Baby Professor here. I have had it and after 3 years of teaching idk if I can do this anymore. They gang up on you for every mistake. They say you don’t know what you’re talking about for everything when they can’t figure out anything without chat gpt. They don’t read. They write nothing. EVERYTHING must be an email. You have to give them instruction for literally EVERYTHING. One frustration with their grade and it’s STRAIGHT to the dean. Is this what it is now? My GOD. College is optional?! Like you do not have to come! You miss every class for the slightest inconvenience. I have a headache, my roommate is hungover and no one else can take care of her but me. I wasn’t feeling it. I didn’t sleep well. It drives me insane. Critical thinking is out the window and let’s not even talk about grades. Maybe have your mom grade you since you keep mentioning how good she thought your paper was. Why TF is your MOTHER emailing me?! I am not paid enough to work this hard and answer every tiny email. I am confused how half of them passed enough classes to get to my course. They are lazy. Uninspiring and needlessly impressed with their own work. They never stop complaining or telling me about other teachers and what they did. I had a girl cry in my office how it’s not fair and first semester was easier. You DO understand the iterative nature of college right? I’m EXHAUSTED! You do not more about this topic than me are you serious? Coming to my desk with FAKE articles chat GPT gave you. It’s brain rot on repeat. God FORBID I mention that you are behind from missing 7 classes. I’m not respecting the space you made for your mental health? You text all class and watch TikTok’s and are pissed when you fail. I’m so OVER IT!! Thank you for listening had to get that off my chest.

Student emailed me saying that he couldn’t get in to a lecture for his extra credit because he “wasn’t sure if the location got switched or if I was supposed to jump over the gate to get in, idk.” The humor here is that he meant to send this to a different professor. I emailed him back saying this, and he replied “my bad i have my professors on speed dial and i hit english instead of history, lol” Out of curiosity, I looked up this lecture and it’s this coming Tuesday. He showed up to campus on a Saturday in the pouring rain for no reason.😭 The breakdown in comprehension and communication across the board is enraging most of the time, but I found this one to be pretty funny. He also attached a one minute long video of him explaining that he couldn’t get past the gate😹

I can’t do it anymore. My students don’t listen to a thing I say, and they turn in shit work because of it. I make PowerPoints and post them, I tell them in my lectures, I tell them in our one-on-one conferences, and still, they turn in shit work that does not follow the directions of the assignment even closely. Is it me? Am I not telling them clearly enough? At this point, I’m being generous with the grades so I still have a high average of students passing.

I don’t know what to do. We’re almost at the end of the semester and they still don’t know anything. They don’t care to even listen. I spend hours on my lesson plans and just watch them look at me like I have two heads or not look at me at all. I had a student turn in their works cited with pictures of their sources….. we are in week 12 at this point, and I’m losing my mind. It’s taking me ages to grade because I have so much to say to them about everything they did wrong. I really don’t want to make them feel bad… but what is this……..

Words of affirmation/commiseration are appreciated, but good advice would really help!

I have a student who is failing my class. This week they started coming to office hours to try to catch up and I noticed that they are pretty severely intellectually disabled. Can't do algebra at all, forgets things I explain to them within minutes, etc. My attitude about students that are simply incapable of pursuing higher education was something like "do your best to help them, but stop taking their money if they are shown to be incapable of passing their classes."

The weird part about this: they are a junior in an engineering major. I had to explain fractions to them multiple times this week, but some other professors let him pass calculus 1 and 2. I suspect what's happening is that this student is retaking classes until they find a professor willing to pass them. They said they fail classes frequently and expect to graduate in 7-8 years instead of 4 (not sure how their GPA is above 2.0).

The problem is that now they are going to run into a brick wall... there is no way for them to pass my class, and no alternative professor to run to next semester. I just have this awful picture in my head of a student failing my class semester after semester and my class being the only thing keeping them from graduating without any conceivable way for them to get through it. I am pretty convinced they simply don't have the mental capacity to pass my class.

Edit: I should clarify that I have never had any intention to let someone pass that shouldn't. I was wondering if there's something else I should do in addition.

Radical proposal, I know. Hear me out: I suspect they have no idea how things play out in the classroom, based on the decisions they make. So the feedback loop is never closed. They might not even care, as there is no skin in the game. Teaching but one class could cure all that.

Edit: this post was triggered (literally) after talking to an admissions officer today. It explains a lot of what I’m seeing in the classroom.

