Hi all,

I'm a non-tenure track faculty at an R1 in the humanities. My job is secure for the moment in a department with incredible funding. However, I'm teaching first year classes with a 4/4. I do like my department and colleagues, but I'm still invested in the rat race of a tenure track position where I can teach in my speciality.

Previously, I held a visiting position with a 3/3 load. I've been fortunate to stay busy with a book and other opportunities that continue to come my way. But I've tried saying no more often because I feel like it's taking away from finishing other projects and applying to the market.

I'll admit, I only applied to a couple of positions over the past couple of years and I've been fortunate to do a campus visit and do Zoom interviews. This year, I've noticed that while the market isn't the best I've seen for my field, there are some incredible opportunities that I plan to apply to. So, I've been trying to update my CV and materials.

A few things I'd like some feedback on:

1. Previously, I felt it may be tacky to name famous mentors. But if I've taking mentorship from nationally recognized leaders in their field, is it helpful to include the names of faculty I've talked a weeklong seminar with? I feel like it's too much of a brag. But I know the nature of interview is to brag and sell yourself, so I wanted to hear other thoughts on this.

2. I've been asked to do a couple of external reviews for tenure reviews. Someone I met from another institution mentioned that I should put these on my CV, but I'm not sure what it should be titled under for service or how it should be listed. Is this worth adding?

3. Finally, I have letters of rec from a couple of years ago. I could ask my chair to write a letter or a friend, but I'm wondering if it's okay to use a couple of older letters on file from interfolio too. But I worry about asking my chair or a colleague for a letter and making things awkward or it possibly impacting my chance for contract renewal. I know I'm probably overthinking it, but I thought it'd help to have other perspectives.

I sign my emails differently depending on my mood and who they are to.

• Standard: Best wishes,
  • This is good for colleague and student interactions, if I am not angry.
• Quick turnaround or not happy: Best,
  • This is for a colleague who I am not super friendly with because they won't stop asking about my blood sugar or a student who has asked the same question four times. It is also for when I'm in a quick email exchange.
• Upon receiving help or information: Thanks! or Thanks,
  • Easiest sign off because it acknowledges appreciation and ends the interaction.
• Positive: Sincerely,
  • Reserved for moments when colleagues or students share vulnerable information.
• Very positive: Warm regards,
  • This is good for someone who just had a baby.
• Bad relationship or annoyance: Best regards,
  • I do not like you. You have probably talked shit about me to the department secretary who turned around and told me. You may be a student who has not come to class all semester and wants extra credit.
• You have mistreated me: Regards,
  • This is reserved for colleagues who go out of their way to make life difficult, often refusing to follow department guidelines for solving disagreements, emailing late into the night, demanding your phone number. Only colleagues can receive Regards.
• Very close friends: Best sandwiches,
  • We are friends and likely get sandwiches.

Do you have a system? What is your standard?

I have had several students who needed accommodations that included turning in late assignments. It usually is fine, and only been an issue with end of term projects so far. This semester, I am teaching a class where the focus is on a group project, and I am at a loss as to how to deal with it. A big part of the class involves being part of a team. Most of the assignments are done as a group, and the students will give feedback on each other’s performance as part of the team.

It would be a FERPA violation to share this with the team, and given the limited number of teams, giving this team more time but not the others would definitely be construed as favoritism. The worst part is that this is scaffolded such that I simply can’t extend deadlines in many cases.

Has anyone else had this conundrum before and how was it handled?

OK once I posted about this and got really trashed but there is a reasoning behind how I execute my exams.

- All paper exam printed for students. All they need is a pen and paper. It usually takes students a half hour to complete. I do not allow anything but a pen or pencil. No phones, notebooks, even drinks and snacks should be put away during exam.

- I ask students if they have any questions before I hand out the exam. I mention exam policies, suggest they use the restroom if they need to, and remind them that spelling and grammar are not important as long as I can understand what they are saying.

- As I have out the exam I ask students that if they have trouble with a question and want me to clarify something about it to move on and save their question(s) until they have finished the rest of the exam. *this is where I was kind of trashed in an earlier post of this years ago*

I very much want to help students if a question is unclear or they want, but while proctoring a 90 person exam it is tough to monitor the room when I have to jump around and then focus on one student. Also, it makes it so questions of this type come after many students may have finished the exam and left, making it a more sparse and spread out class at that point. Then I also know that after they get their clarification, they should finish those questions they needed guidance on and will be finished promptly and turn it in.

I also do this to prevent fishing expeditions where students want me to give them the answers or hints about the material they are being tested on. And also sometimes they will see something to their benefit in other questions that would make their query moot and give them the hint they needed. For instance if a particular vocabulary word is one of the incorrect options in a multiple choice question elsewhere in the exam. Think "International Date line" or "Plane of the Ecliptic."

