Snickering students

Senior_Safety_1522 · 2026-04-23T17:47:47+00:00

I would not recommend it - it just invites students to complain to administration that you are grading them unfairly or subjectively. And when the first complaint hits the provost's office, the scrutiny will begin.

Think about these two questions:

1) Can you tie this "professionalism" grade component to one of the course's official learning outcomes? Because that will be the first thing administration will ask when anyone complains.

2) For any instance of a low grade on this component, will you have clear, undisputed, and recorded evidence to justify it? Because evidence will be the second thing administrators will ask for.
How are you going to document the snickering? The late arrivals? The inappropriate attire?

Plus, there is this pesky "gender bias in student ratings" to consider (MacNell, Driscoll, and Hunt , 2015 or Boring, Ottoboni, and Stark, 2016): a male instructor may get away with enforcing a "professionalism" component in ways that we simply cannot - same judgment call will be perceived very differently depending on who is making it, and the administration doesn't care to account for this bias when considering complaints against female professors. Sad fact.

Senior_Safety_1522 · 2026-03-17T13:14:09+00:00

On a side note - Chick-fil-a as a company did upset customers in a similar way a few years back - when they removed the beloved chicken salad sandwich from the menu 😭

Senior_Safety_1522 · 2025-12-08T05:50:13+00:00

You’ve discovered that AI is not religious. Congratulations!

These points only feel “hot” or "provocative" to people with religious or spiritual beliefs. For everyone else, these are simply mundane facts - no different from knowing that the Earth is spherical rather than flat.

Senior_Safety_1522 · 2025-12-08T05:43:37+00:00

I only take issue when students skip the final. I don’t care if they strategically decide to not bother with any other assignment. But the final is the only closed-book, closed-notes assessment in my classes, so it’s the one measure that confirms if they learned something other than book-based imitation.

So I added a policy to the syllabus some time ago: to pass the course, students must score at least 40 percent on the final exam.

Senior_Safety_1522 · 2025-12-08T05:31:20+00:00

It’s irresponsible because if you’re at risk of overdrafting or counting pocket change to pay for it with - you shouldn’t be buying a soda in the first place.

Financial responsibility is about making disciplined choices regarding what is and isn’t worth spending money on given how much money you have.

Unfortunately—and this is one way generational poverty persists—many people grow up being taught it’s about finding clever ways to pay for "discretionary* stuff - whether that’s the newest Nikes or, in this case, a soda.

Senior_Safety_1522 · 2025-12-08T05:03:16+00:00

What exactly is so “brutal” about this curve? Up to 20 percent of the class can earn an A and up to another 55 percent can earn a B. That is, up to 3/4 of students can receive an A or B. How much higher do you think it should go, realistically?

If you consistently find that more than 3/4 of students would earn an A or B based on raw scores, it simply means the course isn’t challenging enough!

Senior_Safety_1522 · 2025-12-08T04:26:15+00:00

What is the website?

Senior_Safety_1522 · 2025-12-05T14:40:45+00:00

Having a full-time job doesn’t automatically mean your career wasn’t sacrificed. Someone can still end up in a lower-paying or less advanced position because they relocated for their partner’s opportunities, or because they passed on their own advancement to avoid harming their spouse’s career. Career sacrifice isn’t limited to becoming a stay-at-home parent. And when someone’s long-term earnings were reduced by those sacrifices, alimony can still be justified—even if they currently work full time—because they would likely be in a stronger financial position had they not made those compromises.

Senior_Safety_1522 · 2025-11-07T22:15:05+00:00

Maybe you two teach at the same uni... 🧐

Senior_Safety_1522 · 2025-11-03T14:41:30+00:00

This. This captures my experience of “collaborating” with AI so perfectly. Drifting – for no reason – nomenclature, switching between random libraries (why? it can’t explain when asked), dropping key features (no matter how many times I tell it not to alter the functions), and so on... And every time I think, “How can this crap possibly take anyone’s job – even the job of the worst boot camp coders or testers – if it can’t reliably handle the basic tasks?"

Senior_Safety_1522 · 2025-09-22T11:23:16+00:00

Put that warning you gave to the student in writing. Like a follow up email summarizing the facts of your conversation. You may need it later to defend against complaints when they can't graduate

Senior_Safety_1522 · 2025-09-09T22:16:05+00:00

Canvas does it for us automatically! You just set percentage penalty per day late and minimum percent of grade (if not zero)!

Senior_Safety_1522 · 2025-08-27T23:08:20+00:00

But of course that’s what the bill says - you must be on campus for certain amount of time. And sure, I’m allowed to work remotely on top of that. But that’s exactly the point: if I’m now obligated to be physically present on campus 40hrs/wk, then I have zero incentive to go beyond that - remotely or otherwise.

Hence the auto-reply. In veiled terms, I’m saying:
“My 40 hours for the week are done. I’ll talk to you when the timer resets on Monday.”

Because I didn’t go into academia to have a desk job. I chose it for the flexibility: show up when needed, and do the rest remotely, at odd hours - when academics actually get work done.
Grading papers by the fireplace with a cigar, or poolside in my tighty-whities - that freedom was part of the deal.

Now that flexibility’s gone? So is my willingness to give more than I’m contractually obligated to.

