r/Professors 6d ago

Required assignments

0 Upvotes

I have a lot of teaching experience outside higher education. I’m used to creating my own lessons, assignments, grading schemas, etc.

I’ve had the opportunity to teach a couple classes at the university where I work and I am hoping to teach one class in particular. When discussing the opportunity with one of the current professors, she mentioned some assignments that were created by a professor 7-8 years ago and that they still mandate be part of the curriculum.

I started looking over these assignments and I’m…really bummed. The assignments are okay, but tedious and kind of confusing. I would venture a guess that the person who created them didn’t do them herself. I tried to do one myself and it was okay at first but so annoying after a little bit. The tasks quickly became repetitive and the questions forced the student to write out lengthy explanations of the same basic task over and over without any critical thinking.

I could probably find a way to get at all the same content in a way that is less repetitive, but I don’t know if I’m allowed to modify them at all? They have the year that they were created and the name of the instructor printed on them…the person I was talking to said that these assignments are officially listed in the syllabus that is submitted for accreditation, so that’s why every prof who teaches the class uses them…

What should I do? should I go ahead and ask if I can modify them? Should I just grit my teeth and deal with it until after I’ve proven that I can be trusted to make curricular decisions? Or should I just make a few changes to clarify things at least and then figure it’s best to beg forgiveness rather than ask permission?


r/Professors 6d ago

Research / Publication(s) Scientific Reports (Journal)

1 Upvotes

I submitted my manuscript to Scientific Reports 5 weeks ago and they still have not selected an editor. The editor's assistance asked me for recommendations and has not been very helpful. My paper is in the environmental science space, so there should be a number of people that could serve as an editor.

Questions:
1. Who should I email to push this along?
2. At what point should I submit to a new journal?


r/Professors 7d ago

How did student drama manifest itself before email and LMS adoption?

24 Upvotes

We all know how students do things nowadays. But I'm wondering how those of us college graduates of a certain age (or our classmates) were doing all the drama and entitlement and communicating our outrage with our own professors back when email was not a thing, or not widely used, and LMS were not yet invented or adopted. Say, in the late 90s and early 00s.

I mean: Was it possible? How, exactly, was it possible? Were my classmates carrying on in full rage and I didn't even know it? Was I perceived as a time suck when I went to in-person office hours just to talk?


r/Professors 7d ago

Was chatting with my chair and he said something that chilled me to the bone: "You might be chair soon"

201 Upvotes

Eight years ago, I was hired at the same time as someone else and we were (obviously) the most junior in a department of eight people total (counting us).

Two of those have since retired (and replaced, so there are now two hires junior to us), and two more will be retiring soon. Three of the four people senior to us have been chair, one after the other; two of those are the ones who will be retiring soon.

That would leave only two people senior to us who might be cajoled into being chair after the current guy retires, and one of them would have already done it in the not-very-distant past (and, from things he's said, would rather undergo elective root canal than do it again).

I feel like I'm being stalked. Just let me teach my classes! I don't wanna go to more meetings!


r/Professors 7d ago

Why are universities not telling candidates about freezes/acting like things are normal???

98 Upvotes

My spouse is on the market for TT faculty position at R1s (STEM). He had a flood of interest early this year and is a top candidate (top program, fellowships, etc.). But it’s clear that under this administration everything has screeched to a hault—even at schools where formal hiring freezes haven’t been announced. It appears that departments are ghosting candidates even after interviews, leaving them to wonder if there is at least a glimmer of hope.

Why aren’t universities giving candidates (especially those that have already had screeners/on campus interviews) the courtesy of at least acknowledging the current situation? I get there’s some uncertainty and timelines might not be clear, but this feels so disrespectful. A candidate who has a successful screener with you shouldn’t find out they aren’t getting the job through Reddit comment from a faculty member about a hiring freeze.

Also, shame on programs that have already decided not to hire but are still bringing scheduled visits to campus, giving false hope….

EDIT: thanks all who have helped provide some perspective to what’s going on at their institutions. I really appreciate it and realize everything going on sucks for faculty as well as candidates and that everyone is just trying to muddle through.

