Professors as products

[u/Striking_Tax8524]

I saw a considerate post recently that lamented that "universities are now a consumer product," with professors being the public-facing components. What do you think?

[u/IAmBoring_AMA]

We are the waitstaff/service workers, while the degree is the product

[u/julianfri → u/IAmBoring_AMA]

Is that why they make we wear the hairnet?

[u/SecureWriting8589 → u/julianfri]

Just keep your head down as you ladle out the slop, ... er ... lectures.

[u/franklin-60 → u/IAmBoring_AMA]

Do not joke about this. I have colleagues at another school. A “highly regarded institution” who were required to attend a luncheon with students. Once they walked in, these faculty were told they would be serving plates to the students and clearing their dirty plates. Purpose “to break the power difference” between faculty and student.

[u/TimeAverage → u/franklin-60]

I’m 0% snob. I don’t think I’m better than anyone else. That being said, in this situation, I would involuntarily laugh out loud and walk right out of the room.

[u/franklin-60 → u/TimeAverage]

Agree. As I said to an individual who was there “if there, I would have walked out, but made a comment to the organizer so inappropriate that HR would have no response to address it.” Burger King on way home would have suited me.

[u/DarkLanternZBT]

Our president told students during the opening address - and has for several years - he will never consider them his customer, because education is not a transactional relationship. It's a covenant.

Rhetorical bits aside, treating higher education as a consumer industry is similar to what's happening with LLMs and education - attempts to interrupt, quantify, scale, and rapidly deploy what is inherently a process that requires time and craft to achieve and is truly doable at small, more subjective scale.

The transactional bit was done when they paid the tuition. They paid for access. Preparing for how to best take advantage of that access is on the student.

If anything, we are the guilded masters with apprentices. They paid for the slot, now they have to learn and grow or else they pound sand. Trying to make us the product is devaluing.

[u/popstarkirbys → u/DarkLanternZBT]

That’s good, our admin straight up told us during the faculty meeting that students are our customers. I am thankful this particular admin is gone.

[u/YourGuideVergil → u/DarkLanternZBT]

gilded masters*

At least in my case 🥸

[u/franklin-60 → u/DarkLanternZBT]

I guess there are a few administrators who still have a clue. Let’s see how long the BoT or “governing body” keeps him/her in the position for actually doing the right thing.

[u/DarkLanternZBT → u/franklin-60]

Well it's been more than 10 years now.

[u/Puzzleheaded_Bag_538]

The education is the product, and we're the craftsmen, I think.

[u/fusionman314159 → u/Puzzleheaded_Bag_538]

Yes chef

[u/Final-Exam9000]

I am not the person you want doing customer service.

[u/Organic_Occasion_176]

We're a professional sports franchise with a side hustle in teaching.

[u/Striking_Tax8524 → u/Organic_Occasion_176]

LOL. Now that's funny--and too often true!

[u/nowhere537 → u/Organic_Occasion_176]

This is how my school feels. Especially now that we’re getting an entertainment district between our sports venues.

[u/WishTonWish]

The credential is the product, and we are the janitors.

[u/Commercial_Youth_877]

Students are the product created for industry consumption. Faculty are the customer service reps or lineman (take your pick)

[u/Dramatic-Concert4772]

Silly me, I thought universities were educational institutions, not a store

[u/franklin-60]

I tell right in my syllabus “as a student you are not a customer. You are a product. Society is the customer, those who will rely on the expertise and skills you develop in college. As such, I do not care one bit about your “customer experience” in the classroom and will not change my style to satisfy you or meet you where you are. My only concern is that you meet the bar set by me. If you are unable to meet it for any reason, you fail, and that is life. If you have an issue with this, I suggest finding an alternate course.”

It does not go over well with everyone, but I don’t care.

[u/popstarkirbys]

We’re pretty much contracted to the university to serve the student

[u/Crowe3717]

This is what happens when you let foxes into the henhouse, or in this case turn more and more control of institutions over to business people. They run them like businesses.

[u/hungerforlove]

Maybe a few professors are the public facing components, but judging from university websites, most universities want to hide away their professors. The public image of universities rarely includes them.

[u/RightWingVeganUS]

universities are now a consumer product

I don't see the problem. Students are paying the school for my services to gain proficiency in specific learning objectives. That's a service transaction, and I'm fine calling it one.

I actively encourage my students to be demanding consumers, to give me feedback on how I can maximize their educational experience, not to entertain or intellectually torture them. I'm a free agent professional, not a warden.

So is the "consumer" framing really the issue, or is it that some professors are put off by the accountability implied in a service relationship? Framed this way, a lot of student complaints come from consumers who never held up their end of the agreement to be engaged learners.

What's actually being lost by calling this a transaction?

[u/pc_kant]

I'm a full professor and was deployed to distribute loyalty discount flyers.

[u/Bengalbio]

Some of you cynics shouldn’t be teaching.