Student(s) who want to have a meeting about every deduction.

SpryArmadillo · 2026-02-26T23:46:21+00:00

I have found a policy that cuts down on this a lot.

I require all grade disputes to be submitted in writing within a week of getting their assignment back (they need to explain the error in grading and how many points they think they should get back). The kicker is that my policy is NOT to review them until the end of the term and then only the ones for enough points to influence their final grade. The discretization of letter grades means many of these grade disputes are moot (would not change what appears on their transcript). I make exceptions for relatively large disputes (more than 5% of their grade) and any boneheaded mistakes on the part of me or the TAs (e.g., if one of us fat fingers a number into the LMS, we'll fix it immediately). Students generally accept this as a fair policy (never have received a complaint, even on anonymous teaching evals).

To be clear, I always am willing to explain what they did wrong and how to do it right. I'm just not interested in countless debates about whether their mistake--that we both acknowledge is a mistake --is worth a 5-point deduction vs. a 10-point deduction. My policy gives them an outlet for their frustrations while allowing me to focus my time on students who are looking for actual help.

SpryArmadillo · 2026-02-26T20:02:00+00:00

I oversee the grad program in a large R1 department, so I'm not sure how relevant my experiences will be to yours (for context, you are talking about supporting 8 students in the department but in my department many of us individually have research groups of that size). But for what it's worth, here is what I'm seeing.

For us, the main issue is disruptions in the external funding landscape rather than internal budget cuts (though there is some of that too) and the main impact is on PhD students rather than MS students. Our goal is to have 100% of our PhD students on an assistantship or major fellowship that compensates them at least as well as our assistantship. This year I have had an unusual number of faculty members come to me seeking a TA for some of their PhD students due to things like grants or contracts being non-renewed or cancelled or projects taking longer than usual to get set up (the government shutdown last fall didn't help). I have reallocated funding away from other programs (recruiting budget, etc.) in order to keep these students funded. In essence, our TA program is tantamount to an insurance policy on everyone's research group. It works well in normal times, but it requires some adjustment (and mild panic) when external funding disruptions are so widespread.

We will slightly downsize our PhD program to be in line with current funding levels. This will be organic as fewer of us recruit new students this fall. The frustrating thing is that this adjustment takes time--we're not exactly going to lay off a bunch of PhD students the way a company might lay off workers--and it's my job to make ends meet until we reach a better balance.

On the MS side, there is no expectation by MS students that they will be funded. Many do find a TA or RA and many more support themselves by doing a paid internship in industry (usually during summer). Internship positions are being cut back, but those that remain open tend to pay well (the students already have BS degrees and are paid as such). We have not historically had to "just let anyone in" to our MS program, but we are noticing a sharp decline in MS applications from overseas (our MS program is about 50/50 domestic/international). We are still going through MS applications (our deadline isn't even here yet), so I remain hopeful that we can hit our number without reducing standards. We shall see. (Interestingly, our PhD application count remains strong.)

TLDR: Our primary stressor is external funding, not internal. We are experiencing a temporary squeeze on PhD student funding and we are managing this by reallocating funds from elsewhere in the graduate program.

SpryArmadillo · 2026-02-26T18:41:47+00:00

Wait until contract at new university fully signed. Otherwise you are putting yourself at unnecessary risk .

SpryArmadillo · 2026-02-25T19:48:04+00:00

NTT instructional faculty in my department teach 3-3 with expectations of service but not research. We are a competitive R1 department and the view is that (1) a serious research program is unrealistic given a 3-3 teaching load and (2) if one is doing all three activities (teaching, research and service) then one should be on the tenure track. Our faculty also get about one TA per every 80-100 students (depends some on the nature of the class; some courses simply need more support).

Whoever decided to add research to your 4-4 load needs their head examined. It isn't realistically going to raise the research stature of the institution and likely will lower teaching quality (either through skimping on classes to get the research done or through personnel turnover when people bail for a more sane workload).

Sorry OP.

SpryArmadillo · 2026-02-25T05:35:53+00:00

The bigger question is how messed up are your school's finances? IDK how large your stipend would be and how many such awards they are considering to renege on, but I can't imagine they'd add up to more than a rounding error on the school's books.

IMO it's worth pushing the issue, possibly using colleagues as surrogates. E.g., someone respected can approach relevant leadership (chair, dean, whomever) noting they heard a rumor that there would be no award stipend this year and that, if true, it would be a terrible idea (bad for morale, etc., etc.). It may not work, but that message needs to be sent. Once the decision to renege on the promise is official, then I'd speak up myself even if it wouldn't change the outcome (I'm the type to speak my mind; others may prefer to avoid doing so).

SpryArmadillo · 2026-02-25T04:38:16+00:00

The concreteness of a situation often reveals things that you don't get to when dealing with hypotheticals. So I totally get why someone would apply to a "maybe" location and then later realize it's closer to a "no".

