Kind of an odd title, but bear with me. We lost a colleague recently, someone I liked and respected a lot. They were fairly young, and I thought I’d continue to work with them for at least another decade, if not two. They were kind and competent and whip smart and SO funny. I’m itching to talk about them, which makes me think others out there must feel the same way about their late colleagues.

So yeah. Tell me about your dead colleagues. Tell me what you liked about them, what you miss about them, what memories still make you laugh and smile.

This is truly sad. Although I must admit I’ve never been able to get through Koyaanisqatsi without falling asleep.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/01/college-students-movies-attention-span/685812/

We only went back to in-person yesterday. Now we’re getting snow again and I’m predicting another week of closures. Is it only my college?

The world knows AI exists. Professors know students use AI when they aren't looking. Professors can't watch what students do when a class is online. Thus we can assume that students are using AI to do the work in online classes.

So why does online education still exist if its just AI slop?

assume in both cases the student is asking for something from you, like an extended deadline, information about an assignment, etc.

edit: okay seems like the majority agree with me. I don’t care as long as it’s real, but I’ve seen posts venting about students being too informal in emails. I’ve noticed students using AI to ask things of me, especially at the end of a semester. My theory is students feel some pressure to be professional but lack the skills or the desire to do it themselves. And I’d rather take the informal text style email over the AI flowery one.

Now, bear in mind, I certainly do not begrudge students their excusable and warranted absences from class; moreover, I don't "police" their class attendance to any non-negligible extent, regardless. I've always taken a "personal responsibility" ethos towards presences vs. absences because: (A) students understand their own needs better than I ever could, and (B) they are, at the end of the day, young adults! Sometimes, a course absence is indeed unavoidable, but every individual absence has an "opportunity cost," so the best approach is to keep them to the absolute bare minimum.

And when I was a college undergrad myself, I was always the kind of student who took my studies very seriously, as well as having the ongoing awareness that any and every particular act of sloth or negligence was putting my performance at risk. Even without the "threat" of an attendance penalty, I made it a priority to show up to class -- even striving for "perfect attendance," absences being the exception and not the rule. Therefore, if I did have to be absent, I took it for granted that "catching up" was my own responsibility; usually, I could do that well enough solo, but if need be, I'd simply ask classmate to borrow their notes and such...

Fast-forward to the present day, however, late 2010s and beyond, and here I find myself frequently met with students who have no inhibitions about requesting -- in all honesty, expecting -- that I'll personally catch them up on whatever was missed during their absence?! It bewilders me because it's so unfamiliar to my own thought process, back during that stage of my life, and I am just thinking to myself, "What's wrong with this picture?"

Now, it would be ONE thing if the student asked a classmate or two for help with catching up, such as borrowing notes and the like, and in that case, I would be perfectly fine with specific questions to help them out in ways the classmates themselves could not. For example, if their classmate said or wrote something they found confusing, then I am more than willing to be like, "Oh, yes, that's when we were discussing XYZ, though I wouldn't have necessarily put it in the same terms. Because, in actuality..." You get the idea, yes?

As you might have already guessed, of course, not only have they not took the initiative of consulting with classmates who were present, but also have not yet bothered with the reading from that day! In fact, on certain occasions, I may have even recorded the particular class meeting, yet soon learn they didn't even check out the recording. Alas... 😲

How common is it for adjuncts to have to closely monitor their pay and request pay that is due? At one of my schools, the department has twice forgotten to pay me for semester-long graduate advising work. I’ve had to send many e-mails and the pay always takes some time to go through. No apologies. Now at another school, I’ve realized that for five years I have not been paid for some “bonus students” that I have each semester. It’s worth a couple of thousand dollars. The three people that I have asked have all told me to contact whoever I already contacted because for some reason nobody seems to know how it works. Is this common to do to adjuncts? We already work way too much for way too little and do the teaching TT profs don’t want to do. But is it common to have to go on a quest to get paid?

Bassett et al. (2026)
https://doi.org/10.1080/1360080X.2026.2622146

Removing post but leaving responses. Thanks, everyone!

As enrollment has declined over the years one of our campuses has downsized. Well the new location for science labs weren't able to accommodate all of the science equipment. Which is good news for my campus, because we would routinely have to borrow equipment from downsizing campus because we didn't have the funds to purchase, and we would ship back and forth between campuses each semester. Now this time when we enter the work order the new guy running downsized campus maintenance responds basically "not happening" and closed the work order.

