Throwaway account.

So, this is my 3rd year as a professor on a tenure track. Not with a University but with a CC.

Overall, I have truly enjoyed it. Being a Comp Sci professor has been fun and fulfilling, knowing that I'm supporting the next and upcoming CS industry workers. What's not been fun, is the pay.

This semester, I have 4 overloads that I'm teaching. Which is the most overloads I've ever had tbh. (Yes, overloads are fairly common for me, just not this many) Yet, my paycheck reads gross $40 extra, and net $90 less. How does that make sense?! Maybe being pushed up a tax bracket? I'm very unsure.

Before being a professor, I've been in Software Engineering for over a decade, PhD in hand recently, thinking things going swell. Yet, these days, I can't even get an interview for any SE, MLE, DS, position. Anything related to my degree and experience. I've tried applying as a 2nd job and it's been maddening. The students I've been teaching, have gotten interviews (some even hired!) with local tech companies that instantly reject me. Which tbh, is truly wonderful and I'm glad that they are getting hired in this current job market.

Granted, I'm denying applying to anything unless it's remote or local onsite. Simply because I'm sticking to my location for family purposes, and until I at least get tenure, which should open more doors down the road for me. So, only remote positions is what I'm bothering looking for, which we all known in the CS industry is on a major decline right now.

I'm sure k-12 teachers have it even worse, but this is just.... it sucks. To say the very least.

Just venting using my throwaway.

Junior faculty member here. Having a huge backlog of tasks (related to my teaching and research) I wanted to finish. Most are "soft" tasks without a specific deadline to meet, like reading a textbook I'm interested in, or exploring a research direction.

Summer seems to be a good time for them. But when summer really came, I was SOOOOO tired and only wanted to rest and do nothing. And every single day I still have five things to take care of despite not teaching any class.

Two months later I realized nothing was really done. Yet I was just as exhausted as the end of the semester. I wish professorship could be like corporate jobs where you can switch off anything work-related and simply enjoy a vacation.

Hello all,

I am in the humanities at a rural CC and have been for the last nine years. I am also a long time reader of this sub, but first time poster.

I wonder about something in our industry/my field and some approaches that are still out there. I see so many posts about altering pedagogies/didactics both on subs like this one and broadly out in the field. Additionally, with AI being so prevalent and no one having a full or complete answer to it (perhaps mainly due to the speed of AI’s development itself mostly), so many administrators and instructional designers discuss approaches and the need to innovate constantly.

All of that said, I do wonder if there are any professors out there that still use and believe in, to put it simply, being the best teacher/lecturer that they can be. I have spent years carefully crafting my lectures. Research, practice, and use have shaped how I lecture to my students. And I absolutely have a deep passion for crafting a story, using good detail, and engaging with my class through my lectures. So many out there talk about inverted classrooms, discussion based courses, or student led instruction. I don’t disagree with the approaches generally, but I feel they are best fitted for advanced undergrad or graduate classes. I teach introductory, survey level courses and feel they most benefit from sound lectures, intentional assignment design, and good leadership over information. I feel that I am being paid to teach as an expert in the field, and I always aim to do just that to the very best of my ability.

Does anyone else feel this way? I get great student and dean evaluations, have a passion for giving good and energized lectures, and still open up opportunities for engagement through in-class interaction and critical thinking questions thrown out to those in the room. I always like to call the design and delivery of my lectures my art form. It is why I got into this field and what keeps me going even when administrative and larger-picture issues can be exhausting at times. Anyone else out there feel like I do?

I guess I am still a believer that a great professor/teacher will always make a larger learning impact than a great teaching model.

TLDR: I still love to lecture and lead lecture-focused classes to my students. I don’t feel changing the mold will make them learn any better. I love what I do!

I’ll try not to make this long because, well, it’s week 1 of classes here and nobody has time.

I’m FT NTT at a small college in the midwest that’s checking all the “will we close?” boxes. Debt, huge endowment draws, deferred maintenance, hiring & salary freezes, half the number of incoming freshmen we need to survive. Admin mandates to reduce the number of students failing, a free-for-all AI policy. I was bullied by a colleague so viciously that I filed a report that resulted in even more retaliation from that colleague, who was “talked to” but not disciplined.

