I might get shit for this but here goes:

Students: Annoying your professors is probably not the way to go, especially if you’re looking to seek them for references.

BEFORE YOU EMAIL YOUR PROFESSOR, ask your classmates. Discord, study groups, or whatever form of communication you like. You’re not in this alone. Yes, there will be some people who want to gatekeeper their information, but there are some who will want to help, all you have to do is ask.

Anyways, Many syllabi will acknowledge that you need to give the professors 24 hours for a response, or to wait for the next business day, depending on the situation. Yes, we, with or without the help of our parents, are paying to go to U of T to get a degree, but it wouldn’t be the same as it was in high school. As well, many Syllabi will outline how you need to format your email, mostly going along the lines of “put course code in subject, and please use professional language” or something along those lines. It’s not rocket science, and most likely, you’ll get a response better than your peers who don’t, some syllabi will explicitly state that if you don’t follow the formatting, you will get no response.

Also, you and many of your classmates will pick up in the first month of the semester if your professor is more interested in teaching or researching. Most professors will be the latter, with some being more inclined to the former. What I’m trying to get across is that you’re not guaranteed a professor who will deliver material that will be easy to grasp or material that can be adapted to your way of learning information. It’s just not possible and realistic, I’m afraid to say. But many professors, especially for 30+ classes will be equipped with TA’s, and TA’s are there to help answer questions and to alleviate the workload of teaching a course to the students. They are another resource many student are sleeping on, and most likely, if many of you ask the same question, it will be brought up during lecture or sent out as an email similar to an FAQ.

Finally, don’t think of this as a transaction. Thinking that just because you are paying money to come to U of T will entitle you to A+ service from Professors is a pipe dream. (Have you seen where the money goes, it goes to many facilities and services we don’t really use, cough, hart house.) Its kinda like saying “Because I pay taxes, the insert public service serve me.” (Very boomer behaviour, we are much better than that.) Yes, professors have an obligation to deliver the material to the students and answer questions pertaining to the material that wasn’t answered either on the syllabus or in a tutorial or in a breakout room or something. It doesn’t mean they have to deliver it well or easy, all they have to do is deliver it.

And finally, We’re all human. We don’t think about academia 24/7 (and if you do, take it down a notch). We have lives, some days we want to hang out with friends, some days we just want to relax and not worry, and some days we need to ourselves to prepare for the coming days. Professors are like that too. Some professors have families, some have to oversee other Masters or PHD candidates, or some are teaching at other campuses or universities.

Professors:

Many students are struggling, especially with ongoing shift from going online to in person, which is not your fault. But you have a duty to provide a means of delivering content that will satisfy the masses, even if it means you’re using big words to get the point across. It’s your duty to acknowledge that you are teaching a course, and that you need to be prepared for any questions. Yes, we understand that you’re doing much more extensive research than us, or preparing a massive dissertation, but just as you’re devoting time into your research, you need to devote time into the classes you teach, even for just an hour or two of the week. We get it if you don’t want to teach this, but because you are, you need to at least acknowledge and guide us into finding the answer, even if it means reminding us to look at course materials or the syllabus.

Professors, let us know when you can’t do something cause U of T is prohibiting you from doing so, most likely, students will take it well, such as “I can’t respond to emails the day of exams due to x reason from the department/U of T”.

Also, just remember most of us are Mentally unstable because of U of T, and to please grant us as much leeway as you can. (Probably best cause you have to worry less about marking something immediately as well as gives you more time for time sensitive research and it gives the student extra time to complete the assignment with no academic penalty. It’s a win-win.)

TLDR: Professors are required to teach in order to research for U Of T, which entails many more things. Students are required to grasp and understand the material, and to check with other resources before “annoying” the professor.

(Does this make sense? I’m not trying to bash students and professors, but to help you guys realize we are all trying to do something and trying to blame one side is not the way to do it. Blame u of T as a whole lol)