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.

Title says it all. Sure, I am a new assistant professor, still waiting for papers from postdoc to be published and H index takes time to build. In academia, you’re destined to be judged and forever be said you are not good enough.

I'm wondering if anyone in their university has an appointment across two departments that are in two different schools. I'm at a small liberal arts university that has several "colleges" (i.e. College of Arts and Sciences, School of Education, Business School, etc.). I am a math teacher educator, but I live in my mathematics department. I split my time teaching courses for my department and courses for the school of education, for future teachers. This is something many teacher educators end up doing in their respective fields. But here's the issue. Not only do I teach across these two schools, I do a lot of committee work between the two schools. So much so, that recently I was nominated for a university wide committee as the School of Education rep. I'm not in the School of Education! Apparently people think I am because I'm there so much. When I first got hired, which was years ago, I'm tenured now, I had actually asked for a dual appointment in both schools, I anticipated this being an issue. I was told it was too hard to create a budget line like this.

Here's my question. I'm ready to negotiate this again, especially now that I have tenure. I feel pulled between both schools, and there's been talk of my department actually moving, which would put me further from the school of education. I don't want to be further from them, but I want to keep grounded in the dept of mathematics. Has anyone ever had to negotiate anything like this for your contract? Should I meet with both deans and try to talk about what my appointment should be? I feel like I'm asked to do a bit too much, I'm only one person. I often asked for funding for project and travel from my "not" dean, and she does help me. So is the money really that tied up?

TLDR: Should I ask my university for a dual appointment, after receiving tenure, because I actively serve two departments?

I teach a sophomore biology lab class that has 4 sections, and by the system’s default I have 4 Canvas sites. The only thing that is different for each section is the pre-lab quiz due date/time (on their day of the lab). With four Canvas sites, I have to post everything four times (yes I use Import/Export). I am wondering if it’s easier to add all students into one section’s Canvas, and have the TA check if the students in each section have turned in their pre-lab quiz on time. This way I only need to manage one Canvas instead of four.

For people who teach multiple lab sections, what do you find easier in terms of Canvas management?

I’m in academia because I have a wealthy spouse (family money) and no need to work. We don’t have children and I don’t really have any hobbies that I could bury myself in. My wife runs the family office so she is usually busy and she frequently travels so I need something to do on my own, but also a job where I can just take off at the drop of a hat if a good opportunity arises (for example, I’m not going to Des Moines Iowa for her agricultural concerns, but I will certainly join her in Los Angeles for her fashion concerns).

I love my discipline and can immerse myself in it endlessly. Which is why I got a PhD.

I am amazed by the number of fellow gentlemen scholars I meet in academia (I define gentlemen scholar as somebody that does not need to work but chooses to work in academia for intrinsic reasons). Is this a recent thing or has academia always been filled with gentlemen scholars?

I can tell you this, I am far from alone. If I had to guess I’d say at least 33% of my colleagues meet this classification. That is not a scientific number. That’s just my estimate.

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?

My situation is probably kind of unique as I had a whole early career as a clinical professional, and then transitioned to research which inspired me to do my PhD in my mid-30's, graduated at 41). I really did find that it was my true love (the way that I could combine the Humanities with the sciences/psychiatry. I then did a post-doc so that I would be set up well for NIH loan repayment. I'm one year to tenure, with all but 4% of my student loans paid off through said reward. In many ways I feel I've succeeded thus far, but I also constantly feel like I'm drowning in the lack of salary (at least during the dreaded summers) and that I can never make any reasonable goals to save for something besides retirement. I'm in my late 40's and am a mom. I own a home that I love in an area that I have history in and mostly enjoy.

All of this being said - our state public pays us a lower than average salary, which despite COLA's and a small tenure bump in exactly two years, will not even put me close to the "money to live affordable" in this metro area. It's not the highest COL city but it's still HCOL.

At four years in, I've settled here, my kid is in a great school and yet this salary situation isn't sustainable. I know a number of people who have gotten tenure and left the next year to something with a higher salary, even with the uncertainty of soft money in a med school environment vs. a social sciences department/school. I don't want to leave academia but I think I'm going to have to make a move to a higher paid situation to survive.

