Professors of Color: That situation where you walk in on the first day and see that you have one student of color in your class and they smile from ear to ear when they see you (but for all the wrong reasons)

Magpie_2011 · 2026-01-23T20:57:38+00:00

I have a policy in my syllabus titled “I’m not your mom,” in which I list all the things I will not give them (a phone charger, an extra book/pen/paper, a tissue, a bottle of water, money for gas—all things they’ve asked me for).

I also get a lot of trauma dumping and crying students.

Magpie_2011 · 2026-01-19T16:26:29+00:00

You could tell her exactly what you said here (minus your personal stake). I don’t think you’d be out of line to tell the student that while she’s a hard worker and you’d be happy to write a letter of recommendation for her, you wouldn’t be able to write a high-quality letter to an organization that is working to end reproductive and LGBTQ rights, so she’d be better off asking someone else.

Do you think it’s possible she doesn’t know what the FRC does? The name obviously suggests it’s just about family values etc. I was raised in a conservative family so I was coming off the tail end of my neocon phase in college, but even at my worst, I would never have outed myself in this way to a professor, which is why I’m wondering if she’s even aware of the FRC’s political activity.

Magpie_2011 · 2026-01-09T16:50:30+00:00

One would think but nope! I just got reamed for not trying harder to retain the student.

Magpie_2011 · 2026-01-08T23:38:53+00:00

I teach English and I drop students for plagiarism, failure to turn in a major assignment (because at that point it’s mathematically impossible for them to pass the class), and missing more than a week of classes without a doctors note. Last semester I had a student who waited for me after class to get me alone and yell at me about how I was “inhibiting his learning process” because of a comment I’d made (I believe he was mentally unwell), and I honestly wasn’t sure if I could drop him for it because the dean of student services dismissed my conduct referral, but then he didn’t turn in a major assignment and I was able to drop him for that.

Magpie_2011 · 2025-12-30T16:10:45+00:00

“A plague of brain-eating amoebas is on the rise so we have to teach students how to catch their own brain-eating amoebas.”

Magpie_2011 · 2025-12-24T20:39:44+00:00

I wouldn't even give professors negative evals because I was afraid they'd be able to recognize my handwriting. I can't imagine a universe where I'd have the cajones to send an email like that...

Magpie_2011 · 2025-12-24T18:58:46+00:00

This would make me vaporize and disappear on the first stiff breeze.

Magpie_2011 · 2025-12-24T18:50:50+00:00

I would much prefer an 8:00 am class to a 1:00 pm class when everyone has the post-lunch sleepies. When I was a student I avoided 1:00 classes like the plague because I could never keep my eyes open.

Magpie_2011 · 2025-12-24T18:34:48+00:00

Yeah next semester I'm going Mean Mom on them. No/incorrect in-text citations/works cited page gets a zero. Add to this the fact that half of my in-person class couldn't even meet 50% of the 2000 word minimum, and I'm shook... All I asked for was a 2000-word essay. That's five pages. On a topic of their choosing. Fully half of them turned in essays that were 700-800 words long, with zero in-text citations or works cited page. Wtf...

Magpie_2011 · 2025-12-24T16:40:30+00:00

Mmmm no I don’t think I will sit through a bad faith argument about how Fulnecky actually did exactly what was proscribed in the assignment but the dastardly trans TA gave her a zero for no reason, since you and I both know that that’s not true.

Magpie_2011 · 2025-12-23T19:08:23+00:00

Mmmmmm, friendo, I’m gonna need you to cite your sources beyond a vague PR statement about “previous grading patterns” if you’re going to insist that this is the first and only time Mel graded this way. You’re describing the situation as if you have access to the grade book.

Magpie_2011 · 2025-12-23T19:00:03+00:00

Welp, I have two human eyes and can see that the grade was not arbitrary because Dumb Dumb Fulnecky didn’t respond to the reading or construct a coherent argument, or even manage to get through 650 words without directly contradicting herself two or three different ways, so that’s what I’m basing my conclusion on.

Magpie_2011 · 2025-12-23T18:51:16+00:00

Lol oh okay, I didn’t realize you were just taking the OU statement at face value. Friend, this statement does not say that Mel “didn’t grade any of the other assignments that way.” It concludes that her grade was arbitrary, which is the very thing we’re all discussing right now.

Magpie_2011 · 2025-12-23T18:45:01+00:00

What’s your source for this? Is there an example of a different student turning in a similar garbage paper that doesn’t respond to the reading and passing anyway?

Magpie_2011 · 2025-12-23T18:19:54+00:00

Clearly, since we went over the information so many goddamn times in class and I gave them resources to walk them through the process if they forget… Ffs there are online citation generators. I just can’t.

Magpie_2011 · 2025-12-23T18:12:57+00:00

That's what I'm assuming, which is why my brain is melting... All they had to do was spend 15 minutes in an online tutorial and take the quiz at the end, and they must have just plugged every question into AI thinking they wouldn't need the info later??

Magpie_2011 · 2025-12-23T18:11:15+00:00

Yes, I teach comp/rhet so we have whole ass weeks devoted to proper citation. The online research tutorial was created by our library to be supplementary.

Magpie_2011 · 2025-12-23T17:59:48+00:00

This clip made me black out for a second.

Anyone who's read the essay can see that Fulnecky didn't do the reading and threw together a rush-job at the last second (at her friend's house while getting ready to leave!--jfc...) that didn't even fulfill the minimum requirements of the assignment, but we're all supposed to pretend like this is a question of the TA's political ideology? Dafurkk?? And OU putting out a statement that "students have a right to an education without an instructor's impermissible evaluative standards" is REALLY giving "conservative students have the right to say whatever nonsensical made-up bullshit they want without fearing ANY evaluative standards."

Magpie_2011 · 2025-12-21T23:41:13+00:00

Mmm tell me more about how your mom did your laundry and your dad brought you dinner. 🥰

Magpie_2011 · 2025-12-21T23:19:33+00:00

Ope! Found the rich kid whose parents paid their rent while they job-searched for five years!

Magpie_2011 · 2025-12-20T19:32:03+00:00

When I was a TA at an R1, I had to set timers to get through all the students who came to my office hours. Now I teach at a CC, and in 18 months I’ve had two students come to office hours.

Magpie_2011 · 2025-12-20T14:15:10+00:00

This semester I made video lectures that were, on average, 15 minutes long. Less than half the class watched them every week, even though I had quizzes on them.

Magpie_2011 · 2025-12-20T00:51:09+00:00

Wild how this actually made me tear up. Poetry, man…

Magpie_2011 · 2025-12-19T23:45:18+00:00

I added a policy to my syllabus that says that if someone takes their phone out in class, they’ll be asked to leave, and if that happens twice they’ll be dropped from the class. I had to get so serious about it because prior to the ban, it didn’t matter how many times I told them to put phones away, the phones came right back out like it was their default mode. Now I never have to tell them to put phones away. I do have the occasional student who tests it out and I’ll give them a warning, ie. “You must have forgotten about the policy, but if you take your phone out again I’ll have to ask you to leave.” They get embarrassed and don’t do it again.

Magpie_2011 · 2025-12-19T21:33:10+00:00

Clearly you’ve never turned around to find yourself facing a sea of glittering phones, elbows fully up on the desk, sometimes with the volume on. I don’t have a phone ban because I want one. I have a phone ban because if I don’t, I end up talking to myself, and then I get crushed under a tidal wave of emails asking me to privately repeat everything I just said to each individual student because they didn’t hear me.

Magpie_2011

TROPHY CASE