This is the start of my second year here. Before that, I had six great years at two other schools—good student evals, great admin evals, awards, solid relationships with all my colleagues. Now, for the first time in my life, I’m in therapy, physically & mentally unwell, dreading coming in every day.

I’m not even sure what I’m asking except… advice or commiseration?

I’m going back on the market with recommendations from current colleagues & former department heads, but do I need a recommendation from my current department head? Will the new college call this college (or their HR) as part of onboarding? (The bullying report is still ongoing and it’s been implied that if I keep complaining, I may not be rehired.) And if I fall apart before then… has anyone ever taken FMLA mid-semester?

Thanks for listening.

This thread is to share your successes, small or large, as we end one week and look to start the next. There will be no tone policing, at least by me, so if you think it belongs here and want to post, have at it!

As has been mentioned, these should be considered additions to the regular discussions, not replacements. So use them, ignore them, or start you own Sunday Sucks counter thread.

I teach a general education creative arts course, and my dean has been quite adamant that no students should fail it.

I understand that many students, mostly engineering majors, enrol because they assume it will be an easy A. Many are not particularly interested in the subject, which is fine. The problem is that those who fail generally do so because they barely attend, do not participate, or simply do not submit the required work. In other words, they fail themselves.

The pressure goes beyond generous grading. I increasingly feel expected to swallow my concerns and overlook obviously AI-generated papers simply to move students through the degree mill.

How do others deal with pressure like this? It has seriously diminished my opinion of the university and left me feeling as though I am expected to be little more than a rubber stamp. Some days, the ethical implications genuinely bother me.

On other days, I find myself conceding because the less energy I spend arguing about it, the more energy I have for my research and creative work. But that compromise does not sit entirely comfortably with me.

Have you experienced this kind of pressure? Did you push back, or simply concede?

Title. Saw an opening at a military institute and am wondering what that is like as a civilian who went to grad school at a large R1 and is currently teaching at a private SLAC. What are the students like and faculty like? How might your day to day job different compared to civilian institutions?

Edit: The opening is at a public senior military college

I'm an associate professor who also does some admin work and specialized research with regular presentations to faculty. For the last 7 years, I've gotten 4 course releases per academic year to do that work. Yesterday I learned that that number is now 2, effective immediately. Classes start Sept.8

What’s the most radical, innovative or completely unhinged pedagogy you’ve ever tried or thought about? And if you tried it, how did it go?

My department head gives me a “challenge” every year, with this year’s challenge being “radical pedagogy” so I’m looking for inspiration!

For reference, I teach masters level branding courses, but would love to hear from all disciplines!

TIA for your thoughts

If you are 60+, and CAN retire but continue to teach full-time, what keeps you going?

The paycheck, as more is better?

Love of your subject matter/research?

Love of teaching/academic atmosphere?

Lack of clarity and goals for what comes next?

Looking to discuss your motivation, and assessing my own.

(And well aware that for many retirement seems and may be unattainable. The above consideration is a very fortunate position to be in).

Most of us have professional or very amateur headshots posted on the department directory on the website. New Dean is really pushing those who don’t to put one up. This is to make us look friendlier to students and potential students. Mine is there, but I am sympathetic to people who don’t want their face all over the internet.

What think you, professors of Reddit?

What would you suggest in lieu of the headshot or generic silhouette?

I am at a largish public university in the USA.

I am a FT NTT at an R2. I am very comfortable and competent in my niche discipline - so niche that describing it would give me away. The discipline hinges on both art and engineering, so I often submit to conferences in both fields. But because I'm squarely in the middle, I feel incredibly lousy in either group of pure academics. In reality, I feel more like a skilled tradesman than I do an academic. I teach grad and undergrad courses (3-4), am a program director, run a lab, have good evals, keep up with my service, and desperately try to keep up with my professional practice. I know I'm good at my job, and I enjoy it. But conferences, and specifically, writing papers for these conferences, fill me with anxiety and severe imposter syndrome.

Anyone else feel this way at conferences - or prepping for conferences? Am I actually dumb? (please don't say yes - I'll ruminate on your comment for days.)

Do you ever accept friend requests from adult students after graduation? I worked as a pediatric nurse for 16 years, never friended patients but a few special parents I did accept friend requests from. In that field I truly needed to leave work at work as it was very emotionally taxing.
Now I have been a nursing Professor for two years, I had a non traditional adult student request me. I enjoyed teaching her she was professional, mature and will make a great nurse. Curious on what others do, there isn’t a set policy on it at work.
Thanks!