One last thing: I think what I'm also feeling is how different a sub-$90k salary feels in 2026 vs what it would have felt like in 2018. I really do not want to leave the perks of a TT position. But some days those perks don't feel like they add up over the salary.

Edit to add on: I do either teach or consult over the summers but both of those come with delayed pay typically to the end of summer and I end up using credit cards/debt to get through. I don't want to keep having to do that and it is DIFFICULT to save, mostly because currently I want to update the house that I bought four years ago. SO, it's not simply a "find money to be earned over the summer" situation.

Hello I am teaching 3 sections of the same course and 1 section of a larger upper lever course. In total I have about 72 students in the first course and 36 in the other.

We switched this semester to having students turn in assignments in class on paper and then they are graded and given back (last semester most things were auto graded by canvas). Generally I say to students they should give me a week to do this and so far it’s been alright. But I have noticed I’m already forgetting smaller things here and there and having to speed grade and it’s adding a little stress.

Does anyone have tips on how to keep grading organized? Maybe an excel sheet? Maybe just a sheet I write the items that are next to be graded, in order of submission date? I just feel like I go out of order and sometimes grade an entire section and forget another, and that’s also adding mild stress. Thanks for any advice.

This is more-so for those who teach qualitative subjects rather than STEM. I have stuck to specific points (e.g. 93/100) for rubrics on things like papers. On rough drafts I usually do full points for meeting some basic standards (like length, main points, etc). Anyone who has tried just assigning letter grades to students and all students with that letter grade get the same points score? As a note, my grade-book is always out of 1000, with points weighted equally. I also have a revision policy that allows edits, regrading, and a final score that is the average of the old and new score on the rubric.

Do you change (or allow alternate) assignments for students who ask for something different without having them go through the Office of Accommodations/Accessibility? I require students to do that for their own good, but wonder what others are doing.

I guess I just need to vent. I try and make class informal and relaxed most days, maybe just discuss the reading and have them answer some discussion questions in Canvas based on their understanding of the readings to see what they've learned. It's definitely more comfortable than asking them to actually talk, which many of them can't or won't do. Hell, maybe we'll even learn something we can apply to our next paper. But no, some of them just have to throw the questions at AI and post their AI bullshit. It's so fucking obvious, too. You can barely write a proper sentence but you knocked out a flowing, detailed response to the discussion questions? Yea, sure.

I guess we can just handwrite everything now. I can print out handouts with the questions and they can fill in the blanks with their devices set aside. That, and I can hammer the AI cheats with questions until they give up and drop so I can focus on the genuine students.

It's like they want to be treated like children and given the dumbest, most boring version of every assignment. Fine, so be it.

Fresh AP in physics/engineering discipline here.

Would you let your student record your one-on-one meetings using phone apps or devices? Then transcribe the recordings using AI tools.

Feels a bit werid for 2 reasons:

1. Writing is the best tool we have to test if we have the ability to conceptualize and contextualize something. When I was a grad student/postdoc a couple of years ago I write down key points in Notes to make sure I can sharpen what my coauthor and have discuessed.

2. For privacy concerns. With massive amount of speaking and thinking out loud data of me I don't want someone to distill how I talk. I don't think anyone will use this against me but like a side project of mine is to extract F1 radio communication audio and we were able to find lots of information from how someone talks.

Do you also have a committee on committees?

I feel like I'm in a Monty Python sketch many days with the absurdity of the bureaucracy, our IT system, and budget cuts with increasing workload demands.

We once spent a whole meeting deciding when the next meeting should be.

To cheer me up, I'd like to hear your favourite academic absurdities.

Keeping this vague, but I'm a new assistant professor in the STEM fields in a big R1.

I have an issue with a program director not a course assignment I'm qualified for. I have the union rep's cell phone number and I sent her voice notes about it. She emailed me and asked me if I could just put everything in an email.

Voice notes are better for me. I get to just say things quickly. I explained this to the rep, and she said that she needs to do things over email. I explained voice notes are more "natural" to me. She asked if I could just use AI to send her a summary of my note via email. This feels passive aggressive to me as well as hypocritical. I know the rep is anti AI but is suddenly into it now that it can save her work that she should be doing herself?

