Undergraduates, take note:
If we have academic business to discuss -- a paper conference, say -- I will go out of my way and be up on campus for you on a day I'm normally not here. I don't have to be, and I don't expect that other faculty members ought to do the same -- this is my choice, after all. But because I have made that choice, I abjure any right to resent you for taking me up on the offer, or to loudly trumpet the sacrifices I'm making. If I voluntarily make an offer, I should follow through with a cheerful mein.
BUT...
If you fail to make that appointment, even once, with no notice, just leaving me cooling my heels in my office when I could be elsewhere, you may expect that I will never again go out of my way for you. I will continue to be as helpful to you as you need me to be, but that help will come only during my regular office hours. Period.
Ugh, me too. It's even worse when I have to rearrange childcare.
ReplyDeleteHear, hear.
ReplyDeleteI may follow you in adopting the policy of having students forfeit the privilege of appointment-making if they fail to keep one (I've spent several evenings sadly cooling my heels.)
ReplyDeleteDays that I have planned on not being on campus, I would never change my plan just for one student.
ReplyDeleteYou are a good teacher. Both in agreeing to meet in the first place,and providing consequences when someone fails to show up.
ReplyDelete