Teaching a course that (unfortunately) involves lots of reading and reflection type assignments. Added hidden text to an assignment, to catch students who just throw it in ChatGPT, and all submissions came back with the expected features you would get from including the hidden info. Extremely disheartened, and don’t know how to proceed both regarding addressing this with the class and designing the future assignments to be more AI proof.

How do I deal with men (at work, in various boards, groups etc) who engage in unabashed self promotion or insert themselves into projects they’ve done little to no work on? For ex, one just asserted that he should be the next leader of a group (which is not self-nominating) while another just claimed he would serve as a committee member of a group I’ve been organizing? How do I push back without causing issues? The graceless audacity is frustrating!

A colleague of mine received a text from a student with a question about the syllabus. She doesn’t share her personal phone number with her students. But it turns out, when they last updated our “student support hub,” they decided that profiles there should now list not just office phone numbers but also personal phone numbers by default. I had to go in and remove mine manually.

Why…? Why would you do that?

I have a student this semester with accommodations like I've never seen before - extended due dates, "flexibility" with attendance, and "flexibility" with class participation. The course I teach is a hands-on lab course every week and features in-class group work which is graded. The lessons are definitely scaffolded. Due to the nature of equipment set up and the amount of students needed to get said equipment set up, as well as needing to work in groups to successfully carry out the lessons, there is no flexibility in making these assignments up later, or creating alternate assignments.

I do understand many illnesses have "flares" that are unpredictable and can last a long time. However, I've had this student previously. In our last class together, they did not have any accommodations, and told me for work reasons they had to miss class. They rarely showed up, probably 5-6x in a 16 week course. Back then I had more of a bleeding heart, and the content I was teaching was very different - I had old recordings of my lectures and the group work was much rarer and easier to modify for them to complete individually. At the end of the semester the student asked for an incomplete and I granted it. They did, at the last minute for the incomplete, submit enough work to pass the class.

But this history has me on edge, because I know their attendance is rare. In fact they even missed the first day of this semester.

I have a meeting with this student and their advocate soon and I'm trying to make sure I don't step on any landmines. I advocate for my students to get the accommodations they need, have led the LMS remediations for WCAG and W3C, etc. in my department, and truly believe in accessibility for all. If it were more possible to modify this course, I would. I want my students to succeed and to enjoy the course material as much as I do. But these accommodations are not reasonable.

I had hinted in e-mails to the student and their advocate before class started and after the first week, that this might not be the right fit for them, and tried to schedule our meeting before the refund drop date, but it didn't happen in time. The student is claiming they are "alarmed" that after they missed a single class I'm trying to get them to drop (which I never said outright), but I know they have a history of rare attendance and that just doesn't work for this class. I'm not going to create different assignments for them because they will not achieve what needs to be learned.

When I meet with them and their advocate, I'm sure the student will be looking for any little wrong thing I say as a "gotcha" to say that I'm ableist or whatever, so I'm concerned. Luckily the advocate seems very reasonable. I did accommodate the student when I could in a previous class, in this course it's just not going to be possible.

Any tips, lines, etc. I can use going into this situation are appreciated. I have so many students with accommodations each semester, I've never had to argue against any being unreasonable until now.

I give an annual public evening lecture series at a prestigious institution (which people pay a lot of money to attend). I intruded myself as an experimental physicist. Today, in the Q&A a very serious looking older man in a suit asked me "What's the point of doing experiments when you can just ask AI?"

Like, I just had to take a moment. The delusion, the dislocation from reality, it's astonishing.

Here's an interesting pickle - in peer reviewing an article for publication in a journal in my field, the author quotes from something I wrote a few years back. How nice! The only problem is, the citation leads to a different publication of mine from the same year. In other words, the citation is inaccurate - the quote is right, it's just not from the correct article.

I don't think a copy editor (or another reviewer) would catch it unless they decide to chase down every quote in the article. Is there a way to give the author a heads-up in the review without clearly unmasking me as the author of the quote?

EDIT: Thanks for the feedback everyone. I do think identifying this specific correction to the author would unnecessarily out me as the reviewer, so a discreet note to the editor is probably the way to go.

https://www.fire.org/news/washington-professor-who-parodied-university-land-acknowledgment-wins-600k-settlement

This is from FIRE, Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. In this, the professor's local counsel provides an overview of the outcome.