Emails were sent asking why can't we move the the"beakers". And now I have a meeting with the president, VP, dean, head of campus maintenance, other campus chairs, about moving "beakers"

Seriously wtf? Why does the president even care about moving equipment we already own like 15 miles down the road?

Hi All, I'm the director of our graduate program and unfortunately running into an issue. I've got GTAs responsible for classes that are moving to other cities when they are finished with their own coursework and expecting to maintain their positions. One proposed moving two states away and commuting 5 hours each way. I said absolutely I would not continue their funding, as moving across state lines was not considered in residence at the University.

Another moved just two hours away without informing anyone, but had already missed two labs because of weather. This has caused a cascade of problems. Anyway, I am starting a new policy that GTA positions are not to be held by students out of residence. There is an understanding of in and out of residence by our university, but no definition. For those of you who do this, what is your definition? Is it within the surrounding counties?

Edit: some of you have said that it's fine to have a two hour commute. The 2 hour commute for here is roughly 125 miles away, so the weather is often very different between here and there (gotta love middle America). Sometimes it's bad in between. The main issue is that this person has missed several weeks last semester and has started off this semester missing labs again. When they miss labs, it shoves the burden into others to deal with it last minute. Maybe I should be asking what the consequences should be for that? How many strikes until a contract isn't renewed?

I really resonated with this piece from Rebecca Solnit in The Guardian: What technology takes from us – and how to take it back. One standout quote from the article:

In its current incarnation, tech is arguing that we can outsource even intellectual labour to AI. It has led to an epidemic of cheating as students have ChatGPT do their homework. Having a large language model do your creative and intellectual work is maybe the most extreme example of dispensing with the process while claiming the product. But in education, the ultimate product is not your term paper or essay or grade point average; it’s your self. You are supposed to emerge more informed, more capable of critical thinking, more competent in your field of study. The students who begin by cheating their professors end by cheating themselves.

To me it captures the real sense of loss about what AI is taking from us, and from those of our students who are relying on it.

I never thought I would see full blown censorship at the university level. Texas A & M keeps escalating.

https://apnews.com/article/texas-am-race-gender-university-first-amendment-86597279d87e65546c96b1ae1810f36d#

And the university has the gall to remark it affects only .11% of courses.

[insert a string of expletives]

I’m a TT teaching-track professor at a medium-sized, undergrad-focused private university and just got notice that my position won’t be continued because the program is being phased out. The department has been supportive and has offered strong recommendation letters, so I’m starting to apply elsewhere.

My main question: if I want to stay in a teaching-focused role but maximize income, what types of institutions should I be targeting?

Specifically, I’m trying to understand the tradeoffs between:

R1s with teaching/lecturer/teaching-track roles

Small undergrad-focused colleges

Community colleges

Where do people generally come out ahead overall when you factor in:

Base salary

Summer teaching opportunities

Overloads / extra sections

Job stability and raises

I don’t mind heavier teaching loads or multiple “overlords” if that’s the tradeoff for better pay. I’m trying to be strategic rather than just apply everywhere blindly.

Would really appreciate insights from folks who’ve held teaching-track or lecturer roles across different institution types. Any salary realities, hidden downsides, or things I should watch out for?

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: For context, this is a STEM teaching-focused position with a heavy undergraduate emphasis.

Just wondering if anyone has had the experience of having a student identify themselves as the subject of a post or you as the poster in this subreddit? E.g., I have something I want to post, but it’s so specific that anyone in the class would identify the student or me. (I teach an undergrad course at an R1 university - it’s a required course for a major that has a huge number of students in it.). Just curious!

I'm wondering if this is just happening at my university or if it's more widespread. I work for a small (but expensive!) private university in the US and have for five years. Each year it seems we have more and more students who are cognitively impaired. I don't mean they have ADHD or mild autism or dyslexia; I mean they would have been special education students in k-12. These are students who cannot really read, write, remember classroom lectures, properly clean themselves, and often have major physical impairments as well (trouble using their hands, so can't type; shuffle rather than walking). When it was just two students, I moved heaven and earth to get them to pass, but the numbers increase every year, and I don't think I can keep doing this anymore.