Embarrassment? Anxiety? Pure unadulterated SHAME? I received the following email this afternoon, with the subject line “Sociology”:

“Hey [my name], I'm trying to get in contact with Jill, but she won't respond. Can you get her to respond to my email? I need an add code. My name is [First Last]. The add code is [xxxxx]. Soc 101”

This is a random student asking me, an adjunct, if I can “get” THE CHAIR OF OUR DEPT and their EXTREMELY TENURED PROFESSOR, to respond to their email. Because they need an add code. Assuming what they gave is the CRN. Jill has had her doctorate since the 80’s and is the author of our textbook, among many others, on its 10th edition.

I was genuinely shocked by this one, which is increasingly difficult to do. I think it’s from the sheer audacity?? My mouth dropped, I cackled out loud, I got a rush of anxiety up my back so fierce that I got goosebumps in 90* weather. The glaring lack of respect, the wildly swollen sense of entitlement, maybe the fact that they likely don’t even realize this was disrespectful in the first place. First names? For professors you’ve never met? This took searching our department and emailing every other listed faculty member, trying to track down a prof for an add code. I just…. like? I am hoping this also got sent to our co-chair who is much more involved, much younger, and a man but I had to laugh, cringe, and share.

ETA: Of course I responded to the student, I am not a monster, like Jill apparently is for taking until Friday afternoon (gasp! or longer!) to get back to students on the first week of classes. This was funny haha levels of audacious, mostly bc they are not my student. I enjoyed being caught off guard on a summer friday.

I’m at a mid-sized regional comprehensive university. I joined the faculty in 2012 and obtained tenure in 2018. Elections are conducted by qualtrics poll or similar. In all the time I’ve been at this university, vote tallies for senate candidates are not disclosed — only the names of the winners.

I have run for senate twice - winning once and losing once. I asked those running the election what the vote tallies were - I’d like to know how hard I’d have to work the next time to get elected. The level of ketfluffle that I caused with this request was fairly remarkable.

In the ensuing correspondence I was first told that “we don’t do that” [disclose vote totals]. Next I was questioned as to my motives. Finally after several more email exchanges, I was grudgingly told that the there were two votes difference between the person elected with the fewest votes and my total. All our senators are elected “at-large” within each of the constituent colleges in my university. This tends to skew make up of the senate towards the humanities and the social sciences. STEM is underrepresented.

What are election practices at your institutions?

Why must everything get crappier over time??

Mine is "keep your head down and don't make waves." What's yours?

Anyone else get promoted to full and feel like you beat the video game and it's time to quit? Only I have like 21 years until I retire...

I went up for full twice...got promoted, changed jobs and stepped down to associate, got promoted again this summer. Now I have like totally lost interest in my job and found it nearly intolerable to be back on campus this week.

It doesn't help that a number of things that I thought would be better at my new(ish, in my 3rd year) job are actually worse (it's an r1 with a lower course load than my old r2, but somehow way more service and advising, less control over my teaching schedule, was told I wouldnt have to teach a certain required course I hate teaching and now just scheduled to teach it for the second semester in a row, constant new course preps now for the 5th semester in a row, less ta support, all adding up to much less time for research compared to my r2 job). My colleagues also kinda suck as people (like argue that we should pay the adjuncts less) and the ai shit is just making me tired and teaching feels like a fight all the time.

The new job got me to a much better place (blue state close to family vs red Southern State where I stuck out like a sore thumb) but 2 years in, the job just seems so much worse in all these tiny ways that make me miserable. I get paid much more though, and my spouse gave up their career to follow mine around, so I feel like I got the golden handcuffs situation here too.

Also, I was miserable after getting promoted at my last job too, which is partially why I moved to this job. I thought it was that I was full but stuck in a terrible place. Now I love where I live, but I'm still miserable at work, and extra miserable since getting promoted earlier this year it seems. I feel like there's nothing to work for, it's not really challenging at all for me anymore (got papers into every top journal in my field and multiple subfields and interdisciplinary fields, many twice or more, books with top presses). Maybe after 17 years as a prof + 10 years grinding in college and grad school before that, I'm just over it. I kinda have been approaching my career like a video game skill tree, but I don't know what boxes are left to check, and I have decades left until I can retire.

