Is it really common for professors to invite students to their houses.

[Anonymous]

Amy Chua is gross. She groomed female law students at Yale for Brett Cavanaugh and invited students to her house even after her husband had been put on leave for improper behavior with students. Sounds like she just couldn’t stand to lose a shred of her influence. Disgusting couple.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DH is a law prof. Totally normal and usually there is an open signup or it is a seminar/reading group. Many years we host students for Thanksgiving who can’t go home for whatever reason (our family is out of town, so why not). The school encourages mentoring strongly and there is a budget for lunches/coffee/etc. with students. How are you supposed to write a good, personal recommendation if you don’t know them at least a little? Also, it helps you connect different personalities to the right clerkships.

I think the Amy Chua situation was a problem because her husband is a creep who isn’t supposed to be around students socially.

And how does this affect things when he is grading papers? Seriously, I'm a HS teacher, and all teachers know that we are not supposed to show blatant favoritism. I am truly disgusted that this type of thing seems so common at the Ivy's.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This happened several times when I was in law school. Not Yale, but another Ivy League school. I would not look up this as socializing with our professors and I don't think any of the other law students did. When I was a 1L, one professor opened his house during the first week of school for everyone in our section for a reception. We politely chatted with him and with each other and spouses. Not everyone came. Later, as 2Ls and 3Ls, profs would sometimes invite a seminar class over to his/her house, either for a discussion or for a potluck dinner. Again, this isn't really socializing.

I also attended a law professor's bris for his child when I worked closely with that professor. No, the professor did not invite every student on campus to the bris, nor would he have to. Rules of academic decorum are based on common sense, not on Title VII.

But how is this fair? Can a professor really be expected to be subjective with a student that he is personally friends with? I'm literally shocked that this sort of thing is allowed.
Your first example of a professor having a reception at him home where all of the students are invited is fine, but the second example seems very inappropriate, and unfair to the other students.

For undergraduates, I would only invite students as a group (a class, all students from an extracurricular group, etc), but for graduate students it is different. A prof who is advising a Ph.D. student isn't just overseeing academic work, they are also mentoring to produce a colleague. It can get messy, but the reality of academia is that success is based as much on your network as the quality of your research, which is like many other fields.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Used to be more common. As a child my dad had each entire class over once a semester for a dinner of Indian food. But it was a small college so classes were probably 25-40 students.

By the time I was a professor it was far less common. I never had a space big enough to have a class over and would certainly never invite just a few students.

Inviting an entire class, fine. Inviting just the favorites, no way.

Open signups are an easy way to deal with this. A dozen at a time or whatever, offered a few times during the semester. It isn’t favoritism, it is first come/first serve and you don’t have to participate. I can’t see why that is a problem.

This is different than a professor picking his/her chosen favorites to come over for parties.

[Anonymous]

Yes at both undergrad and law school in the 80s and early 90s.

[Anonymous]

I attended W&M, Georgetown, and Duke, and did this at all three. The Georgetown invite (business school) was open to all students, the others were invite-only. Some were networking parties, obviously hosted to introduce top talent to friends of the profs who might be executives or own companies.

I’m sure there were a gazillion others I wasn’t invited to, which is fine. Just because I wasn’t invited to a social event, doesn’t mean I don’t trust that prof to fairly grade me.

[Anonymous]

As I’ve been researching colleges, I see this pop up in some of the descriptions of activities at schools. I was surprised but I guess it’s kind of a thing. I went to a large Virginia state school and I did go to my professor’s home for dinner once with classmates. I loved it and thought it was so unique but maybe it wasn’t that unique after all.

[Anonymous]

I went to college at a large California State university in the mid -late 90's.

My professors never invited me (or anyone I know) to their homes for parties, but they would go to parties that students hosted. I also attended group dinners (group of maybe 8-10 people) at restaurants with professors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DH is a law prof. Totally normal and usually there is an open signup or it is a seminar/reading group. Many years we host students for Thanksgiving who can’t go home for whatever reason (our family is out of town, so why not). The school encourages mentoring strongly and there is a budget for lunches/coffee/etc. with students. How are you supposed to write a good, personal recommendation if you don’t know them at least a little? Also, it helps you connect different personalities to the right clerkships.

