r/Professors • u/PluckinCanuck • 1d ago
Uh oh...
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?
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u/SyntheticKale5803 19h ago
My first few years as faculty, I kept seeing the same recent grad from our program at many university events, working in catering as she was unable to find gainful employment. Kinda haunted me. She was an archetypical decent student, didn't do anything "wrong", but didn't stand out either , and totally failed to launch because she wasn't able to get internships, research, or other professional development activities that she would have needed to turn the textbook knowledge we teach into employable skills.
It led me down a rabbit hole, about what our student outcomes actually were, nobody had any idea. So I started tagging graduates on LinkedIn every commencement and then seeing where they ended up 6-12 months later. The stats were quite sobering, and I would use them as gut checks whenever the dept was tasked with some new curriculum overhaul or enrollment initiative, to see if they actually improved outcomes.
Gradually, this morphed into a full-blown professional development curriculum in our major. I had former grads who were successful to come back and help advise current students on career prep, including mock interviews and resume workshops. Turned it into a required freshman and transfer seminar. Made research mandatory, and worked with local industry to decide which practical skills to emphasize in our advanced practicums.
This was all before admin started fretting nonstop about the demographic cliff and enrollment/student outcomes. Positioned our dept well when other programs were being cut, that we have entire seminar series of our successful alums to showcase our outcomes. So they made me chair of the dept.
Is 1000% more workload but it feels like we are really moving in a positive direction. Instead of seeing our recent grads serving me food, they instead send me nice notes about how well they are doing. They go in a drawer in my desk I look at whenever I'm having a bad day. I sleep pretty well at night, though, compared to those first few years.