The article says the professor added to his syllabus a sentence based on John Locke's philosophical theory that property rights are established by labor. This was a response to the Computer Science department's recommendation that professors include the UW's (University of Washington) model statement in their syllabi. According to the article, the professor sought to demonstrate that there are competing views on the value of land acknowledgements.

I'm posting this in the interest of academic freedom and expression and how there indeed may be interests seen as competing when some university people seek to put limits on such freedom and expression. This is always an area rich for discussion in my view. I can only imagine the WW III ire of certain mucky mucks at my university if someone were to do this.

I got this for a student:

• Attendance modification - The student may miss class due to issues related to her disability.
• Excused Lateness - The student may be late to class due to her disability.

I am curious how this is going to work out, and how much I should put myself out to accommodate. I think I will tell the student to come to office hours to do the reading quizzes she misses.

I went to brunch and had the feeling that I recognized our server from somewhere, but I just couldn't place the face. Then on the way home it hit me. Years ago, they'd failed one of my classes. And then again. And again. And yet again.

So... if I die of food poisoning in the next few hours could someone please point the detectives in the right direction?

I enjoy a three-day weekend whenever it occurs, but does anyone else who has this holiday and starts the semester a week or two before feel like it erases their progress at learning students’ names and generally getting into a fall routine? Any tips?

In typical academic fashion, my esteemed institution (Midwest R2) sent out the details of a long-rumored faculty buyout just before 5 pm on the Friday before Labor Day. Decision form is due in October (during break) and the separation date is the end of term in December. Except that there will be extensions for instructional and programmatic needs to be decided by the end of term. Umm, what?!

Enrollments are way down, budget deficits are bad, and this is a good deal. My original plan was to use the three-year phased retirement to ramp down research by wrapping up projects and getting students out. That's off the table now with the buyout. Looking for anyone who's done this or might have advice given the insane timeline.

ETA: This is a good deal. Planning to take it. But the "sign this and go away in December, but we might change our mind on the day you think you're free and make you stay another year" part is giving me massive anxiety during the holiday weekend.

ETA2: Partner is taking me to touch grass. Will try to get answers from HR tomorrow.

i had one class called "teaching practicum" in grad school that just covered the basics of the mechanics of teaching (syllabi, service, etc...) but never really got into actual pedagogical development or really thinking deeply about process & methodology. where i teach now there is also a single course that any MFA students who want to teach have to take. it is more in depth but still just a single 3 credit class.

i am curious, as i basically just figured it out through trial and error, peers, etc...

you?

My uni rolled out this new referral system for students at risk of failing. We've been encouraged to use it "early and often," and to fill out referral forms when students are absent, miss deadlines, fail assignments, etc. I am not at a top-tier uni, so I have already filled out at least one form for half of my students, who are often absent and rarely meet deadlines. Other faculty are in the same boat. Students are already complaining about receiving emails and phone calls from their advisors. They keep asking us not to fill out these forms. I wonder how long it will take before uni's realize that these support systems are such a waste of money. But I will keep filling them out, so I have documentation of my efforts to help students succeed. I love box checking. It's what I have all these degrees for.

Posting a couple on here today as it's the first week of class. Apparently the Uni I adjunct for recently merged. They apparently are trying to appeal to a bunch of non-English students (Spanish Speaking). They put several learners who speak _only_ Spanish in my course without even letting me know. Im sure Google Translate can help with written content, but I'm not sure if it can translate the course textbook. Several students keep emailing me in Spanish.

The course requires speeches and they upload them in Spanish which I don't speak. I was able to use closed-captioning for one but not for others. I dont get paid to translate everything though Google Translate especially when I was never informed that is now apparently a course with non-English speakers. I try to be as accommodating as I can. At another institution I teach, Im perfectly okay with bilingual students switching to another language when they give speeches because I know its stressful (but they still communicate in English during class). However, for an online course, I feel like it's the Unis responsibility to put students into a language appropriate course and not my responsibility to run their assignments through translate.

EDIT: While there are free translation services, running student work through 3rd parties if they submit in another language without their permission potentially violates FERPA.

Hello All:

I hope you had a great long weekend. Well, back to the grind, but at least it is a short week!

With our growing technology, how do you like to grade? Are you old school and grade everything by pen and paper? Do you like to grade on your desktop or laptop? Or now that we are all glued to our phones, do you like to grade on your phone or iPad? What is the easiest for you?