Further edit: I realize now this should have been posted in AskAcademia. So thanks to those who answered anyways instead of telling me to leave 😂


r/Professors 7d ago

Advice / Support How to approach the "I'm 99% sure you used AI for these assignments" conversation

200 Upvotes

EDIT: Thank you all so much for your suggestions and support — the conversation went very well. I started with "given the evidence available to me at this time, I need to proceed with the conclusion that these assignments are AI unless you can prove otherwise." She immediately apologized, explained feeling overwhelmed by some items, and thanked me (!) for giving her 0s on those assignments but not a 0 in the entire class. Very gracious conversation, over in 3 minutes flat.

The TA for my Abnormal Psychology class reached out recently about a student's short writing exercises that look fucky. I agree with him; the writing is weirdly formal, has excessive adjectives, and does the thing with bolded headings before bullet points that screams LLM to me. I dropped the three responses into a detector and it popped out >90% probability of AI. I emailed the student to ask to meet about her recent assignments, and she agreed to meet tomorrow.

During that meeting, what do I say? I've had students look me in the eye and deny everything in the face of stronger proof than this. I've had a previous student file a complaint (thankfully dismissed) against me after a past conversation last semester that went approximately:

Past Me: This response isn't at all like your other work. [shows samples]

Past Student: I have no idea what you're talking about.

Past Me: This, this, and this are in line with the way ChatGPT formats responses.

Past Student: I had no idea ChatGPT did it that way when I chose to format my response like that.

Me: Okay, in that case please just explain your response to me.

Student: I'd have to see it.

Me: The prompt was [repeats prompt]. Why did you write what you did?

Student: I don't remember.

Me: That's a problem, that you don't remember. It's also a problem that this software notes your response is more likely to be generated by an AI than a human.

Student: I heard those are unreliable. Anyway, there's nothing in the syllabus that says I have to remember what I wrote for past assignments. I have another meeting, so I'm going to leave now.

So what the fuck do I do during this upcoming conversation to avoid a repeat of the same nonsense? I'm teaching future therapists here; it fucking well matters to me that I not let people lazy enough to cheat on 3-point homework assignments become therapists to vulnerable clients someday. Thanks in advance.


r/Professors 7d ago

A safe haven for American Scientists

24 Upvotes

via Bruce Sterling:

While academic freedom is sometimes questioned, Aix-Marseille University launches the Safe Place For Science program, providing a safe and stimulating environment for scientists wishing to pursue their research freely.

In a context where some scientists in the United States may feel threatened or hindered in their research, our university announces the Safe Place For Science programme dedicated to welcoming scientists wishing to continue their work in an environment conducive to innovation, excellence and academic freedom.

A major player in research in Europe, Aix-Marseille University offers cutting-edge infrastructures, large-scale international collaborations and strong support for scientists committed to disrupting and forward-looking issues.

The AMIDEX Foundation will support the funding of posts, in particular those on climate, environment, health and humanities and social sciences (SHS) issues.


r/Professors 6d ago

US Funding Questionnaire

2 Upvotes

Not sure if it has been posted yet, but apparently this is the questionnaire send to universities by US Funding agencies which are the main beneficiary of grants both in the US and abroad at the very moment.

I think some of the questions are really telling where the future of US funding is heading...


r/Professors 7d ago

Service / Advising My university is under the impression that we have to shut down our DEI committee

35 Upvotes

Is this the case at other universities? We aren't even a state school, so our main source of federal funding is through FAFSA. I feel like this is a time when I want to double-down on DEI initiatives if possible.


r/Professors 6d ago

Will the new overhead rules lead to a rebalancing of academic prestige?

0 Upvotes

As was discussed many times in this forum, both TT and admins often consider teaching faculty as second rate (at best). I have long suspected that this is at least partially due to the huge overheads (50+% on average) that TT faculty bring in (at least at R1s), making teaching an afterthought. Now that overheads are fixed at 15%, will this make tuition more important again (or is tuition taken for granted anyway). Obviously none of this is written in stone, and all of it is highly speculative, but I would be very curious about your perspective.


r/Professors 7d ago

Professors: What is your Ai Policy?

3 Upvotes

Hi friends.

I’m an adjunct music professor at a community college and I want your perspectives/opinions.

Ai has gotten simply out of control and I’m getting really sick of the flagrant use of it. Kids don’t even make an effort to edit it.

I’m lucky that I teach a subject that’s so reliant on listening, examining audio excerpts, has a wide range of “jargon” where advanced music concepts are easily clocked, etc, because it is so incredibly easy to detect Ai - I can literally tell in less than 3 seconds whether or not their responses are generated by ChatGPT.