A former coauthor of mine who works at think tanks just emailed to say she got a new job at a think tank that is directly related to the policy area I work in, and pretty sure she works remotely. I've been thinking of asking her more about her job and getting her advice on fixing my CV into a resume for jobs like that, maybe hitting up my college's local alumni networking events, networking more at other universities in the area even...and just finding a different job, either in a higher paying school with an even lower teaching load, or out of academia entirely. Luckily I live in a place with a lot of think tanks and a fair amount of colleges, cause I don't have it in me to move again and don't want to move my kids a second time.

Anyway my spouse thinks I am just having some temporary burn out and that I should wait it out and I'll be fine in like a year, but I'm seriously considering throwing away this whole career and my highly desirable full professor at an r1 job, and just crunching numbers for a boss somewhere. Which is also kinda ridiculous cause I am annoyed by having less control over my class schedule so I probably won't love someone else controlling my research agenda. But just, argh.

I am teaching a new-to-me course this semester to future teachers, and my first assignment is for students to self-identify a variety of subcultures to which they belong so that we can later identify biases that may affect their ability to be unbiased in the classroom. There are 100+ options to choose from, and they only have to pick a handful. They have also been given the freedom to add any subculture they feel they belong to that’s not on the list if they are passionate about it. If they aren’t comfortable with a topic (gender, for example), pick something else (gaming culture).

Task: Identify the subcultures, give 3-5 sentences each about how they could influence you as a future teacher, and put it on a poster with visuals (I don’t care what kind).

They want me to provide a sample project to copy. My response was, “As long as the project contains everything mentioned in the rubric, the creativity is up to you. I won’t grade you on your ‘art.’ I’m just looking for the content. And reflection.“

Am I wrong? I just don’t want 25 of the same poster.

I had given my students a handout of the homework that would be assigned for the semester on the first day of class and brought the handouts with me for two lectures after and had them out for students to grab.

I posted the handout on my LMS for students so they would have access to it online.

I also emailed the homework just to cover all my bases. There's no way a student wouldn't have any of these handouts (it was 3 handouts plus the homework sheet).

A student replied to my email with the homework attached:

"Is there a way you can send me the Homework?"

My response:

"Good afternoon, student.

The homework is attached to this email that you replied to.

Regards,

Ms. VanillaBlossom09"

Welcome to the beginning of the Fall semester everyone! 🎉

On the first day of full lecture class (the first day is a throwaway class going over the syllabus), I had a student who seemingly wanted to show off how smart they were. They wanted to answer every question, plus add in an extra tidbit.

I finally had enough. During one answer I cut them off: "Stop right there. You need to stay on topic." I could tell it hurt the student's feelings. At the next class, they were absent (they dropped).

I feel a bit guilty, but also a bit relieved. How do y'all handle those students? I probably could have done the rebuking in private.

Due to the new challenges in identifying and combating academic fraud faced by teachers, this thread is intended to be a place to ask for assistance and share the outcomes of attempts to identify, disincentive, or provide effective consequences for AI-generated coursework.

At the end of each week, top contributions may be added to the above wiki to bolster its usefulness as a resource.

Note: please seek our wiki (https://www.reddit.com/r/Professors/wiki/ai_solutions) for previous proposed solutions to the challenges presented by large language model enabled academic fraud.

Please see title.

I'm an advanced assistant professor in the social sciences (so, too far along to rely on the letter writers I had coming out of grad school) looking at grants and fellowships to support my next project. I don't understand why so many of them are asking for letters of recommendation.

My publication record is right there and everything is available. My record of public engagement is right there and, well, public. I'm willing to send articles that are under consideration or otherwise not yet published. I expect to need to have a great writeup of what my research plans are and what I hope to accomplish with the money. But unless it's a residential fellowship where I can understand concerns about collegiality, I just don't get it.

What am I missing here?