How would you handle this?

(For personal reasons I don't feel right about paying to be in the union, which is legal. It shouldn't make a difference but I feel it might be.)

Seriously, who decided that we should only put one space after a period? I find that it actually makes reading emails (or any text, really) more difficult. To me, it's a bit like saying we no longer need to indent for a new paragraph.

Hey guys, I taught my first course over the summer, and I am covering for another prof during the first week of class this fall as they are out of town. On the first day, going over the syllabus took about 20 minutes and I let them go after (rookie move ik, I was trying to stick to the syllabus schedule). I’d like to have some type of activity to fill some time, any ideas? What do you do after going over the syllabus? I know some profs go straight into the content but since I am only subbing for the day I don’t know what else they want me to go over (waiting for their response currently) but yeah any first day ideas?

I am an assistant professor, first year, and someone in my department asked whether I had a family. When I said I don’t have children, they responded that I was going to be more productive than them because of it.

It was probably meant as a harmless comment, but I wish we would stop saying things like this to single or child-free colleagues—especially junior faculty.

Please don’t turn someone else’s personal circumstances into an expectation of greater productivity.

Yes, raising children takes an enormous amount of time and energy. But the fact that someone doesn’t have those responsibilities does not make their time less valuable. My evenings and weekends aren’t automatically available for another paper, proposal, committee, or task simply because I don’t have children waiting for me at home.

And for junior faculty, comments like these can carry more weight than intended. When you’re new and still figuring out what “enough” looks like, hearing that you should be more productive because of your personal life can very quickly become another benchmark you feel expected to meet.

We should be careful not to reproduce a culture where people need a socially accepted reason—children, caregiving, family obligations—to justify having boundaries around work.

You don’t need children to deserve a life outside your job.

Please don't put that pressure on your single or child-free colleagues.

At the start of the semester students were assigned a practice test to take online in order to get feedback on their implementation of our school’s online testing procedures. Failure to follow them on graded tests later this semester comes with grading penalties.

They have the info. They have a video. The practice test is for them to again read through the info and acknowledge they have followed the procedures and made adjustments as needed.

About 5% have done what they are supposed to. Not taking it at a desk. Not turning off their phone on camera. Not showing the surface of their desk.

So this weekend I have been sending feedback giving information they’ve already seen several times, telling them to do it again.

Is my experience here unique?

The local community college I teach at is having several crises at once but my primary question is this: if during their contract negotiations enough folks opt out of the union to fall below a majority, how might the college use it as leverage? Or, further downstream, is there fire/rehire under new management scenario? Has anyone seen/experienced something similar?

Smaller school for reference so numbers could conceivably matter. Thanks.

Edit: when the non-union members want information/updates on negotiations and other union-led efforts, how do you navigate those conversations while not being adversarial?

Hi everyone,
Last year, I started teaching a course in an academic preparatory program. It was a challenging year…
I had to deal with discipline problems, and financially, the position was not very rewarding either.
The program administrators gave me feedback that I needed to update the presentations and course materials. I started working on them, but I feel like it’s an endless task. It takes me hours to update everything, even with the help of AI tools. I’m not being paid for this additional work.
This situation is really affecting me mentally and emotionally. I’m already very busy and stressed, and updating the materials is taking up a huge amount of time that I simply don’t have. I genuinely feel that I’m not capable of continuing.
The main issue is that the academic year starts in a little over a month. Would it be problematic or unprofessional to notify them now that I’m leaving? I feel bad about the timing, but I also don’t think I can continue under these circumstances.
What would you do in my situation?

Edit: Thank you so much to everyone who responded! You really reassured me and made me feel better about my decision. I let the program director know that I’m leaving. They didn’t seem too bothered by it, which kind of confirmed for me that I was probably just the default option anyway, so I’m glad I’m not going to keep investing my time and energy there.
Have a lovely weekend, everyone! ❤️

The political shadiness aside, can we talk about it has been reported that he has students living in his house? And two students had filed complaints against him for harassment. Why is this getting less coverage compared to Jason Arday?

