Holding professors accountable
Since high school, we’ve been told that university is a different ball game. Professors will not check in on you, they will not remind you of due dates, they will not baby or coddle you. I have accepted this. I understand this. What I will not accept is the blatant laziness, complacency, and unprofessionalism that I have experienced from some professors. Intentionally not answering students’ emails, not showing up for posted office hours, re-uploading old course outlines with incorrect due dates, lectures consisting of reading directly from a textbook, providing problem sets riddled with calculation or method errors, showing up late to midterms and exams.
I was not warned about these things when I was in high school. I don’t think I should have had to be warned. Students are here to learn. That alone provides the high levels of stress that we budgeted for when we decided to come to university. We do not need to be jumping through hoops to make the lives of our professors easier. It does not help us learn, it does not enrich our university experience. It simply pushes us closer to our breaking point.
As students, we are tested and graded constantly, holding us responsible for our learning and growth. But who is holding those who teach us accountable? Every year course evaluations come and go. However, as a fourth-year student, I have little reason to believe that they go anywhere other than directly in the trash. I want my professors to be graded in the same way I am. As a paying customer of this university, I want them to be “failed” if they do not meet our standards. I want to see faculty members fight for their position within this institution in the same way each and every student does. I want to see them learn alongside me.
—A succeeding, healthy, unsatisfied student
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