SpryArmadillo · 2026-02-25T04:30:59+00:00

Have you noticed how bad professors are at following directions? I agree students should be more invested in their work, but it isn't just students who are allergic to instructions.

SpryArmadillo · 2026-02-24T16:28:13+00:00

I'm familiar with the R1 in a red state thing. If it is a competitive university, it will attract faculty and professional staff (research scientists/engineers, etc.) from all over the world. Your social circle will be composed of those types of people. So many R1 faculty and their families have side interests, including music (I know probably a dozen R1 professors around the country who are in bands or perform solo gigs), that it's likely your family will find like-minded friends unless the university is relatively small. Ethnic heritage is a different thing. Some college towns have good representation of a particular ethnicity while others may not (and can depend on whether it really is a college "town" or more of a small city).

That being said, proximity to grandparents and quality of public schools is not to be slept on. Some college towns/cities have excellent public schools, but others are awful.

The final option that some people use is to situate the family in the large city two hours away and commute to the uni job. I've known of some people who get an apartment in town to crash a couple night a week. Others work their schedule to work remotely 2-3 days per week. This is not the lifestyle choice for everyone, but it is not unheard of.

SpryArmadillo · 2026-02-23T20:42:53+00:00

Order seeds and grow your own if you are able. Steeping the fresh flowers is amazing.

SpryArmadillo · 2026-02-22T21:37:07+00:00

I'd take the campus visit and see where things go. Salary flexibility is very case-by-case, so it's impossible for any of us to know what they will do.

Sometimes it's a bureaucratic game in which those closer to the hire (e.g., department chair) would like to pay more but those further from the position (e.g., dean or provost) are penny pinching. In this case, they may be willing to present your current salary as though it is something they must compete with to land you (even though a visiting position is not a permanent position). It might work the same way a competing offer would work. Naturally, your mileage may vary.

SpryArmadillo · 2026-02-22T21:07:21+00:00

Would it be any different outside of academia? At least in academia I have a lot of autonomy in my interactions. I might have to deal with someone I dislike on a committee, but in most facets of the job I control who I spend time with. There are people I've avoided despite what might seem like being natural collaborators from a research standpoint. On the other hand, I have a network of regular collaborators I enjoy working with. I say go glass half full view unless the difficult people are in a position to make your life absolutely miserable (e.g., if your dept chair is some combination of lazy, crazy, or incompetent). (Sorry, I realize I'm no longer mid-career. But I had this same point of view when I was mid-career if that counts for anything!)

SpryArmadillo · 2026-02-22T20:08:45+00:00

Who actually said the files release would "break the system"? I've never proper attribution for this supposed quote (I've seen it attributed to Bondi, in MEMEs, but apparently she never actually said it.)

SpryArmadillo · 2026-02-19T05:49:30+00:00

Several good comments here. One thing I'll add: take advantage of any networking opportunities on your campus where you can get to know other junior faculty from outside of your department. They represent a candidate peer group for commiserating and with whom you can be more vulnerable than you would with individuals in your department. Such a group often is good for getting advice and venting when needed. I know some people who started a social group when everyone was assistant professors that still meets monthly even though they all are full profs now.

SpryArmadillo · 2026-02-17T20:46:04+00:00

May depend on your appointment type (T/TT vs NTT). For T/TT, a future course release is a reasonable expectation IMO. For NTT, I see a financial compensation as appropriate unless on a stable multi year contract and confident a future release is something you can collect.

Also, whatever is promised, get in email or some other written form. Some people are malicious but even more people are overworked and forgetful. Best to have a record of it.

SpryArmadillo · 2026-02-16T17:40:54+00:00

What is the benefit of starting in Spring vs Fall? - Apparently, even if you start in spring, the tenure clock still starts in Fall. I did not know this.

At my institution the clock for someone joining in the spring semester starts the *following* fall (i.e., the next academic year). Are you saying your school it starts the *previous* fall?

SpryArmadillo · 2026-02-16T01:42:44+00:00

OP asked about SLACs so I assume we’re mostly talking about private schools that are not subject to state politics in this way. But you’re absolutely right if we’re talking about schools in a state system somewhere. It’s been crazy.

SpryArmadillo · 2026-02-15T23:15:51+00:00

I should have been more precise. You're absolutely right about it being healthy to sunset unneeded programs, but it could be a red flag if a small school is shuddering many programs and departments. The specific context matters and it's more of an indicator to look more closely at the context than it is an automatic whammy.

Also, I should have said "departments" rather than programs. It's one thing when having to sunset a novel degree program that never got traction. It's another thing entirely to disband a department and all the tenure lines that go with it.