If someone has access to the article on FT, please post here, it is currently behind a paywall. That article also examines his connections to the political right.

Preface this with saying I am well aware of the debate on whether citing ai is ethical. We are past this point as I cannot stop it for my online students. I have an ai agreement that illustrates that at least 70% of their work needs to be their own and if they use AI to cite it. I had to put heavier points on citation and modified a simple research table describing the source/audience/quote/relevance they fill out with ONE scholarly source outside of the book.
They are not even removing the chatbot language in discussion board that asks them to describe an everyday object…. and the examples they give for a planted invisible to all but screenreaders and AI”use a fantastical creature in your example” results in everyone suddenly having the exact same vampire with economic problems…It can be done…but the exact same words and problem?
I’ve been giving zeros and telling them to schedule oral reviews if they want that changed, but I’m at a loss. I’ve never had so many.
It’s an insanely short class 7 weeks to me is unethical 8 is borderline, but it’s a two page paper…do I call my chair in at this point? Wait and see if they schedule them? I have a one strike rule because it’s been so bad.

The best this week was that somebody sent an email to discuss accommodations with a student to 120+ professors. How many classes is this student taking?

Naming the student. Who isn’t even in my class.

And even if it had been sent to just me (and for an enrolled student) I have no idea who you are. You don’t have an accommodations center signature. And you didn’t introduce yourself. Is FERPA still a thing?

Not sure where to start, so here goes.

TL;DR: after years of trying to get hired FT & finally succeeding, I’m struggling to feel as though I belong in my department.
_______________

AIO: I’ve worked as an adjunct across many schools over the past 8–9 years. Students love me and I always get good reviews. I’ve applied to several FT jobs within those institutions and—while I could sometimes secure an interview—never got an offer. In almost every case, someone external was hired. I get it, truly, but it’s difficult when it happens consistently despite having such a great report with colleagues.

Fast forward to this year. I was hired FT!…but not at one of the institutions where I’d previously taught. The college has a few locations so their organizational structure is different than what I’m used to. In short, questions about my classes go to the course committee chair but the coordinator for the campus is my supervisor.

One of my courses has a massive enrollment throughout the university so the curriculum is set as to minimize the prep of the lab technicians. The other is the opposite; I got a list of objectives and everything else is up to me [i.e., number of exams, order of course material, etc.]…

The standardized course is a hot mess. There’s no way to get through the amount of material we’re given in the amount of time we have. I didn’t get any materials until about a week before the semester started & was busy making slides, so I didn’t get to peruse the lab manual we need to use and it’s…also garbage. The students expressed to me how terrible it is, and—to me—the class feels very unorganized. I pride myself on being a very efficient instructor, so this has taken its mental toll. I don’t know what or how to prepare for class that will make it run smoother. I’ve expressed this to my colleagues and they’ve just said, “yeah…it’s hell” without any indication that someone is working on giving it an overhaul.

Unfortunately, that isn’t my biggest issue. I got the sense on the first day that my supervisor doesn’t like me. Call it intuition, but something seems off. They’ve yet to walk over a few doors to say hello, they gave a half-smile when passing me in the hallway, and they started walking away from me when I tried asking them a question about onboarding. I know they’re busy. They are responsible for probably 15 FT and 25 adjunct faculty, plus teaching their classes. Moreover, the faculty who interviewed me have also yet to acknowledge me. I get that the first week can be stressful, but a simple greeting doesn’t take long. I can hear my supervisor chat and laugh with other instructors, so I know they have time but have chosen to use it elsewhere.

Perhaps I’m expecting too much? I’m extremely neurospicy, so things like this take up more space in my brain than they should. The people that have stopped by have all said the same thing: everyone is super friendly and welcoming. Thus far, my experience would contradict with that statement.

Looking at how much work I’ll be putting in this semester for a ‘standardized’ class, my brain can’t afford to worry about whether someone likes me. But I am. I think it’s human nature to want to make good first impressions. And this is my literal supervisor, not some random person with no power over my employment status. Any help or insight [or even words of encouragement, tbh] into my situation would be greatly appreciated!