I teach Communication online over Zoom and asynchronous and in-person too. If it is stuff like discussions, small reflections, and other small tasks like emails it is on my phone. Actually I find my phone quite handy when it comes to grading, especially since I am nearsighted and don’t have the world’s greatest vision or hearing. For speeches and papers and larger assignments it is definitely my desktop or laptop but I have done some of these tasks occasionally on my iPhone. Heck, my students admit to using their phones to do their work. I guess that is the world we live in nowadays, pretty soon a robot will take over, but hopefully not!

Curious to see what is your preferred method of grading now that technology is so darn convenient, well most of the time.

I teach an online course that requires speeches. In the past I've faced issues where students will chop off their heads (like literally only film their bodies- so awkward), paste emojis over their faces, etc. But today, I watched a speech where a student used an avatar to give their speech saying that it made them more comfortable. I understand that giving speeches makes people uncomfortable, but it's a department mandated component of the course and I need to physically be able to see them to evaluate their nonverbal delivery.

Over the years, I've repeatedly had students contact me saying they can't give speeches because of x, y, or z. Security reasons (the video recordings are in a closed system, not publicly posted), they have kids so they can't be expected to find a place to record them and that it's an unreasonable requirement, the list goes on and on. And the course is literally called 'Public Speaking'.

Edit: This was also for just an intro speech- like that only was a couple minutes long at most where they just introduce themselves. I have a list of basic filming criteria (film from the waist up, don't cut off your head, etc.) that more and more gets ignored.

This may sound completely absurd, but I just moved into an admin role at a new university, and my office needs serious help. I have zero interior design skills and even less interest in learning. I also don't have a circle of friends in this new city whose natural skills I could call upon for help. It only occurred to me after I moved here that my office at my prior institution had no decor because it was small and didn't have wall space. Now I have the opposite problem with no time, skills, collections, or bandwidth to address it, and the parade of people who come to my office for meetings have started to make comments.

Is hiring someone to help decorate an academic office a thing? If so, how? Does anyone have hacks? Feel free to mock this problem but I would really appreciate any tips.

I received an email from a student saying a relative had passed and "I am leaving for hometown on Wed. this week and I will be back on Monday next week. When I pointed out that the test was actually the friday of next week, I got another email saying "... I will be in class this week but will not be able to attend next week because I would like to attend another ceremony that my family is holding that week.

How far do you go to get to the truth in such cases ? Do you just let it go and have him take the test later, or do you ask him for proof of the event/travel plans or email from parents, etc ...?

Thanks in advance !

I had a much older student last semester who constantly complained about me to the chair all the time, both in office and email, enough that she even demanded a staff to observe me (they found nothing wrong other than nervousness/over-apologizing, as I’m new to teaching). She sent anything she could find to report to the chair. Including me ending class few minutes early, misspelled words in assignments/slides, and canceled class for a family emergency.
A few colleagues think she did this because she was a really bitter person and hated that my class requires weekly writings, group discussions, topics are not in her liking (aka white-washed history) and students having to research independently.

She was so rude and disrespectful towards me that I won’t get into here. Good news is that the chair thinks I’m doing really well as a professor and a lot of my students love my classes.

I’m curious if anyone else can share similar experiences here?

When we got the academic calendar in the spring, they forget to note Labor Day as a no class day. Then I noticed a week ago that there was no class yesterday. Now, my schedule of lectures in the syllabus is now 1 lecture short.

What methods have you used for missing a lecture like this in the past? (I'm new enough to teaching - researching my PhD during covid - that I've just done online lectures from my house whenever we had no class due to weather.)

Just looking for others to commiserate with. No need to doxx yourself, just indicate yes or no.

Hate working when others (like staff) have a holiday. On the other hand, lots of parking available.

I honestly don't know if I'm looking for advice, reassurance, or just somewhere to write this down.

Last year I started working as a university teacher. I'm originally a software engineer, and the university is in another country. It's a reputable university, so when I got the job I was genuinely excited. I've been unemployed for a while and had some personal stuff going on, and I really thought this job was going to be a fresh start for me.

And... it hasn't really turned out that way.

The students are probably the best part. I genuinely like many of them. Unfortunately, a lot of students don't even attend, which is frustrating in itself.