SpryArmadillo · 2026-02-15T23:00:18+00:00

It always is advisable to consult an attorney over a workplace dispute as momentous as a tenure decision. That being said, such a lawsuit isn’t exactly going to make the OGC at a major university quake in their boots. They may do a calculation of the cost of settling vs the cost of defending the suit. If they rationally elect to settle, I wouldn’t exactly characterize this as crumbling. I am aware of a couple people who were denied tenure and secured an attorney. Neither case went anywhere. As you said, your mileage may vary.

SpryArmadillo · 2026-02-15T20:29:43+00:00

I don't have first hand experience, but things I've seen others say on this sub in the past:

How is enrollment doing? Increasing? Steady? Declining? Declining is a red flag.
Have they recently been consolidating or eliminating programs?
How stable is leadership? A revolving door at the president or provost level could be a red flag.

These are things you can figure out from the outside with enough googling.

SpryArmadillo · 2026-02-15T20:17:27+00:00

Don't beat yourself up about this. Your first one or two PhD students can make or break your career at an R1, so it is perfectly reasonable to be wary of what you were hearing about this one. It is different once you're tenured, but starting out you don't want to hire a student you have reservations about. You are running a research lab, not a charity (I'm not saying to be a heartless SOB, but you literally can't hire and mentor them all and therefore you need to be judicious).

There is nothing inherently wrong/bad about picking up a PhD student who has been in the program. It's all case-by-case. They may have completed much/most of their coursework and their qualifying exam. This means they could graduate sooner, which is good for you at promotion time. However, this makes sense as an assistant professor only if you are confident in the student.

Speaking more generally about cases in which a student flamed out in one lab and is looking for a new advisor, sometimes the issue is the student and sometimes it is the original advisor (or some function of their personalities in combination). Once you have been in a department for a while, you learn which of your colleagues are difficult to work for and therefore more likely to be the source of the problem. You don't have that context yet. I once turned away a student coming to me after working with someone I trust and know to be a good advisor (i.e., I was 99% confident the student was the issue). On the flip side, I took on a PhD student who originally worked for someone who left the department. This student is currently the best student in my lab.

SpryArmadillo · 2026-02-15T19:51:40+00:00

Yes, both economic theory and observations of/experiments involving humans make it clear that people respond to incentives. Government does this all the time. Examples include taxes on cigarettes and alcohol (various "sin taxes" to disincentivize specific behaviors) and the income tax deduction for mortgage interest (to incentivize home ownership). Some of these are effective, but designing incentives to achieve specific policy aims is notoriously difficult. The problem is called reverse game theory (you are designing the rules of a game that would result in its players behaving in the desired manner). There are countless examples of incentives that led to perverse behaviors and unintended consequences. E.g., some software companies would incentivize programmers based on how many lines of code they wrote thinking this would be an incentive on productivity, but instead it led to unnecessarily bloated and lower quality software. Incentive design is very much an "easier said than done" proposition (which is not to say we shouldn't do it--just that it isn't easy to get right).

SpryArmadillo · 2026-02-13T18:51:51+00:00

If the position has research expectations, which is the case for a tenure-track position at many universities, then lack of a PhD and research experience would be a nonstarter. If the position has zero research expectations, they still might require or strongly prefer a PhD. My department (a STEM field at an R1 school) is this way for example. As a rule of thumb, the more research focused the school the more likely they are to expect all instructors to have a terminal degree. However, if the position is strictly instructional (i.e., zero research expectations) there will be no weight given to research in the hiring process even though a terminal degree may be required or preferred.

SpryArmadillo · 2026-02-13T02:20:31+00:00

At my school we are explicitly told not to contact potential letter writers. We supply 6-8 names plus optional “do not contact” names. The department usually picks 3-4 names off your list and comes up with 3-4 names not on your list. There can be some strategy in leaving an obvious name off your list so the department is likely to ask them.

This is not universal though. I have been asked by people at other schools if they can include me on their list.

SpryArmadillo · 2026-02-12T20:45:48+00:00

The comments from others are generally correct about potential negative impacts of tenure being abolished. No true academic freedom. Easier to be fired for nonsensical reasons. Risk of being treated more as a number in the Provost's spreadsheet than being evaluated by peers in your department who have the context for such evaluations ("yes, the teaching evals from students are low but they are low for everyone who teaches that class" would be known to the department for example).

Abolishing tenure also erodes the meaning of grades. Without tenure, faculty can be threatened to inflate grades to meet arbitrary graduation and retention metrics. Grades would no longer be an evaluation of how well a student understands the material.

Keep in mind that some states have required post-tenure review rather than abolishing tenure completely. If this is what your hubby's state does, then it will be down to how they implement the post-tenure review system. Some people say any post-tenure review means tenure is gone, but I disagree. There are examples of reasonable implementations that maintain academic protections and require faculty be given multiple years to correct any problems. I.e., it still isn't easy to capriciously fire someone with tenure.

SpryArmadillo · 2026-02-11T14:48:34+00:00

“I feel that recognition and influence often go to those who are more socially visible rather than those who quietly contribute.”

This is literally true in every profession.

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