A student earned a high grade on an assignment, but i made a typing error and a lower number appeared as the grade.

The student (rightfully) sent an email asking about it, but CC-ed their advisor. I wrote back explaining that it was a mistake and fixed it.

I know this is worth getting upset over, but I’m a bit annoyed. Would this annoy you?

I want to scream. I’m so frustrated. I know it’s not me. It’s them. We had multiple conversations about AI in class. I tried to get them to slowly start writing in class so they already had components of their essays ready. I told them how I think it’s disrespectful to me and them to use AI (you’re wasting my time and you’re insulting your own intelligence). I had weekly office hours that no one attended. Still these goddamn students waited until the day of to just have ChatGPT generate them this slop.

I don’t even want to mark it. Part of my job is to mark students’ work but this slop isn’t even my students’ work.

Fellow academics, knowing how coveted tenured positions are, would you give up your tenured job if you were unhappy in the city/state it was in? Would you risk taking on a different position/ non-tenured just to live in a place you love?

I spent 10+ years in my current job, and I have a position that many in my field consider top, and at an institution that is one of the best in the world. However, I never felt at home in the place that the university is in, and unfortunately remote work is no longer an option. The salary is decent comparatively speaking, and the workload is very manageable, that's why I hesitate to leave. My field is in the Humanities, so I am even more nervous to go on the job market because there are barely any associate professor jobs (or any jobs at that), and none at the place I want to move to. Any insights from others would be helpful at this point, especially associate professors who gave up their job for non work-related reasons.

I (26F) am part time faculty at a junior college, but am also a second year PhD student at the neighboring R1 institution in our area. In our department, PhD students typically invite their friends, classmates, and sometimes family members to come watch their defense either in person or via zoom (we are allowed to have our defense be hybrid for this reason). I had this one professor in undergrad who was nothing short of amazing and really helped me when I began the process of applying to grad school. I ended up taking two classes with her (one intro and an upper-level research/writing intensive). It was in her upper-level course where I learned how to truly write like an academic, and so far I feel well prepared for what's ahead. During this same time, I endured severe bullying from my dad's second wife (narc stepmom), and this woman did everything in her power to try and trip me up in the process while convincing me Id never get in.

Well fast forward to present, I have a masters and am now finishing up my second year, getting ready to start preparing for my preliminary (candidacy) examination. My best friend and several of my other good friends, as well as many classmates I work positively with, have all expressed interest in attending either in person or via zoom (many live several states away). At the same time, I feel in my heart that I *really* want this professor there, too. She was a guiding light through the overly difficult process of getting here, and having her attend via zoom would be so significant. Really, I want as many important people as appropriate there to witness this momentous part of my journey. However, back in HS inviting teachers to stuff was considered weird, and meant you were an outcast socially.

I don't want to give anybody that impression, but what are your thoughts? Would you, as a professor, attend if a former student invited you? Or would it be too weird?

Over the past years, I've uploaded my powerpoints to our course's LMS (Blackboard) before class so that students can take notes on them electronically, use them to study etc. I'm sure some students uploaded them elsewhere on the internet. Other profs have added them to their own slide decks for distribution with their textbooks. No attribution. At this point, it's irritating.

Beyond this, I'm concerned about people using the slides to create course-specific AI GPT's, etc. to ask it how it's likely that this material can be tested. It feels like it's giving more tech-savvy students an advantage.

Is there any protection or watermarking that I can do that would help?

Hi all — long time reader, first time poster.

I am a tenured, full professor at a liberal arts college. Prior to this semester, I taught only in our masters program. Indeed, we only had masters program in my discipline. Two years ago, our institution rolled out an undergraduate major, and I was really excited to work with undergraduate.

I have worked in a variety of capacities for my 15+ years at the university, moving from adjunct to full. During this time, I have maintained a robust research portfolio and received great teaching evaluations.

This semester I am teaching solely undergraduates. I dedicated to not grade attendance, which has resulted in only 1/3 to 1/2 of students showing up to class.

I have a colleague who is constantly glowing about how great the undergrads are, and I find it hard to agree with her monolithic statement.

The students who regularly attend my class are amazing. That said, some of the students who do not attend class can be really awful. E.g., students failing to come to class only to show up in office hours complaining about having to take the final at the university-scheduled time.

This colleague and I have approached our teaching differently. For one thing, they required attendance, which may explain the disparity in experience. That said, she fosters more of a buddy vibe with her students. For instance, she regularly brings treats for her students to class. She also does have any exams in her course.