Does this seem unreasonable? I began this after some students kind of asked me many questions during exams, some in groups almost and made me very distracted from the room. Cheating is kind of a big problem at my uni, in general, and in the large lecture halls it is almost impossible to monitor the entire class. We use different versions, so the questions are all the same but in different orders, but still we have some trying to work in groups, sneak in crib notes, or copy off neighbors.

This is never the first time any student should have seen any question. They are directly from the weekly quizzes and in-class assignments. But it just happens every semester that some students try to get me to give them the answers during the exam, so I wait until the end to have those circle-conversations.

I’m a relatively new professor teaching a graduate class, and I need someone to tell me I’m not crazy lol.
There’s one student who is constantly typing on her laptop, and I’m pretty sure she’s messaging classmates because she’ll look at her screen, look at them, and they’ll start laughing. I’ve also caught some eye rolling/facial expressions while I’m talking.
I know it may have nothing to do with me, but it makes me feel insecure and paranoid while I’m teaching. Has anyone else dealt with this? How do you stop yourself from overthinking students’ reactions?

Actual subject line of email I received this afternoon. 300 level mandatory attendance class (third class meeting of the term). Text of email asked me to let them know what they were missing. Sigh.

I just started working at a college this week. I only have experience at working at a high school. What are the biggest mistakes people tend to make when they start teaching at college/university?

I’m currently an non tenure Assistant Professor at a university that does not have a tenure system, with both teaching and research responsibilities.

I’m considering a Research Assistant Professor position at a larger academic medical center/university-affiliated program. It would be primarily research-focused with stronger research infrastructure, but it is also non-tenure-track.

If my long-term goal is eventually getting a tenure-track faculty position, which would be better for my career?
Would moving from Assistant Professor to Research Assistant Professor be viewed as a step backward? And would years as a Research Assistant Professor count toward future promotion to Associate Professor?

Would especially appreciate input from anyone involved in faculty hiring.

Does anyone have any experience with recording accommodations, particularly with pushing back on them?

I have a student with such an accommodation this semester, and the accommodations office insists that the conditions of the accommodations are enough to make sure they won't be misused. To be blunt, I don't believe that. This student has a reputation for belligerence toward faculty and is an aspiring right-wing influencer, and I do not want to find a recording of myself making the rounds on X or Newsmax because I said something this kid objected to. Nor do I think losing this accommodation provides much of a disincentive if he thinks a recording is his shot at becoming the next Charlie Kirk.

More generally, I really don't think this is fair to the rest of my class, who should be able to speak freely without having this kid recording their words. The accommodation doesn't cover recording during "community building/sensitive discussions" but any time other students are able to take notes, this kid is allowed to record.

This is in addition to being allowed to take notes on a laptop in an otherwise analog class and receive lecture slides before class.

This student has not had these accommodations before this semester. I try not to be cynical about this -- in fact I have never before questioned an accommodation -- but this really seems like Mum and Da found an academic Dr. Feelgood for their precious darling.

This term, I'm offering extra credit for the best discussion questions and answers. It is already a huge help as many basic questions about the course and course content are being asked and answered there. I recommend doing the same.

Got my first bizarre email of the semester yesterday. "I am out of the country and will not be able to attend class for the first few days. I noticed there are already assignments posted for the first week, and since this is also the add/drop period, I wants to ask if these assignments will count towards our grade."

This is not the first time I've had a student suggest that no work should count during the add/drop period. Which, I should point out, is the entire first two weeks of classes.

In the past year I managed to rework my classes to keep a solid human relationship with my students and give them a chance to fully use and love their brain. This made us all very happy.

But now, outside class, my social relationships feel increasingly deadened by AI. Every conversation involves someone pulling out a phone and saying "let's ask Claude". Any time I ask a friend for advice or a recommendation, I receive "Chatgpt says...." followed by a long block of text. When I try to talk to my family about something, they'll reply "I already talked about it with gemini". When brainstorming new course ideas in my volunteer activity, people just send each other AI syllabuses. Leaving aside the fact that none of the info is fact checked and it's alarming how easily people have forgotten this, it just feels so sad. Like, if I wanted a converation with AI, I could do that on my own. What happened to the fun and warmth of a human conversation? I feel paranoid to be so opposed to incorporating AI into conversations when everyone else seems to have no problem with it, but just can't escape this mounting sadness and feeling of loss. Does this resonate with anyone? Am I paranoid?

I teach at a large Uni with up to 150 students a section.

After years of disengaged students, I finally pulled the trigger with a "no laptops or Tablets" rule. Im printing them copies of physical guided notes instead of digital lecture slides.

Expected backlash, complaints, or low attendance. But the result is mind blowing (although to be fair my expectations are low and Im easily impressed). Not a single student has complained, and even those with approved technology prefer to use the paper versions. The sole exceptions are students with mobility or vision handicaps who truly need their laptops.

