I came in this morning to see that instead of signing up in the slots I'd provided, several students had written in new times when THEY wanted to come in (i.e. at 8 p.m., 9 p.m., and there's one really presumptuous soul who thinks I'm going to be in my office at 10:30 p.m.). These were not times I'd put on the sign-up sheet.
Am I overreacting when I say that their selfish disregard for anyone else's time but their own is not acceptable? Is it rude behavior on their part? I think it's rude, presumptuous, and shows their entitled attitudes that the world revolves around them. As I was ranting to a colleague about this, his response was, "Chill out. You're totally overreacting."
You're probably both a little right. They are rude little buggers to make up their own times, but it's also true that you don't have to fret about it. (Overreacting is the wrong word, I think.)
ReplyDeleteJust ignore those nutty alternate times. If questioned by the 10:30 pm student the next day I'd just say, "You're kidding me, right?"
Hang in there.
I think Cal has it right: it's definitely rude, self-centered, snowflakey, etc., etc., but also not worth spending your energy fretting over (on the other hand, if we didn't fret now and then, and in writing, where would CM be?)
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what the standard procedure in your department is, but I try to do conference signups by handing around a sheet in class, or, failing that, by email (with students relaying their top 3 choices of available slots on a posted, and frequently refreshed, schedule). That way, students have to actually ask about alternative times (and I can shoot down any ridiculous ones, or anyone who tries to simply write one in). Also, those who are "too busy" to come to class have difficulty signing up for a conference (though they can do so by email). I'd never just leave a signup sheet where they could modify it at will (or where it could go missing -- isn't that a danger?) I believe there are now some web-based signup forms available, but I haven't experimented with those.
Also, my program allows us to cancel up to two weeks of class time to fit in one-on-one conferences. This doesn't eliminate the problem of finding mutually satisfactory times -- or the exhaustion that comes from all-day conferencing -- entirely, but it does help. If your department recognizes conferences as a central part of the course, it should be willing to devote scheduled contact-hours to them. The sneaky way to do this, of course, is to hold the conferences in a corner of the classroom, while the rest of the class is doing some sort of related group work.
@Cal, thanks! I'm not throwing a hissy fit. Just ranting, as usual. :o)
ReplyDelete@Cassandra: we do get two class periods off per week when we conference (I'd LOVE two weeks worth, although we are on quarters), but that doesn't nearly cover the number of students, but it's a concession. I leave the sign-up sheet outside my door for students (and post it online) to see when they signed up, but it clearly says: "No write-ins or changes can be made without prior approval of the professor." Then again, that would be expecting them to read what I've written on there.
Sometimes I think they see sign up sheets as a starting point for negotiation. Maybe they are selfish but the real problem is that they are stupid to show their selfishness this way.
ReplyDeletePS I am going to remove the sign-up sheet from outside my door and will leave the reminder one online so they have no way to "write-in" a time anywhere.
ReplyDeleteI'd just leave the one up outside your door, let them sign up for whatever time they want, and just be in your office for the times that you have offered them. It's not your problem if they have unrealistic expectations, or if they want to turn up at 10.30 at night.
ReplyDeleteHells bells, I'd leave up the sign-up sheet and let them Learn The Hard Way that they can't just create new time slots to their own liking. As others already stated, this is uber snowflakery behaviour, but you shouldn't spend even 1 second trying to deal with it. Reduce this to it making for yet another good story when you get together with friends at a party - they never cease to be shocked and amazed by Tales of the Snowflakes.
ReplyDelete@Defunct and Poopiehead: lol--I'm afraid my BP's skyrocketing tendencies may not allow me to leave the sign up sheet outside the door. I did leave the one I have out there and they can very well TRY to show up tonight...
ReplyDeleteI, too, seem to get a lot of incredulity from those not in academia about Snowflake behavior (often from parents who are creating said Snowflakes, but who think their child is exempt).
While I don't see how it could work to add times onto someone else's schedule, especially not times late at night, the students might see themselves confronted with a bureaucracy they don't understand and be resorting to whatever might work.
ReplyDeleteI am involved in the university right now on both ends and I'll have to admit, understanding it from the student end is very difficult. There are HUGE lines for brief meetings with professors, a jungle of deadlines, lists, forms and institutions to navigate. There is a total inconsistency and incongruence between what is done online, what is done face-to-face at any time, and what is done face-to-face at certain (restricted) times. Where I am, you don't even get to know which courses you are enrolled in (with the enrollment done by a method set by each prof's or each faculty's whim) until the term starts. So you sign up for a bunch of shit just in case - and then drop the stuff that is too much or overlaps. Stupid. It is NOTHING like when I first went to college in the 1980s. There are even contradictions within the system - not just perceived contradictions, but real, out-and-out contradictions that the people behind the desks admit to. The people, as usual, are better than the system, but while that helps us "customers" navigate through, it also keeps the system functioning when a collapse and rational streamlining would help.
Anyway, over the past several months I have gotten a new view on the world of "gaming the system". At least where I am, it is dysfunctional. If some people "game" it by trying to weasel odd meeting times, well, they're butt heads and should know better. But they might have tried to play fair last term and gotten burned.
I can see going to the prof's office, seeing all the slots taken except the one where I have a mandatory class, seeing that five other people have added their names outside the slots - and then deciding to "fuck it" and try to weasel - call the prof, send an e-mail, try to intercept them in the hallway, etc. - all stuff that might piss the prof off, but might get my box checked off so I can move on. It'll depend on the situation and the institution.
maybe the 10:30 student has a crush on you and picked that time so it'd count as a "date."
ReplyDelete@AdjunctSlave: Your registration situation sounds nightmarish. Our SLAC students (all 1,200 of them) have a less hectic time because they are typically catered to by everyone who is told to be nice to them because we need every single one of their little paying bodies. And ours expect even MORE to be catered to because they pay a lot of tuition (over $30k).
ReplyDelete@M-A and M: Hmm, that scares me a little now. ;o)
One bit of angst I forgot to add to my initial rant: This signup sheet made the rounds and they'd already signed up AND MISSED their reserved times. These weren't initial sign-uppers (except the 10:30 "date" person). I wasn't going to be kind about coming in at a time when they'd already stood me up once.
@CC - That sounds like the SLAC I went to back in the day. I think the place I'm at now simply has too little in the way of resources and/or too many "customers"/students to deal with.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing perhaps to keep in mind is that the students are probably complaining about having to have the meeting in the first place - it's a new demand on their time as well, and they probably have schedules as tight as yours.
ReplyDeleteLet me put it in perspective. It's Sunday afternoon, and I'm probably only prof in the building. I have work that needs to get done, and this is when I can do it. This happens to me a lot: weekends, evenings, breaks, holidays. I sometimes get annoyed about the hours I'm putting in when everyone else seems to want to scramble to get committee meetings done by 4:30 PM.
So, sometimes I feel like putting down my REAL availability for meetings sometimes. "I can do Thanksgiving day around 9 PM. How's that for you?"
The students may be doing just that: trying to silently complain about the imposition. That doesn't excuse them, it just explains it.