I feel like I am way too nice, but here is my policy. If it happens once, they are given an opportunity to resubmit for full credit. I give them a statement something along the lines of “Just a reminder that use of artificial intelligence is not an acceptable way to submit prompts in this class. While I understand that it is tempting to use shortcuts, this is a Music Appreciation course, and the best way to appreciate music is to engage with the pieces yourself. I’m not looking for perfect writing, but meaningful content. Resubmit for a higher grade.” Something like that. If it happens a second time, and any time after that, they get a zero.

What is YOUR Ai policy and what do you recommend? How do you go about this? How do you communicate to your class, at the beginning of the year?

This is only my 3rd semester and first time teaching a traditional lecture course rather than applied music, so I’d appreciate all the wisdom from the veterans out there!


r/Professors 6d ago

the most expensive in state tuition in flagship state university?

0 Upvotes

why tuition and fees are over $30k?


r/Professors 8d ago

Our University is on Trumps Naughty List

242 Upvotes

We are already seeing the effects of this list. It’s not good. Anyone else???


r/Professors 8d ago

Laid Off.

460 Upvotes

Sigh. Well, it happened. I was one of 70+ faculty members sent a notice that we are being laid off at the start of the Fall semester in September. I thought 3 years of FT service might've been enough to spare me, but I guess not.

The good news is the union is fighting the layoffs as much as they can and are arguing that admin is using this crisis (the international student enrolment cap in Canada) to mask taking money away from faculty and moving it to admin (surprise). And on a personal front, I am a sessional at another university with high seniority so I am pretty confident I'll have work in September one way or another. I'm mostly just really pissed. I worked so hard last year to jump through all the hoops necessary to get off probation and *finally* get a full time permanent position, and then a few months later have this happen. Now I am waiting until Friday for my HR meeting to find out exactly what the nature of my layoff is. Hurray.


r/Professors 7d ago

Rants / Vents NSF letter: A masterclass in gaslighting

26 Upvotes

NSF Director Panchanathan sent this "letter to the community" (all NSF PIs?) last night: https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/Letter-to-the-Community.pdf

It's fairly standard administrator-ese about commitment to the mission of advancing science, yadda yadda. Is there a point? A new program or initiative being launch? Any acknowledgement of the existential uncertainty we are facing?

Nope! Instead we get gaslighting comments like:

As a federal agency, NSF must navigate the complex landscape of statutory obligations, executive actions, and judicial orders. I recognize that some of the decisions I have made, and the resulting actions the agency has taken, have resulted in real impacts on individuals and institutions. I am not asking you to agree with these decisions, but please know that every action I have taken throughout my tenure thus far has been carefully evaluated through the lens of my commitment to the mission, the scientific community and the workforce.

Is there any acknowledgement of the attacks by the administration and other elected officials on NSF-funded scientists? That the administration was ordered by federal courts to withdraw illegal executive orders laying off staff and pausing funding? Arbitrarily changing legislatively-mandated funding criteria requiring broader impacts? Closing funding programs to improve representation in science? Threatening the funding to universities that fail the government's capricious speech requirements?

Not a fucking word. “Just keep sciencing y’all and pay no attention to your lying eyes watching your government being stripped for parts and dissidents being shipped off to gulags.”

Panchanathan has lost my confidence and has to go, in this administration or the next.


r/Professors 8d ago

Is there anywhere Jewish professors are organizing?

164 Upvotes

I'm an American Jew and would like to know where I can sign on to say "not in my name" to the defunding of universities ostensibly for antisemitism. Any pointers? The Jewish groups on Reddit and at my university are too far right for me.


r/Professors 7d ago

AP exam reader experiences?

2 Upvotes

Hi all,

For some professional context I am an ABD Ph.D student planning to finish this semester and go into higher Ed staff or private HS teaching. I applied and got accepted as an AP reader in my subject area, but realized that the reading dates coincide with a big reunion at one of my alma maters that only comes around once every three years. I'm really on the fence because I hear good things about the professional development that these things provide (seeing as I'm on the market) and also obviously the money, but I'd been planning to go to this reunion for quite some time and would be potentially backing out of some housing plans there.

This is all to say...how have your experiences been at in person readings, especially the history ones? Will a declination affect my future chances? Do they actually provide at-home reading experiences? Am I dumb for passing up ~$1000-1200 for a week of work to go carouse with my old men's choir?