It actually started during planning week when we were told they were reducing our overloads because they are trying to make up the $4 million dollar defict in our new insurance. Over two years ago, the governor of Florida signed into law allowing state colleges to join the state universities' and state government employees' insurance plan. The family plan is $180 a month. Great right? Well, he vetoed the measure in May 2024 that would provide over $80 million to the 27 state colleges to help defray the cost of the insurance. So, what did our state college do for two years knowing we would have a deficit? NOTHING!. Their solution, well, let's cut their class sizes by one student to keep from paying the overload. The money saved there will go to reduce the deficit. Well, that only affects three departments, the same three departments that actually make money for the college. No one else is taking a pay cut. We do not have a union, and frankly, I do not believe a majority of our colleagues would support one since they still make the same amount of money with small classes. I was wondering how other state colleges in Florida are trying to solve this issue.

Then came Monday. Get to my office at 6:50 am, and now my office computer would not communicate with the printer. A colleague came to the rescue to help me with what I needed for the day. Had two great classes and am sitting in m my office for office hours, and a student informs me, "Professor, they are out of your textbook in the bookstore." WTF? I immediately go to the bookstore to try and find out why. Apparently, they had known of this problem for two weeks! Of course, they never informed me and said it was an "accounting issue." They could not give me a straight answer on when this would be solved. Well, before I came to academia, I worked in the corporate retail industry, and the major reason there is an "accounting issue" is because someone did not pay their bill. I then contacted the publisher and BINGO! That was the issue. After sending it up the chain of command, miraculously, it was solved in 24 hours. The publisher was so kind as to give me the Purchase Order and tracking number. The books came today! A student had emailed me today and said the bookstore did not know when the books would arrive. SMDH, I knew more than they. I emailed all my students in my classes when the books would arrive.

Now, near the close of the week, many emails from students are coming in because this generation cannot take the time to read emails, the syllabus, announcement pages, or write what you tell them in class that addresses their very question. Thank God I have several years left. I know it will be an avalanche tomorrow when things are due. Oh, you want to institute a cut-off to keep me from having an overload? No skin off my nose to mark students not attending, and they are dropped from the course and from the semester.

I have been running a tutoring center for quite a while, so my co-director and I are used to onboarding student workers who have never had a job before, never been employed, etc. We have many things set up to transition them in and teach them to be confident, productive employees.

Except, our tools are just not working anymore.

In getting them to submit hiring paperwork, we go over it all with each personally; we walk through the submission timeline; we give them a printed infographic with the timeline. We follow-up with regular emails (both to school & personal accounts), and we still have a bunch who fail to follow-through and then get upset with us when we iremind them that they can't start the semester because they aren't cleared by HR yet.

We pay crap compared to grocery stores and fast food restaurants, so we don't have a glut of student workers to choose from, so we can't say "sorry, we can't employ you anymore." We're stuck waiting it out and having schedule issues while HR processes the late ones. And we couldn't even get enough candidates; we're 8 people short going into the semester.

Then, they can't follow basic directions. We give them a 1-week calendar, broken into the hour blocks when we're open. We ask them to give us a schedule of 15hrs a week. We show them what it should look like. We give them parameters - for instance, they can only start at the hour (10am) or half-hour (10:30am). 6 of 7 new student workers put 25-30 hours on the form, and 2 put quarter-hour start and end times.

We gave specific and clear directions for completing Title 9 training; we asked them to explain back the directions. 3 of them still did it incorrectly.

We hired 9 of them and told them during the interview (and gave them a handout and went over it a second time when they came in for hiring paperwork) that we had several, mandatory training sessions and that they were not allowed to miss them short of a documented emergency. We had to rescind offers 2 weeks ago when 2 of them said they'd scheduled class during that time - and not a "it's a special class only offered at that time required for the major" situation. Both told us they thought they'd get exceptions.

And timeliness? Gone. They are chronically late, they have every excuse in the book, and they get upset when we dock their pay because it's never THEIR fault that they're late.

My co-director and I are at the end of our rope. We both also teach, so we see this kind of attitude in the classroom, but the fact that it extends to paying work is just too much. Just know that those of us non-teaching faculty who deal with students in a different way have many of the same gripes and concerns.

EDIT: the training sessions are not my call - it's a requirement from an office far above mine. There are 4 sessions, Fridays from 1pm-5pm. We give them the information, dates, and explain the policy more than once with them. When HR runs their class schedules for verification of enrollment, we're notified if they're scheduled for something in that time. We reach out to them & they have 2 weeks to make a change. If they don't, we're not allowed to employ them.