I think the Amy Chua situation was a problem because her husband is a creep who isn’t supposed to be around students socially.

And how does this affect things when he is grading papers? Seriously, I'm a HS teacher, and all teachers know that we are not supposed to show blatant favoritism. I am truly disgusted that this type of thing seems so common at the Ivy's.

It isn’t favoritism. The invite goes out to the entire class and the first dozen or so to sign up come. We rarely fill totally as most kids do go home. It is much worse to leave students alone on the holidays in a town they barely know when they can’t afford to go home, during a very stressful time (1L fall). What kind of isolated, lonely world would it be if we were all so uncaring?

Law school first year is completely blind grading so it doesn’t matter AT ALL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to a small liberal arts school and went to professors’ houses a lot. Never alone, but in a small group. One seminar I was in met at the professor’s house once a week. We’d have wine and cheese, talk about literature, and I’d feel very grown up...it was pretty cool. Sometimes a whole class was invited to a professor’s home. Sometimes just my boyfriend and I were invited to a particular professor’s house for dinner because we really connected with him and worked with him on a study he was doing. Spending time with my teachers outside of class was one of the best parts of my college experience.

I'm sure it was, but what about your classmates who weren't so socially saavy as to get these kind of invites? I'm sure they loved hearing how you and your boyfriend were receiving preferential treatment from the professor.

[Anonymous]

I can’t imagine it now, but in the late 90s I knew of peers who would go to professors’ houses. It was usually a situation where the professor was their advisor, the sponsor for a club the students was a leader in, or a small team of students being coached for a competition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DH is a law prof. Totally normal and usually there is an open signup or it is a seminar/reading group. Many years we host students for Thanksgiving who can’t go home for whatever reason (our family is out of town, so why not). The school encourages mentoring strongly and there is a budget for lunches/coffee/etc. with students. How are you supposed to write a good, personal recommendation if you don’t know them at least a little? Also, it helps you connect different personalities to the right clerkships.

I think the Amy Chua situation was a problem because her husband is a creep who isn’t supposed to be around students socially.

And how does this affect things when he is grading papers? Seriously, I'm a HS teacher, and all teachers know that we are not supposed to show blatant favoritism. I am truly disgusted that this type of thing seems so common at the Ivy's.

Most law school grading is student blind. Students have a number and teacher does not know who until after grades are submitted. I once got the top grade in a class as a 2L that was filled with 3Ls that had supreme court clerk candidates (already had feeder cir. judges set). As a class we had been to professor's house for dinner twice. I hadn't really been that active in class so professor said he was shocked when he found out I had top grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We did this st a large state school. I was part of a stem club sponsored by the professor. She invited the whole club over a couple times. Not everyone in the club was is her classes. I was and dtill didn't fo well in it.
Dh went to a rural SLAC and it was very common there since classes are small. He remained friends with a couple professors and we exchange holiday cards, visit their house during reunions and they offer to read his drafts pre journal submission.
And no it wasn't fair to other students, but higher education, especially in SLACs is not only about meritocracy, but about relationships.

LIFE is about relationships. Is that fair? Who cares, it is reality.

Yes, but universities should hold their professors to different standards.

[Anonymous]

One professor had a bible study that a number of students attended weekly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve read a few stories about how Amy Chua was recently suspended from the Yale law faculty for inviting students to her house for parties, and the comments have a lot of remarks about how it’s common for professors to do this.
I’m pretty shocked about this, I was certainly never invited nor knew of anyone else who socialized with their professors off campus.
My husband never heard of this happening during law school either.
How does this even work? Unless the professor, is invited ALL of their students to their home, which is highly unlikely, inviting a select few students to your house for parties, shows outrageous favoritism. How can universities possibly justify allowing professors to do this?

It was common in some departments when I was in grad school. Not mine, but I dated a guy in American studies which was a really chill program apparently and they even called professors by their first name instead of doctor. One professor had an open house one Sunday a month. It was kinda a boozy late brunch salon type atmosphere. No hanky panky. The guy I was dating insisted I was still welcome after we broke up.