I'm a professor at a 4-year college/university... ask me anything!

[Anonymous]

1. What's your view on academic conferences? Party time? Not worth it for faculty (vs grad students)? Important for your research?
2. Has political correct (safe spaces, trigger warnings, etc) gone out of control lately, or has it always been the same but just getting more press now?
3. Do you think serious crimes on campus (like sexual assault) should be adjudicated internally or handed over to police?
4. If you had a choice, would you pick smaller college with more flexibility but less prestige, or vica versa (to work for)?
5. What do PhD students really feel about the job situation? Seems like every university produces 5-10 of them per department per year, but their department isn't producing that many job openings by far, so where does everyone end up? Not sure how the market is for PhD's in private industry.
6. When parents call on behalf of their child, do you bother to address them or just tell them to tell their child to call?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you have favorites? I knew most of mine liked me as a student but I was also always on time, participated and made great grades.

What's the best excuse you have ever heard?


Do you pass althletes?

I don't have favorites, but I do have students that I dislike. I don't judge students based on their aptitude. I do judge (and frequently get annoyed) with students who:
-Don't turn work in/don't try but then can't understand why they do poorly in my classes
-Cheat, lie, have rude manners

I'd much rather an honest C students than a lying/cheating A/B student.

Athletes are often my best students.

Best excuse? Girl tells me she has a heavy period and can't take the exam. GTFO. Take an Advil hunny.

Yeah - don't be so quick to judge health excuses. My mother had *heavy* periods, and couldn't do anything those days. Whens he was that age, she didn't know there was anything you could do about it. I know some kids will try everything, but there really are wacky health things out there.

+1, my cramps are so bad I don't leave the house for a day or two. I tried everything and at best it just takes the edge off things. Its horrible. Glad you were not my professor.

I had horrific cramps too, but never made a habit our of sharing personal health info. Outside of my family, no one knows how bad my cramps were. If I were the girl in the example I would have told the professor I was "sick" and ask to reschedule (many are very understanding), get an excused absence from the health center (many professors would require this) or just suck it up and be miserable and look like I'm going to throw up any second.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you male or female?

What rank? Assistant, associate or full?

Male. Assistant Professor. 30s.

How did I guess?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this seriously a period discussion??? If you have a medical problem at the beginning of the semester give your professor the medical note (or what is needed per school) policy. If you have to miss class or a test last minute they will know.

I do not have period problems but have used that excuse once or twice to skip class or a test. I also used migraines as an excuse.

That's really crappy you ruin it for the rest of us who actually have these issues.

No, I'd never talk to a male professor about my personal medical issues nor would I bring an excuse note. For an exam I'd probably suck it up, but for a class, I'd miss it once a month. No one ever gave me a hard time about it thankfully (but it was easy to track with the absences). I've been hospitalized for migrants and I still wouldn't tell anyone as most people have no idea how horrific they are in less they have them.

I was 20 years old and grew up eventually into a mature and responsible adult. It worked better than "I got trashed last night and am hung over"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't believe that you feel that you know what it is like to have a heavy period. Mine is horrible. I have to accommodate it in some way. I work from home and hide as much as possible. The pain is unbearable to the point that I moan frequently. I double up, and still have to change at least once an hour. Luckily, the bad part only lasts about 12 hours, so it doesn't hit on a work day every month, but when it does, there is absolutely no way that I could work. Then again, I think a doctor's note would be necessary to miss an exam.

Don't tell women to go on the pill!!!!! That is not your decision. There are many reasons why someone may not want to, including that the hormones make some people crazy, and some people actually want to have children.

Look lady, if this student had been a model citizen okay. But when you've got a kid that constantly blows off class, doesn't turn in assignments, then e-mails 20 minutes before an exam starts saying a period is too heavy to take the exam... color me skeptical.

Is it the male tenure-track OP with "look lady" and "take Advil, hunny" or another poster? I need clarification. TIA

+1

Was this OP?

These are the professors at the low-end local colleges? No, thanks.

OP already said he's a tenure track prof at a USNEWS top 100 school

Not overall 100, liberal arts 100. And must be the bottom half - would have said top 50 or top 20 if that were the case.
http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-liberal-arts-colleges

So when you just look in the bottom 50 and you assume it's somewhere in the DC area and you take out the public options you get:
Washington College
Washington and Jefferson College
St. Mary's
St. John's College

And he refers to it as a "4-year college/university" to differentiate from community schools?

Yeah. No thanks.

[Anonymous]

can't believe this got so long. OP has hardly answered anything, and what was answered wasn't very interesting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this seriously a period discussion??? If you have a medical problem at the beginning of the semester give your professor the medical note (or what is needed per school) policy. If you have to miss class or a test last minute they will know.

I do not have period problems but have used that excuse once or twice to skip class or a test. I also used migraines as an excuse.

That's really crappy you ruin it for the rest of us who actually have these issues.