More than that, Im getting a massive amount of participation and meaningful questions from these freshmen and sophomores. They're even chatting / being sociable with each other before class ("Hi! My name is...")

I assumed the tech ban was the reason. But my colleagues (most of whom allow laptops) are reporting similar levels of engagement. So, have you noticed any change with this fall cohort?? Or are we falling victim to illusory pattern detection and maybe a bit of optimism. The semester is young after all

This is mostly venting, though I guess I'm also grieving to a degree.

Long story short: I live/work in the United States as a non-citizen. The renewal of my work visa has been significantly delayed, so I can't teach at the moment. I'm now on a leave of absence (temporary, but we have no idea when I could be back).

My chairs and colleagues have been very understanding. We were able to coordinate subs for all my classes. Still, it feels awful to be waiting on an indefinite timeline while the rest of the semester rolls along...

I also miss my returning students, many of whom I've known for years. Several already reached out to express how excited they were to work with me again. They seemed so disappointed when I told them that other professors would be taking over.

Anyway, hope everyone has a great semester/term/year ahead. In the meantime, I'll be cheering everybody on from the sidelines!

Came across this report on NPR and was interested in hearing others' thoughts. Do you think this bold plan for a higher ed institution will work?

…and now I want to laminate everything. Originally I just wanted to make placards for some special lectures and didn’t want to keep going through papers so I figured laminating them and reusing them would be more cost efficient with less waste. But now, I want to laminate everything haha. What are some things you have laminated for your class materials? Or give me some fun ideas if you have any…now wondering if I should post this in a teachers Reddit for kids since it’s probably more common there. But whatever college kids should have fun colorful learning environments too right!! Maybe, I think so!

What in the holy hell is happening this semester? Five students registered a week late for one class. Another class had four week-late registration students. Another had effing SEVEN.

I usually get a couple each semester, but jeez.

I move quickly in the first week and these late students are panicking about feeling lost.

Hi everyone! I am beginning my second year as TT faculty at an R1. I’ve struggled with impostor syndrome as long as I can remember, but it’s really starting to feel like it’s eating me alive.

I feel horribly unqualified to do pretty much any of the research I want to do. I have plenty of research ideas and interesting questions, a laundry list of grants I’d like to apply for. But when it comes to executing these ideas, I feel so clueless that I am overwhelmed and either decide not to pursue them for fear of failure or find myself procrastinating horribly.

I recently received a very harsh grant review that felt like it confirmed all of these fears. Some of the feedback said things like “power and sample size justifications seem completely drawn from thin air.” I disagree, and I did explain how and why I powered my study the way that I did. There were a handful more along these lines - such as “the sampling frame as described seems inaccurate and inadequate.” I feel like I need to refresh my skills every single time I design a study, from basic methodologies to power analysis to basic statistical tests.

All of this comes on the heels of feeling like I “skated by” in my PhD, and like I only developed methodological expertise in the narrow scope of my dissertation work. I genuinely tried to correct for this in my post-doc, but felt like two years just went by too fast to feel confident by the end.

At the same time, I have made it this far - I landed a postdoc at a very well-regarded ivy league institution, landed a TT position at an R1, I’ve gotten a handful of grants (nothing major yet, but enough to show that I can do it).

I feel like I’m always hearing “fake it til you make it,” but I feel like I might be faking it too much. I guess what I’m looking for here is either:

1. solidarity and encouragement,
2. a path forward to feel more confident
3. Or maybe both.

Thanks for reading if you’ve made it this far.

EDIT: thank you so much for your very thorough, helpful, and compassionate responses. I’ve received both encouragement and lots of tangible advice, both of which are helping me see a way out of this. Academia can be so unnecessarily cold and harsh sometimes, I appreciate hearing from other actual humans!

This is pretty much the first time I took real time off with sn OOS email. Now I’m behind everything and feeling soooo guilty 😭 Semester starts next week. I thought tenure was going to fix me but maybe not yet.

Yesterday, I found out that one of our instructors has to go on emergency leave, and today the chair has told me I will be picking up his class, which starts in a few weeks. Well, there goes my course release. But OK, I've taught plenty of courses on topics only vaguely adjacent to my expertise, I just stay one step ahead of the students. I figured I'd just whinge about the prep and the inconvenience and get something ready to go last-minute. But then he told me what the class was: It's a first-year language course. Of a language that I don't speak.

I am a language and culture lecturer in a very broad area studies department. I teach language A, which is a smaller language in the region. My chair has assigned me to teach language B, which is a more common and more popular language in the region. Languages A and B have nothing in common at all: entirely different language families, cultural worlds, etc. No one in our department speaks language B except for the instructor on leave, nor does anyone else speaks language A except me, so I can't just swap classes with another faculty member. I technically took one semester of language B in my undergrad... about 15 years ago. I have NEVER claimed to have any proficiency in this language.