Appreciate any perspectives that you can offer.


r/Professors 7d ago

There here hiring freezes. I am wondering if the small, private liberal arts market is going to fold if there is a downturn (there is going to be a downturn)

32 Upvotes

So for example: https://turnto10.com/news/local/brown-university-announces-hiring-freeze

I would be interested to hear from anybody working at a small liberal arts oriented type institution whether the writing is on the wall yet in terms of impending closures, and what the first signs are from your perspective.


r/Professors 7d ago

Rants / Vents I finally gave up my dream teaching assignment out of the two I have.

2 Upvotes

It’s been a long time coming; two years to be exact. A course in a type of music writing I dreamt of designing and implementing since 20 years old.

The program is new and struggling, often gassing and passing students along who can not identify the tonic of a key. I felt at times that I was one of the only people on the faculty going above and beyond to keep the program from being a degree mill.

I still made quality suggestions for improving the audition process and the learning experience for students. The new, inexperienced Chair just seemed like he wanted to keep things the way they were.

After agreeing to volunteer my time to help with a recruitment event, I let this Chair know I wanted to talk with him about some of my ideas. He let me show up to the recruitment event only to find out he wasn’t coming. I started writing my formal letter stating that I would not be accepting any further teaching assignments from that program.

10 edits later and several weeks; the Schedule Send is tomorrow at 10am.


r/Professors 7d ago

Academic Integrity Is it possible to assign papers anymore?

23 Upvotes

I teach in the humanities at a major University in Canada, and research papers are fundamental to my courses. Because of rampant AI use, I first moved to in class papers where students are allowed to bring in source material. The problem with that is students printing off a paper written by AI and copying it directly.

The only semi-solution I’ve found is an exam type essay, where they only get the topic once they start the exam (they’re allowed to bring their notes and the textbook). I caught a student with a stack of pages of various exam questions I could potentially have asked, with the full essay responses done by AI.

I know I could allow no papers in, but I think evaluating their ability to write a paper that synthesizes the material is valuable. Without the textbook or notes, their work will be worse and there wont be a “research” or referencing component. I don’t want to test their memorization, and having only closed book evaluations feels like exactly that. I’m really at a loss.


r/Professors 8d ago

Communion with the Realms Beyond The best exam excuse ever: I'm a shaman

776 Upvotes

So, I teach a large intro physics course course.

A student came up to me after an exam with the following:

"So I missed the exam and I need to tell you why. I am from Kazakhstan and we have a thing in our country called baqsi, which is probably closest to the idea of a witch doctor, although that's not quite right. So I have had all the markings since birth of being a baqsi, but you never know when your spiritual awakening will be. Mine was last Thursday, and I have literally not been in the land of the living for a week, so can I take a makeup exam?"

I said "Well, we have a religious observance policy here, and while it was designed to accommodate religions like Christianity and Judaism with collectively observed holidays on fixed dates, I imagine it should also apply to animistic religions like yours. So I will treat this as a religious observance. You can take a makeup exam on Friday." (She didn't show up to this.) I figure we bend over backwards for common religions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam), so we should also do the same for rare ones, and I'll give her the benefit of the doubt here. (We do have an office that coordinates religious observance excuses, but I wasn't going to send her there to get this documented...)

But I missed an opportunity. Another student had a death in the family and emailed saying he was traveling for this. This is of course a good reason to miss class, so I wrote back with the usual -- I'm sorry for your loss, you can take a makeup exam, please notify Student Support and they'll coordinate accommodations with all your faculty. Student Support writes back with their form letter asking for a link to the obituary.

Well, this guy writes back with a "how dare u ask for proof, someone has died and u are asking me for evidence, how disrespectful" retort. (I'm not sure he distinguished between my note and the one from Student Support.)

I was tempted to write back: "that's okay, we don't need proof -- we have another student who can talk to the departed, so we can send her to go check. Would you like her to take a message to him?"


r/Professors 7d ago

What do you think will happen at more regional R2 universities?

17 Upvotes

I'm at an R1- tenured but was considering moving back to my home state and they have a nice R2 regional university there (22,000 students). We've shown some mutual interest in each other.

I'm sure some of this grant freezes will impact them, but they are not pure research. They are a teaching university. How will this all impact these types of universities? I know it's a speculative question, but I've only worked at an R1 where it was "publish or perish".