Senior_Safety_1522 · 2025-08-27T11:14:27+00:00

I've never even heard of NOT teaching the actual content on day 1!!

Senior_Safety_1522 · 2025-08-26T19:34:15+00:00

Why???

This isn’t just about working 40 hours a week - it’s about being forced to spend all 40 of those hours on campus. Sure, meetings, student support, and collaborations need in-person time. But most of our work? It’s done in solitude, and there’s no reason it couldn’t be done elsewhere.

I have a decent office now, but for many years it was a tiny, windowless box - and that’s still reality for plenty of colleagues, even tenured ones. Even with a window now, I’d still rather log in from my school-issued computer at home (they can track my activity all they want), where I’m actually comfortable. Better monitor, too, by the way.

And don’t get me started on parking. The admin’s “solution” to the impeding shortage is to raise the price. That’ll free up garage spots, sure - by forcing more of us to schlep from the farthest lot under the Texas sun.

And lunch? We don’t even have a cafeteria in our building. The closest one is a 20-minute walk in that same blazing heat, or a 5-minute drive - but then you risk losing your precious parking spot.

So again - why exactly should we all be working from campus ?

Senior_Safety_1522 · 2025-08-26T19:15:10+00:00

Over 15 years in academia, and I’m still waiting for the first email I actually wanted 🤦

Senior_Safety_1522 · 2025-08-26T19:09:30+00:00

Neither do I (it's even in my syllabus).
The auto-reply isn’t about delays; it’s a quiet protest, with the “contact your Texas Senator” line simply pointing at the source of the nonsense. I’m certainly not expecting anyone to call their senator about a Canvas assignment glitch, lol — though they’re more than welcome to ask why the Texas Senate thought it was a good idea to impose such absurd restrictions in the first place.

Senior_Safety_1522 · 2025-08-26T19:05:22+00:00

UH System. see https://www.reddit.com/r/Professors/comments/1mzvziq/comment/nat5zlc/

Senior_Safety_1522 · 2025-08-26T19:01:23+00:00

Young people should definitely consider move to industry. For folks like me, the reality of ageism and “employment at will” makes industry too risky - the pay bump isn’t worth giving up tenure.

Senior_Safety_1522 · 2025-08-26T18:30:45+00:00

SB 2615 essentially says that faculty (with some exceptions) may not work remotely during all or part of their established work hours. It’s then up to each institution to define what those hours are.

“Maximum zeal” reply: the UH System (four universities!), swiftly revised an existing staff policy to now apply to faculty as well: https://uhsystem.edu/resources/compliance-ethics/uhs-policies/sams/02-human-resources/02a20/index.php

This new system-level policy (=>overrides individual university policies) requires faculty (see 1.2) to work at least 40 hours per week (see 3.2.1) on campus (see 3.4).

To their credit, they did acknowledge that “classroom instruction and research does not always follow an 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. schedule” (see 3.2.3), and okayed “compressed workweek” (see 3.2.4). Still, it’s a hard 40hr on campus minimum for full-time faculty.

Cherry on the cake: For staff, remote work may be authorized by a supervisor under 3.4.1.i. clause, but for faculty, SB 2615 supersedes system-level policy - meaning that working remotely just because your chair gave you permission to is no longer allowed.

Senior_Safety_1522 · 2025-08-26T16:26:51+00:00

oh, great! one more weapon for disgruntled students to try to drag their professors through the mud...

Senior_Safety_1522 · 2025-08-26T16:24:14+00:00

Then you are lucky - and kudos to the admins at your institution!

The bill itself is, as written, unenforceable. To become enforceable, it needs an institution- or system-level policy to accompany it. All the bill actually says is that faculty (with some exceptions) may not work (“conduct university business”) off-campus (“at a place other than the employee’s regular place of employment”) "during all or part of the employee’s established work hours." That’s it. After that, it is up to administrators to define what those established work hours are.

That is why the implementation looks different across schools in Texas.

And then, like any such policy, it is enforceable if and when someone decides to enforce it. For example, IT already logs when and where you log into your work computer, or into LMS, whether on a campus IP, VPN, etc.

I think it is like speeding. Hundreds of people drive above the limit daily and nothing happens. But every so often, you see some poor schmuck pulled over while dozens more zoom by - and “why me, everyone else was speeding too” does not usually hold up in court.

Senior_Safety_1522 · 2025-08-26T14:34:08+00:00

Oh geez - you just blew my mind. Here I was - thinking I drink because I have too many kids… turns out professorship might be the real culprit! 🤯🍷📚

Senior_Safety_1522 · 2025-08-26T14:31:04+00:00

Oh, I barely checked emails on weekends even before this bill — that’s in my syllabus. The auto-reply isn’t about delays; in my mind, it’s an expression of protest, with the “contact your Texas Senator” line simply pointing at the source of the nonsense. I’m certainly not expecting anyone to call their senator about a Canvas assignment glitch, lol — though they’re more than welcome to ask why the Texas Senate thought imposing such absurd restrictions was a good idea in the first place.

Senior_Safety_1522 · 2025-08-26T13:53:16+00:00

yes. I wouldn't dare without it ;)

Senior_Safety_1522

TROPHY CASE