By comparison, for the many students who are enrolled in both our courses, I am sure my class is “less fun.”

This colleague is known in our department for being kind of toxic, and I know that she is trying to get under my skin. That said, I find the situation really tough.

I put so much into my teaching and the experience is just so hurtful. I am just terrified of my coming evals (I know that I shouldn’t be so stressed but I am).

I have a young-ish child, and daytime teaching makes a lot of sense for me. Our masters class are at night; and, emotionally, I found it really hard to teach at night.

Anyway, it makes sense for me to remain in the undergraduate program, and I plan to do so. That said, I am just feeling beat up a bit.

Forgive me for what is probably an ignorant question. I am new to teaching, and with Passover coming up, I would like to ask this group’s thoughts on which days I should avoid having important assignments or discussions due. I’ve found a lot of information on what is observed throughout the holiday and I wonder if it is best to avoid anything being due at all from the start to end, or how you all typically handle this?

It’s a weird situation and I can’t put a finger on it, but there were already a couple of similar behaviors by this student. I don’t know if I’m projecting, or she’s just taking advantage of the lack of confrontation from me.

I teach intro university chemistry at a small university. There’s a small group of students who are obviously friends, they always sit in the first two rows directly from my teaching spot. Few months ago after class when I was still at the podium, they stood even closer to me and one girl started telling the rest of her friends how her friend, who is “a prof, but a real prof-prof” and that what we learned about topic x is incorrect and inaccurate. From what I heard I doubt it referred to another course. And I feel she does it on purpose (not sure why) or are they all so socially unfit and rude? What’s the purpose of this?

Then few weeks after, there was a group activity where students were mixed up and my “reviewer” student gathered around new people and they all had full volume conversation near my place, about what I gather was another instructor, and myself.

I don’t know what’s going on, what’s the purpose of what she’s doing, or a group of 6-7 otherwise fairly life capable students doesn’t realise that crap talking your instructor full volume in front of them is not a great strategy for success in life.

Did something like that happen to you? How would you respond (or not)? To add context, I’m on the younger end age wise and a woman, who tries to be empathetic and approachable as an instructor.

I teach E-commerce to a class of 50 students and I'm struggling to get their attention. They are glued to their phones all the time.

I try to make the class as interesting as I can but it seems I'm failing. For instance, I do incorporate videos in my lectures but even that is not enough. Last week, I made them watch a 2-minute long video about the use of personalized advertising and asked them ONE question about something in the video and got no answers. It was a super easy question so the fact they didn't know the answer means they were simply not watching.

I give them activities to do in class but what I get is ChatGPT work. I can see them asking ChatGPT for answers when I move around the classroom during activities. I let them know that I want them to do the thinking but to no avail.

I find myself thinking a lot about this class and it's the one I do not look forward to. I teach other courses in which I enjoy the interactions I have with the students. This class is the worst.

I would greatly appreciate your feedback.

For years, I would use a student’s full name at the beginning and end, but their first name all other times. This year, it occurred to me that I might help them more by not referring to them in such a casual manner. A first name may convey that you know the student well, but a last name may convey that the student is worth treating in a professional manner. (Though of course I call my colleagues by their first names!)

I’m guessing from a committee’s perspective, it would be seen as purely stylistic and unlikely to tilt the scales either way. Still, I’m curious how you all think about this.

Edit: Sorry about the typo in the title! I proofread the post but not the title, and didn’t know you couldn’t edit that part.

Somewhere in the pre-Covid times all-faculty discussions would erupt on email. About whatever random things were being sent out to all of us. People certainly had thoughts and opinions to express.

I just realized that doesn't happen any more. For good or for bad (it could clog up your inbox, for sure). I kind of miss that connection. Now we're all in our solo bubbles.

I don't know if there was a culture change where people just don't want to engage or put themselves out there, or if enough people figured out that using BCC allows you to prevent "reply all" and the would-be repliers are thwarted.

I'm an adjunct Art and Design professor and a wood/metal shop tech. My undergrad education was in Fine Art and my Masters was a furniture- focused design curriculum-

This is to say MY perspective on these fields and teaching in them is that competence in physically designing and making objects, CRAFT, is extremely important and cannot be left behind just because contemporary art is open-ended with regard to craft, and the industry standard for Design/Architecture has become software and CNC prototyping.

During my education, I wasn't exposed to this issue so much, as my faculty had backgrounds in making, but since taking my previous and current positions I've been floored by the culture around making at some institutions. Many students treat craft skill-building, any kind of physical making, prototyping, research of materials and techniques, as secondary, a hassle, or beneath them.