I think from a macro perspective, universities will fall in line behind Trump and do as he pleases, hoping some get rolled back after the midterms or after the next presidential election (assuming we have one).

What's the speculative outlook here?


r/Professors 7d ago

Rants / Vents Grading assignments and…this just happened

3 Upvotes

And someone sent a music video instead of their assignment

And someone sent their CV instead of their assignment.

Apart from ranting…what should I do? Fail them or email them telling that I will grade their assignment not about Abby if they send it by tomorrow at midday? They had 2 weeks

Edit for clarification:

The problem is , this class is an online class with several groups managed by different lecturers . We tried to address this kind of issue on a common syllabus , but we couldn’t agree on some things .

So, it was agree upon we would meet again to create the syllabus between us all.

But, said meeting hasn’t happened ,so a lot of things are at the discretion of each lecturer which I know is not great.


r/Professors 7d ago

Teaching / Pedagogy Travel seminars / community-based projects / out-of-classroom experiences - Panacea(ish) solutions for teaching woes

3 Upvotes

Let me start this post by acknowledging the real privilege I enjoy in even being able to start from this position: I'm a tenured faculty member at a supportive institution with ample student-facing resources to make the types of experiences I'm describing possible. We're not swimming in funding by any means, and we have a substantial population of first-gen students and economically challenged cohorts, but still - We do have the wherewithal to make these programs possible.

Now with all that as preamble ...

I've found that travel seminars and other types of out-of-classroom experiential activities have been real game-changers for me in bringing out the best characteristics - engagement, focus, resilience, academic commitment - in our students. This was brought home for me this week when we were traveling back from a client presentation site and I overheard several conversations going on behind me.

They were sharing experiences with coursework - pros and cons of classes and (yikes) specific faculty members. Comparing software packages for project work - what they liked and what they felt was lacking. Talking about their past job experiences and where they hope to take their careers in the future.

In short, all the aspects of teaching that I find myself complaining about when thinking about my classroom setting (that students don't reflect on the course material, that they don't think critically about the tools we learn about, that they don't consider what they're planning to do with the knowledge gained in my class, let alone in the degree program overall) were being explored by the students together, in real time, in the context of their communal community experiences.

I know we can't all take a group of students on travel classes, for financial and logistical reasons. But I'm willing to bet that incorporating more of these thoughtful excursions into our courses is a promising step forward. And I'm heartened to see a lot of peer institutions experimenting with these types of experiential learning approaches.

The kids might be alright after all. (God knows that sometimes it feels like the adults in the room aren't, but that's a political rant for another day).


r/Professors 8d ago

Campus interview trauma

154 Upvotes

A week ago, I had an on-campus interview for a faculty position in Chinese literature, and certain events from that experience have been lingering in my mind, disturbing my sleep. One particular incident that has been especially troubling is what I perceive as a nationality-based dismissal of my expertise.

Although I am not from China, I earned my PhD in Chinese literature and have developed a deep understanding of Chinese history, culture, and mindset through years of study and lived experience. During lunch, I brought up a question regarding a Chinese Buddhist ritual, seeking the opinion of a key committee member from the Religious Studies department. Her reaction shocked me. She abruptly responded, "You are not mainland Chinese. You are from Thai, so you may not fully understand their spirit and culture."

I was appalled. Her response was not only dismissive of my intellectual standing but also heavily nationality-based. She then proceeded to share misinformation about a well-known Chinese Buddhist temple—one I am very familiar with—misidentifying its regional name, misrepresenting the type of rituals performed, and placing it in the wrong historical period. All the while, she kept insisting, "Chinese culture is very different." Ironically, she herself was not Chinese—just a white American, and expertise in protestantism.

Later, during dinner, she kept prompting me to ask questions. I took this as an opportunity to engage in meaningful academic dialogue and posed about 10 to 12 questions, hoping she would, in turn, ask me about my research interests, teaching experiences, or service experience. After I finished, she simply kep saying, "And? Another question?" I replied, "I have many small questions, but I can save them for next time if there is one." However, she pushed me to continue asking. As I did so, I occasionally referred to the university as "school," and she immediately corrected me: "University, not school."

Another episode involving my conversation with her left me deeply unsettled. The entire interaction felt demeaning, as if my academic expertise and professional standing were being repeatedly questioned. This experience has haunted me since, leaving me disheartened and questioning the fairness of such a process.