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Roxie
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Roxie
Post Number: 691
Registered: 06-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, February 21, 2006 - 05:17 pm: | 
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Informal E-Mails Have Professors Pondering Etiquette
By JONATHAN D. GLATER, The New York Times
The New York TimesPomona College Assistant Professor Meg Worley tells students to say thank you after receiving a professor's response.
(Feb. 21) - One student skipped class and then sent the professor an e-mail message asking for copies of her teaching notes. Another did not like her grade, and wrote a petulant message to the professor. Another explained that she was late for a Monday class because she was recovering from drinking too much at a wild weekend party.
Jennifer Schultens, an associate professor of mathematics at the University of California, Davis, received this e-mail message last September from a student in her calculus course: "Should I buy a binder or a subject notebook? Since I'm a freshman, I'm not sure how to shop for school supplies. Would you let me know your recommendations? Thank you!"
At colleges and universities nationwide, e-mail has made professors much more approachable. But many say it has made them too accessible, erasing boundaries that traditionally kept students at a healthy distance.
These days, they say, students seem to view them as available around the clock, sending a steady stream of e-mail messages — from 10 a week to 10 after every class — that are too informal or downright inappropriate.
"The tone that they would take in e-mail was pretty astounding," said Michael J. Kessler, an assistant dean and a lecturer in theology at Georgetown University. " 'I need to know this and you need to tell me right now,' with a familiarity that can sometimes border on imperative."
He added: "It's a real fine balance to accommodate what they need and at the same time maintain a level of legitimacy as an instructor and someone who is institutionally authorized to make demands on them, and not the other way round."
While once professors may have expected deference, their expertise seems to have become just another service that students, as consumers, are buying. So students may have no fear of giving offense, imposing on the professor's time or even of asking a question that may reflect badly on their own judgment.
For junior faculty members, the barrage of e-mail has brought new tension into their work lives, some say, as they struggle with how to respond. Their tenure prospects, they realize, may rest in part on student evaluations of their accessibility.
The stakes are different for professors today than they were even a decade ago, said Patricia Ewick, chairwoman of the sociology department at Clark University in Massachusetts, explaining that "students are constantly asked to fill out evaluations of individual faculty." Students also frequently post their own evaluations on Web sites like rateyourprofessor.com and describe their impressions of their professors on blogs.
Last fall, undergraduate students at Syracuse University set up a group in Facebook.com, an online network for students, and dedicated it to maligning one particular instructor. The students were reprimanded.
Professor Ewick said 10 students in one class e-mailed her drafts of their papers days before they were due, seeking comments. "It's all different levels of presumption," she said. "One is that I'll be able to drop everything and read 250 pages two days before I'm going to get 50 of these."
Kathleen E. Jenkins, a sociology professor at the College of William and Mary in Virginia, said she had even received e-mail requests from students who missed class and wanted copies of her teaching notes.
Alexandra Lahav, an associate professor of law at the University of Connecticut, said she felt pressured by the e-mail messages. "I feel sort of responsible, as if I ought to be on call all the time," she said.
Many professors said they were often uncertain how to react. Professor Schultens, who was asked about buying the notebook, said she debated whether to tell the student that this was not a query that should be directed to her, but worried that "such a message could be pretty scary."
"I decided not to respond at all," she said.
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My comment:
Isn't this one of the signs of the apocalypse? |
Serenasailor
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Serenasailor
Post Number: 310
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, February 21, 2006 - 09:42 pm: |
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I heard that. Man these damn books are so expensive. And my professor wants me to buy millions of books. |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 4369
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 22, 2006 - 06:57 am: |
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If I were a professor who was enduring the kinds of problems stated within Glater's article, I would post in ALL of my classes what kinds of issues I will and will NOT address via email. And if my students violated my email etiquette, I'd charge their offenses again their grade. |
Yvettep
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 887
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 22, 2006 - 08:52 am: |
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Many profs are doing just that, ABM. The scarier thing is that these days lots of undergrads' parents are now emailing profs to complain on behalf of their kids. (These parents are called "helicopter parents" because of how they "hover" around their children even after they leave for college.)
The ironic thing is that a more effective way to form a relationship w/your prof is to just attend the danged office hours!!! I've heard profs say they get 100s of emails a day--but sit alone in their office during office hours and their phone only rings a few times a week! |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 4374
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 22, 2006 - 01:40 pm: |
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Yvette,
Were I a professor, I'd tell these "helicopter parents" that it is NOT my job to entertain their petty, selfish squabbling. And I'd tell them it's about time for their children to start handling their OWN business.
So fuhk off!!! |
Doberman23
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Doberman23
Post Number: 177
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 22, 2006 - 02:16 pm: |
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if i where a student all over again, i'd be emailing my profs everyday to get my money worths out of tuition. they increase it every year and change the prereqs every other year so the students have to stay in school longer. |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 4379
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 22, 2006 - 02:41 pm: |
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Dobes,
How the hell can a professor have the time and focus to teach you a dayam thing if he/she is fielding 100's of emails daily? |
Doberman23
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Doberman23
Post Number: 178
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 22, 2006 - 02:52 pm: |
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if there anything like emu's profs, then they weren't really teaching us shiznit in the first place. u of m is just as sucky because all they had where ga's who didn't know anything more than the students... u know what, i think i'm gonna go email some of those turds just for the hell of it right now. |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 1891
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 22, 2006 - 03:34 pm: |
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I hate college professors. |
Black_wisdom_
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Black_wisdom_
Post Number: 108
Registered: 02-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 22, 2006 - 03:39 pm: |
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Some of those emails do sound quite stupid ("should I buy a notebook"?!!!) and were probably more of a way to suck up and possibly set up a mentoring relationship with the professor. Or at least that's what it sounds like to me. The professors should give those types of emails a break; they're just trying to kiss a little ass. As for some of the others; it's kind of crazy to ask a professor for notes; most times, people just ask other students. That's pretty weird. Ditto for the helicopter parents, although that seems more a manifestation of the selfish, selfish baby boomer generation which thinks its kids are too good to wipe their own asses (except for my mom, just the opposite in fact, still selfish though). |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 4396
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, February 23, 2006 - 07:58 am: |
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Maybe the college professors should create their own websites that include a link a page for FADQ's - Frequency Asked Dumba$$ Questions. |
Roxie
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Roxie
Post Number: 697
Registered: 06-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, February 23, 2006 - 08:17 am: |
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ABm,
Your kind is dying FAST.
Comm. College has way less work than a state college and these freshman still complain.
College is becoming "high school: part 2". |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 4401
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, February 23, 2006 - 10:21 am: |
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Roxie: "ABm, Your kind is dying FAST."
Thanks for making me feel good, Rox. I hope you're not still working that Suicide Hotline gig. |
Yvettep
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 894
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, February 23, 2006 - 10:48 am: |
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LOL, ABM!
Hey, maybe things will be different by the time our daughters go off to college...
(But, I fear Roxie is correct.) |
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