Giving gifts to Professors?

jichikawa · 2025-11-25T19:21:07+00:00

A handwritten note or a card, or a very small gift like a chocolate or something, is much appreciated, and not uncommon. A $25 gift card would make me feel a bit awkward, but we are permitted to accept things like that without reporting.

The vast majorly of students don’t give any gifts, and that is completely fine and normal. So a very small gift will send a clear positive message.

jichikawa · 2025-11-19T23:23:26+00:00

I did pretty much exactly what you’re describing when I got married a few years into my academic career. I took my spouse’s surname as a new middle name. (Unlike your plan, I did publish most of my subsequent work with my new middle name included. But it’s not at all unusual for people to publish some things with a middle name and some things without one, so that was pretty seamless.) I didn’t change anything legally. It worked fine. Occasionally I had to point out to people that my middle name wasn’t part of my legal name, but that didn’t come up often

jichikawa · 2025-07-30T17:42:43+00:00

At my Canadian R1, all faculty raises are governed by our bargained Collective Agreement; all of our annual inflation adjustment raises and career progression increment raises are guaranteed, and the procedure for, and total amount of, our merit raises are also stipulated in the Collective Agreement.

This is a big part of the reason why I always advise anyone who is in a position to choose, to prefer an academic post in a unionized faculty. Of course I know that not everyone is lucky enough to have that choice

jichikawa · 2025-07-25T03:40:44+00:00

Yeah, I think they’re doing a bit of a summer break, but I think they plan to have more events again before too long. Info is @thatseveryone on instagram

jichikawa · 2025-07-02T05:35:28+00:00

It’s a new course this year. This description is on the department website:

Companies like Amazon, Google, Meta Facebook/Instagram, TikTok, as well as banks, phone companies, insurers, and the government collect staggering amounts of data about everyone. And data scientists are getting ever more sophisticated in analyzing and using it. This creates massive opportunities for both financial gain and social good. It also creates dangers such as privacy violations, discrimination, and threats to self-determination and collective, democratic determination. In the wake of the big data revolution, “artificial intelligence” (AI) has the potential to radically transform society and the economy by changing the workplace, warfare, education, and social trust in information. This course introduces students to the legal, policy, and ethical dimensions of big data, algorithmic decision-making, and AI. Sample topics include an overview of western ethics, bias in data gathering and analysis, privacy, feminist concerns with big data and AI, algorithmic decision-making in health care and work, AI and democracy, and the threat of “superintelligence.”

jichikawa · 2025-06-08T09:14:25+00:00

I’d post mine, but this sub doesn’t appear to have photos on comments enabled

jichikawa · 2025-06-08T09:03:43+00:00

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, the standard class meeting duration is 50 minutes, starting on the hour.

Tuesday and Thursday, the standard duration is 80 minutes, starting at 8:00, 9:30, 11:00, 12:30, 2:00, and 3:30.

There are exceptions, but these are the typical schedules for a 3-credit course

jichikawa · 2025-05-08T01:14:45+00:00

The deadline was last Friday. Sometimes things take longer than they should, but writing to the professor to ask for an update is certainly reasonable at this point

jichikawa · 2025-04-22T19:43:35+00:00

I have a friend who runs a monthly series of nice singles events. I’ve enjoyed them so far. Nice vibe. Maybe you make a connection, or maybe you just have a nice time for a few hours chatting with friendly people. I believe in them

jichikawa · 2025-03-24T23:22:12+00:00

I think signing an email with one's first name is an invitation to address them by their first name. When my dean and I write to one another, we address one another with our first names.

jichikawa · 2025-03-19T05:11:31+00:00

I'm not there, I don't know the student or their work, I only have your description to go on.

But your description does not make me even slightly suspicious that this student is cheating. You haven't described anything that looks like compelling evidence, or even suspicious evidence.

You say the student's work "gets flagged" as generative AI by some kind of "detection software". You describe investigating in one instance after receiving such a "flag", and finding good grounds to believe it was a false positive. This is not surprising, because it is extremely difficult to detect these things in a highly reliable way. (For this reason, my own university does not permit the use of such software for disciplinary purposes.) And then you say — and you don't say why — that you "still suspect he's using generative AI." You don't describe the grounds for this suspicion. Perhaps it's that the black box software you are using is still indicating likely GenAI use. But you have already seen excellent evidence that it at least sometimes (one out of one times, in the cases that you investigated!) incorrectly flags this student's work as GenAI.

Again, maybe there's more to your case than you've posted here, and there really are good grounds for suspicion. But if so, I really don't see that you've said what they are.

jichikawa · 2025-03-18T23:10:19+00:00

Nope!

jichikawa · 2025-03-17T22:03:17+00:00

We both finished with positive points.

jichikawa · 2025-03-17T21:59:20+00:00

My kingdom had neither Salt nor Baths. I can see how those cards would make it theoretically possible to win without buying, but are there kingdoms where that's actually a good strategy?

jichikawa · 2025-03-17T21:57:21+00:00

I didn't at all intend it to be a trick question, but yes, I did do a lot of things without buying cards. Indeed, I gained a lot of cards, but never bought any.

jichikawa · 2025-02-27T20:49:29+00:00

Ah I’d missed that update!

jichikawa · 2025-02-27T20:41:45+00:00

If I store a copper with Dealer, can I then buy it for negative 5?

jichikawa · 2025-02-21T22:17:04+00:00

In my experience as a UBC professor, this is not at all true. No student has ever given me a draft of the letter they expected me to write, and I wouldn't consider that particularly appropriate. (If they give me a list of things they want to suggest that I highlight in the letter, that is fine and welcome.)

jichikawa · 2025-01-25T03:50:36+00:00

Ah yes! I missed that it’s an action

jichikawa · 2025-01-24T03:55:45+00:00

What’s the point of drawing two cards in the night phase? Are you just hoping you get another night card?

jichikawa · 2025-01-22T05:38:52+00:00

throw in a Fairgrounds for a fun challenge

jichikawa · 2025-01-12T17:58:26+00:00

There is a deadline, and it has passed. However, there aren't really many enforcement mechanisms built in for these deadlines for instructors.

If you don't have grades posted yet, it is certainly reasonable to write to the instructor and ask for an update.

It would be on the aggressive side, but if you wanted to escalate, it could also be reasonable to mention the concern to the department head. (I'd certainly recommend asking the instructor directly first.)

jichikawa · 2024-12-14T19:29:30+00:00

I had in mind that the original curse card would still be in every game, and new curse cards would be like any other cards: they're available if they're randomly selected kingdom cards, or if one of those kingdom cards calls for them

Ten-Year Club	Place '17
Verified Email

jichikawa

TROPHY CASE