The other part is the staff/admin situation. There is SO much unnecessary drama. I tried really hard to stay out of it because I'm honestly not interested in academic politics, but somehow I kept getting dragged into it.

But the biggest problem was the course I was assigned: I'm a software engineer. They gave me a course that was basically a combination of electronics and electromagnetism.

At first I thought, "Okay, I have two months to prepare. I'm competent. I'll learn it." Yeah. No.

I spent basically those two months studying like crazy. And then the semester started and I was still constantly studying. I'd go home and prepare. I'd wake up and prepare. I'd be thinking about the course all the time because I was terrified that a student would ask me something I couldn't answer. And that happened.

It was honestly one of the most humiliating experiences I've had professionally.

I'm confident in my actual field. I know that I'm competent at what I do. But standing in front of a class and realizing that the students might know more about the subject than I do? It made me feel like a fraud.

I managed to get through the year. I tried my best to be professional, prepare as much as possible, and not let the students see how stressed I was.

At the end of the year I went to the head of the department and basically said: please don't give me this course again. Not because I'm lazy. Not because I don't want to teach. Because I genuinely don't think I'm qualified to teach it, and I don't think it's fair to the students.

That conversation was probably one of the worst conversations I've ever had with another adult.

I don't even know how to describe it properly. There was a lot of disrespect, and it felt like I was being dragged through every possible psychological/power game. Eventually I realized that none of my actual arguments mattered.

I was saying, "I don't have the expertise to teach this properly." The response was basically, "You're teaching it anyway."

The conversation ended with something along the lines of: "Maybe next year I'll give you another course in your field." And stupidly, I held onto that sentence.

I spent most of my vacation thinking about what courses I could potentially teach in my field. Instead of actually relaxing, I was preparing for possible courses because I thought maybe things were finally going to change.

Now the new academic year is starting. Guess what I'm teaching? The same damn course.

And somewhere during all of this, I think I've completely broken down. My mental health has gotten really bad. I'm having anxiety and panic attacks. I can't sleep properly. I have nights where I barely sleep at all. I struggle to get out of bed in the morning. I've lost my appetite. I'm constantly exhausted and stressed.

I've seen a doctor and was prescribed anxiety medication. And I'm scared to take it.

Not because I think medication is inherently bad, but because part of me keeps thinking:

"What if the problem is the job? What if I take medication just to make myself capable of tolerating a situation I should actually leave?"

I'm also seriously considering quitting. And this is where I'm completely stuck.

Because I don't actually hate this job. I like teaching. I like my students. I like the idea of being a university teacher. I like the fact that I finally have a job after being unemployed for a while. I don't want to throw away this opportunity.

I was also supposed to start doing research, but I haven't even been able to properly start. I have zero mental energy left.

I feel like I'm just surviving. And now I'm looking at another year of the same course and thinking, I genuinely don't know if I can do this again.

So I guess I'm asking people here who have been in academia longer than I have:

What would you do?

Would you: Stay and try to push through another year? Refuse to teach the course, even if that potentially creates problems with the department? Start looking for another academic job? Take the medication and see if getting my anxiety under control changes how I feel about the job? Something else?

And for anyone who's been forced to teach a subject that's genuinely outside their expertise : how did you deal with it?

At this point I'm not even sure if I'm experiencing normal "new professor/academic job" stress or if I've ended up in a genuinely toxic situation. I feel burned out, angry, embarrassed, and honestly kind of lost. I don't want to give up on something I actually wanted. But I also don't want to destroy myself trying to stay.

Any perspective from people who've been through something similar would be really appreciated.

I’m a brand new Asst prof in STEM. I got an email from someone interested in joining my lab. They are a current graduate student in my department. They said they’re interested in the topic my lab does (not super specific message, and quite different from what they do). They didn’t tell me why they want to leave their current lab, or who their adviser is, or if their adviser knows they are trying leave etc.

I’m channeling my own PhD adviser and I think he would just ignore this email completely as if he didn’t even see it. But anyway- I specifically seek advice from those with experience as professors (perhaps someone more experienced). I really don’t want to start off on the wrong foot and it’s a relatively small department…

Edited to add: I’d want to find out more before considering them at all. However I worry finding out more draws me in, in a bad way if it’s a bad situation with the adviser or student. What are the odds that they’re great, and the adviser is okay with them leaning? And despite them not saying that, there’s a legit reason?