No, I'd never talk to a male professor about my personal medical issues nor would I bring an excuse note. For an exam I'd probably suck it up, but for a class, I'd miss it once a month. No one ever gave me a hard time about it thankfully (but it was easy to track with the absences). I've been hospitalized for migrants and I still wouldn't tell anyone as most people have no idea how horrific they are in less they have them.

I was 20 years old and grew up eventually into a mature and responsible adult. It worked better than "I got trashed last night and am hung over"

Ok, so you were immature. I was not and actually had the medical issues you lied about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:can't believe this got so long. OP has hardly answered anything, and what was answered wasn't very interesting.

Because he's probably a scammer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:can't believe this got so long. OP has hardly answered anything, and what was answered wasn't very interesting.

Because he's probably a scammer.

Um, you can say what you want but I'm the OP, what exactly haven't I answered? Be specific. Pretty sure I've responded to most actual questions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:can't believe this got so long. OP has hardly answered anything, and what was answered wasn't very interesting.

Because he's probably a scammer.

Um, you can say what you want but I'm the OP, what exactly haven't I answered? Be specific. Pretty sure I've responded to most actual questions.

20:05

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:can't believe this got so long. OP has hardly answered anything, and what was answered wasn't very interesting.

Because he's probably a scammer.

Um, you can say what you want but I'm the OP, what exactly haven't I answered? Be specific. Pretty sure I've responded to most actual questions.

20:05

Yep, that's literally the only post I haven't yet gotten to. Nice of you to note the 15/15 other ones I did... I can only keep up so fast.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:can't believe this got so long. OP has hardly answered anything, and what was answered wasn't very interesting.

Because he's probably a scammer.

Um, you can say what you want but I'm the OP, what exactly haven't I answered? Be specific. Pretty sure I've responded to most actual questions.

20:05

Yep, that's literally the only post I haven't yet gotten to. Nice of you to note the 15/15 other ones I did... I can only keep up so fast.

20:05 are my questions. I didn't criticize you for not answering, and I certainly didn't contribute to the lengthy and off-topic debate about periods and that nonsense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you have favorites? I knew most of mine liked me as a student but I was also always on time, participated and made great grades.

What's the best excuse you have ever heard?


Do you pass althletes?

I don't have favorites, but I do have students that I dislike. I don't judge students based on their aptitude. I do judge (and frequently get annoyed) with students who:
-Don't turn work in/don't try but then can't understand why they do poorly in my classes
-Cheat, lie, have rude manners

I'd much rather an honest C students than a lying/cheating A/B student.

Athletes are often my best students.

Best excuse? Girl tells me she has a heavy period and can't take the exam. GTFO. Take an Advil hunny.

Yeah - don't be so quick to judge health excuses. My mother had *heavy* periods, and couldn't do anything those days. Whens he was that age, she didn't know there was anything you could do about it. I know some kids will try everything, but there really are wacky health things out there.

+1, my cramps are so bad I don't leave the house for a day or two. I tried everything and at best it just takes the edge off things. Its horrible. Glad you were not my professor.

So your entire adult life you've stayed home from work once a month? I find that hard to believe. If it's that bad you go on the pill or get a doctor's note, double up on tampons/pads, etc. . We all know girls/women who will use this as an excuse because they think nobody will question it.

I have endometriosis, PCOS, and fibroids. In college, I had two polyps that caused endless bleeding and pain for months, which required hospitalization at times. I'm glad none of you were my professors because every month, without fail, I am down for 48 hours. Luckily I've always had understanding employers and am now a successful biz owner so I set my own schedule but don't for one second think you know how bad someone's periods can be. Just a few weeks ago, they found several tumors in my uterus and I'm now dealing with those. Killer periods do exist.

[Anonymous]

This is clearly some sort of "bad period" support group... we all know they exist to some extent.

Frankly, if it was a medical condition you could give a note to teacher from doctor. Not the type of period type class/paper skipping behaviors the OP is talking about. Some people have used periods as an excuse to get out of things in an abusive manner.

Move on or going your own group therapy conversation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this seriously a period discussion??? If you have a medical problem at the beginning of the semester give your professor the medical note (or what is needed per school) policy. If you have to miss class or a test last minute they will know.

I do not have period problems but have used that excuse once or twice to skip class or a test. I also used migraines as an excuse.

That's really crappy you ruin it for the rest of us who actually have these issues.

No, I'd never talk to a male professor about my personal medical issues nor would I bring an excuse note. For an exam I'd probably suck it up, but for a class, I'd miss it once a month. No one ever gave me a hard time about it thankfully (but it was easy to track with the absences). I've been hospitalized for migrants and I still wouldn't tell anyone as most people have no idea how horrific they are in less they have them.

I was 20 years old and grew up eventually into a mature and responsible adult. It worked better than "I got trashed last night and am hung over"

Ok, so you were immature. I was not and actually had the medical issues you lied about.

Indeed - that I why I got away with it, and students still do. If its a real medical issue you can share a note with your professors.