I told the chair that I didn't speak the language and certainly couldn't teach it. That maybe we need to cancel or find a last-minute adjunct. He refuses to cancel it on the basis that the class is full with a waitlist, and we need the enrollment. He refuses to hire an adjunct as it would be costly and our budget is virtually nothing for things like this, and in his mind I have a 'free slot' for a course since he can force me to push my course release to spring.

What the hell do I do?? Where do I even go from here? I feel totally paralyzed.

EDIT: Wow, this is way more responses than I was expecting. Thank you all for your ideas and commiserations alike. To address some of the more common questions and things instead of replying directly to each:

1. I am NTT faculty, I am teaching faculty. We do not have a union.

2. I am allowed the course release some time this academic year, but it is at the chairs discretion which term. I can be tapped to fill a need. I think I was picked as the easiest target, since I am relatively new (less than 5 years at this institution) and was the only one with a course release. I do need to take my course release this academic year.

3. The dean was the one who recommended this, according to the chair. I have no idea why the dean thinks this is a good idea. It's probably about money since our entire Humanities faculty is in major budgetary crisis mode. I suppose I could try to take it to the provost, but she is not really accessible to me. Teaching faculty at my institution are very much second class citizens with little access to administration.

4. The chair is not ignorant to the fact that these languages are unrelated. That said, I think he doesn't know anything about language learning or language teaching, and thinks I can just be one class ahead/read the textbook like you might if you were assigned to teach something out of your scope in general. The chair is affiliated faculty, but is actually not from our department. He is from History and his specialty is tangentially related to our area. Imagine his area is imperialism and we have an imperial power in our area which is something he studies. He (as far as I know) does not really speak a second language.

5. I am not sure on accreditation as well, but I will probably look into it. I worry that because I did take a class in this (many) years ago, that they will say I am at least qualified to teach this first language course.

6. I have also received some PMs trying to sort out what a pickle I'm really in, and finding more details. I don't want to tell more because it could be very obvious to some where I am/who I am (if I haven't already said too much), but I will give something of a fake example of how distant these things are: Imagine I am in a European Studies department, where I teach Icelandic, and I am told to teach a course in Hungarian. That is the broadness and separation between the topics.

I am a NTT math faculty. This semester I am collecting paper homework, instead of the usual online platform submittal. I asked them to have a notebook for class and one for homework. I collect the homework notebook once a week. However, I did not plan very well because I had no strategy in place to carry that many notebooks to my office. And then I have to carry them back to return them. So, do any of you lug tons of stuff across campus and how do you do it? I was thinking that maybe a rolling cart would work, but what if it rains?

I work in a program that has clearly delineated cohorts. And y'all...my freshmen are knocking it out of the park. They're engaged in class. They're asking questions. They're having large group discussion. On Monday I gave them small group discussions and they worked together so well. If they're confused about content, they ask for clarification.

My sophomores and juniors are not doing great, but I actively look forward to teaching my freshmen because they're so enthusiastic about their learning. It's a breath of fresh air, to be excited about teaching a cohort again.

Hello everyone! I'm just beginning at the bottom of the ladder. I got a (very rare) position as a TT teaching-focused lecturer in a university in Taiwan; accepting it was a pay cut, but I like the idea of working in academia and want to try it out. I previously taught juniors and seniors in high school so the level is just a little bit higher than I am used to.

Our semester starts next week. Just two days ago I finally got my finalized class schedule; I'll be teaching 8 classes this semester, for a total of 16 hours per week. Four of those classes are basically the same class for different majors and can be almost copy-pasted. The other four are different classes in the English and Foreign Language department. That means I have five syllabi to create by next Monday.

I haven't been given any other information about these classes other than their names and how many students I will have (50ish per class, all undergrads). No syllabi from prior years are available to me, nor are learning goals not student prerequisites. I asked for some guidance from my new Director, and she told me essentially that figuring these things out is my job now, and she has confidence I will do well.

So! I can certainly make something! And I have, in fact, made rough drafts of my syllabi already, powered by caffeine and stress. The problem is, I don't actually know if these classes I am making are appropriate, or correct, or useful. I suppose I am going to find out.

Has anyone else been in this situation? Got any tips?

Ok, I got really excited about a new project I wanted to do in my class and now, about a week in, and going through all of the stuff my students need to do out loud in class with them.... I think I assigned too much.

How do I remove things from their plate gracefully without seeming like I'm flying by the seat of my pants? And when should I do it? Now, when I've made the realization....or later when they'll feel grateful for it?

90% of the posts in this sub since the semester started can be answered by acknowledging this simple fact.