Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Faculty as Personal Assistants

This is crunch time for students and faculty. For students, it is time to hand in papers and start preparing for exams. For faculty, this is GRADING time – grading, grading and more grading. (I have 95 papers which I got yesterday and 95 exams coming my way). On top of that, it is time to meet with panicking students who have just realized that their poor work throughout the semester may actually impact their final grade – surprise!!!

Teaching at a very small college exacerbates these problems. Today’s students are used to having instant access to faculty members and this is especially true when the school itself encourages this behavior and demands that faculty make themselves available to the students at all times. I thought I would share an example of the demands that students can make on their teachers under these circumstances. Here is an email I received from a student regarding his final paper:

Prof. Bagchi,
Here is my paper that is due today. I am sorry that I cannot have it printed and given to you, but I do not have a printer, nor does anybody on my hall have one. You have to format it because I do not have microsoft word anymore, so the font has to be changed and spell check needs to be performed. Thanks.

I think it was the need to perform spell check part that put this email over the top. To say nothing of the fact that this school has a large number of computer labs where you can print your paper.

Any thoughts? How would you respond to this student?

2 comments:

Betty said...

Since you're not staying there, send him an email to tell him to go to the computer lab and format it and spellcheck it himself. It's not your job. That is total laziness. If he won't do it, then his grade should be lowered.

WASPy Girl said...

I would simply say, "Honestly?"

I'm about at the end of the rope with some of my students. Less than 2 weeks--that's what keeps me going.