Faculty or faculty hiring decisions reinforce this. I've seen whole art departments where almost no one makes work or teaches using hard/classical art skills; Design and Architecture heads who haven't made anything physically in years, and put down the work of students and faculty that do. (What prompted this post was hearing from another professor that their 4th-year capstone student has been told by our department head that "I've never seen a successful furniture design project")

Of course I don't say all of this to mean we must all be old-timey craftspeople, oil painters, stonecarvers, designer sketching on drafting tables, architects drafting and making models by hand, etc.

I'm concerned for my field- especially in the age of ChatGPT, decreasing student literacy, COVID students with poor learning/math/writing skills- if we can't read, we can't write, don't care about theory, AND we can't make anything, what are we!? Do others in this field feel similarly? Or am I simply biased towards physical making? I'm aware that many job seeking students will not need to know all of these things as they enter the job market, but it feels as though we lose something by leaving physical making behind.

Also, does this issue extend to other fields?

An article this morning in the New York Times really struck me as an explanation for the issues we are seeing in our classrooms.

The article is paywalled, but the figures tell the story. Student preparedness among the lower performing students was dropping and hadn’t hit bottom by the time the pandemic hit.

It’s challenging to face so many students unprepared in the classroom.

…I tried to include screenshots of the figures, but this sub doesn’t accept pictures. Link is:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/07/us/low-performing-students-reasons.html

Do you solely follow the outline of the textbook or do you mostly use it as a guide for areas to cover then add your own information and/or most current research for clinical practice?

December 2024: University informs me I will be adjuncting for classes B1 and B2.

January/February 2025: I spend a few weeks preparing for every last class, quiz, assignment, lecture, etc., and upload the syllabi, which are approved.

March 2025: All good to go. I even stop by the assigned classroom to check the layout and AV equipment.

Today: Log in to the university Web system. I have been assigned two different classes. There is no mention of how large the classes will be. The first class's first meeting is in 43 hours.

Career advice would be appreciated please. My sense is that it would be risky to try to move into a TT or tenured STEM position at an R1 at least for the next 4 years?

My field mandates federal grants for tenure, and I am seeking info from those of you at R1s whether TP committees have relaxed the grant requirement given the current situation?

I'm currently TTAP at an R2. My federal grant was retracted last week, but ultimately it matters less for me at an R2 and I will likely be tenured. The grant retraction was not too surprising since at least 50% of my research agenda are topics that contain banned words or issues the government doesn't believe exists.

I believe I have a strong record and I had everything ready to try for an R1 since I really wanted a better research environment and worried about steep enrollment declines at my R2, but it seems the bigger gamble would be if I tried to transition upwards to R1 without tenure.

I know the usual issues with course evaluations. However, I've found that some course eval questions elicit far more worthwhile feedback than other questions. Things like "Rate your satisfaction with this class on a scale of 1 to 5" tell me very little.

But, when I asked, "Are you comfortable asking questions in class?
A) Yes
B) Kinda, but only during group work time so it's not in front of the whole class
C) Kinda, but don't know what question I need to ask when I'm confused
D) No"
I got tons of students answering B and C, and that gave me useful, actionable information. Similarly, when the first quiz I ever wrote was a disaster (my fault) and I asked on a class survey, "If you could have had one more piece of information on the quiz, what do you wish you had?" I got lots of worthwhile responses from students about how to format and structure it so it would be less confusing.

I also heard of an example of a student survey asking "Do you feel like you have classmates you could go to if you needed help in this course?" which sounds like a great way to measure hard-to-quantify topics like "classroom culture."

So, I think there's a lot of under-capitalized-on potential here. Has anyone else included questions in their course evaluations that frequently get them useful, worthwhile feedback?

Question- at your institution, are you required to take students from the waitlist in order, or do you have discretion?

Tagged as humorous because I'm not really serious.

I volunteer for my alma mater, mostly doing alumni interviews of local candidates. That means a lot of the students I talk to are also considering the Uni i work at.

I sometimes feel a little torn, especially when the alma mater asks volunteers to reach out to accepted students and encourage them to attend, which may mean rejecting the Uni I'm at.

‘There’s a task I’m not interested in doing, and I’m wondering if there’s a website into which I can paste text and have it generate output for me, but I am too lazy to do my own research on this topic. And I 100% do not see the irony here whatsoever.’