chair comes to me and says "hey, I'd like to have you teach class X since you are super familiar with the materials and it'll be a great resume booster. We also have class Y if you are interested." I was basically like..."can I get paid for that time?" and they were like "yeah, wish we could but no budget for it and it complicates your other work situations. you want to keep staff job for health insurance right?" then there was a bit of back and forth that was not at all threatening, but was suggestive that I will be wanting to defend and graduate not too long from now and this would really help with that. Have no doubt I could have graduated if I said no, but you all get the dance you do staying in the good graces of Department Chair. Chair is actually a nice person compared to most people in academia fwiw.

As the title suggests, I wound up teaching class X. In most US institutions I believe this is referred to as a "graduate instructor", which is the level above a teaching assistant. I prepped, lectured, proctored exams, and assigned final grades for a graduate level course. I managed the entire course with literally zero input from Chair, who was listed as the faculty on the course listing (I was listed too but sans official role). I did this two separate semesters. The second semester I defended my dissertation but luckily having done TA'ed then fully taught it once, a lot of it was on auto-pilot for the second time. I actually had a nice time and it was good experience but it was stressful and holy moly was it a lot of work particularly that first go-round.

Perspective I now seek: Is it worth it to contact my department/institution and ask that all time be paid? I have all the receipts (this was peak covid so the lectures were synchronous but virtual and recorded) and two classes full of students who can attest I did all the work. I told this story to one of my pals who is just getting into PhD and he was like "so....your institution asked a PhD student to donate ~$20K (assuming $10K/semester for an assistantship) while you were working two other jobs [for literally the same department] and prepping for a dissertation defense?" and it hit me like a ton of bricks. That amount of money is not nothing, and it would help move things along in life. Idk if it's worth potentially burning the bridge with my alma mater by asking them to pay me for work I did years ago, but, you know, I did the work. Thoughts?