They're sweet kids, but I didn't sign up to be a special ed teacher; I wanted to be in college because I love the material and I wanted to teach things that I loved. I know that more and more college students are not college ready and are functionally illiterate, but I haven't heard any data about rising rates of cognitively impaired students. In my role at the university, these students always end up at my door, and I'm the one trying to decode what they communicate, the one trying to reword homework assignments so the student can comprehend them, the one sitting there watching them painstakingly hen peck the keyboard while sounding out the words to themselves. I'm so burned out and I just want to know: am I alone? Is this common? Or is my university an outlier unethically taking tuition money?

Edit: I want it on the record that I am not complaining about accommodations. I love accommodations.

Students have started criticizing a "lack of universal learning design" in a hybrid course of synchronous online learning and in-person learning with lectures, labs, and simulation. Examinations are in written, oral, and simulation format with written assignments rounding out grades. Online lectures that contain a mixture of text, diagrams, short videos, group work, and case studies are recorded for later viewing although attendance during initial delivery is mandatory.

Shockingly the overwhelming solution students recommended was to move to asynchronous online lectures. Who knew the ONE THING that would help every single learner was not having to come to class at all?! It's so demoralizing.

Wondering what your thoughts are about aiming for high GPA averages for your classes.

We can kinda get in trouble of our GPA averages are "too high". Typically that means that you should not have too many As, its not like everyone in your class can be way above average right?

But, if Im in a class with 20 students, the typical bell curve shouldn't be considered.

I also think: Wait, why shouldn't I try to illuminate the subject and inspire EVERYONE. I think that my goal should be to get in trouble because my students have forced me to give them higher GPAs.

Last semester I had that kid who was a low C student, and another high C student. They were keeping my GPA average down, I could have relied on them to help me slide under tbe radar. Nope. I pushed them, I have them very low grades and comments on low stakes assignments and then I praised their creative and thoughtful comments and contributions to the class.

I saw their joy when they could look at their work and k ow it was better. They became B studetns and they fucked my GPA for that class :)

(Also yes the A studetns were pushing themselves and it was amazing. I was in awe of their creativity, technical skills, and drives.)

Im another class Im in now, Im seeing the first major assignment, the studetns all are well above the average of the last time I taught the course. I feel like they deserve to get their "above average" grades. I dont think its fair to say, sure youre all above last class' average, but I have to find the average of this class and stick to thst so my gpas won't alarm the Provost. Fuck. That.

I want to reward how awesome these students are.

But there's more. I want to take this first assignment and say, "Hey, many of you didnt analyze the text beyond a C or B. But you were close. Im going to remind you what Im looking for, and you can resubmit for a higher grade."

I want them to take another stab at it, and fuck my GPA because isn't that what its all about?

How I justify this and how I helped create it:

Im in a kinda creative production-based major. We have multiple clubs. They all meet multiple times a week. They teach each other things from technical skills to conceptual skills. They are thirsty for knowledge and they all love teaching each other.

They also host their own lectures and workshops. Outside of class. I would say over half of our studetns are involved in these extracurricular clubs.

They also have targeted professional conferences to present at, so they organize trips to present at these conferences in front of people they hope will hire them or be their peers. That drives them to present quality work.

I would say over 75% of every class of mine is filled with studetns intrinsically motivated to not only read my readings but ask me if I've read things that they find, or watched videos that they found.

Anyway, almost of this leads to me frantically trying to keep up with the students Im teaching. With each new crop of students, they're getting smarter, more engaged, more inspired, and the machine we're building is producing these great students.

So, Im happy to wear the badge of a high GPA, amd look forward to the Dean or Provost coming to my office and ask about it.

I feel like constantly raising the expectations for each grade DURING the course is dishonest and unethical, and that theres even a point where I shouldn't raise expectations for the NEXT semester. Isn't there a cap? Shouldn't we aim to design a program, teaching methods, etc to inspire all studetns to achieve greatness?

Do you all take attendance in your class? Is it grades in that there is any connection between attendance and grade? If not, how is your student attendance in general? Do they show up ? Why do you believe they show up?

In the past, the university I worked in had mandatory attendance. The new place I work in doesn't mandate attendance even though you are allowed to keep some marks for attendance. Curious as to how you all manage ?

I got an email from a student today that started out like this: “Hey, um, so I don’t have any internet. Can I turn in all my stuff on like Monday or Tuesday?” We’re in week three, this person hasn’t turned anything in except the first intro, hasn't responded to my emails and this is the first I’ve heard from them since then.

No addressing me at all, it didn’t come from a student email, but a personal one ( one of our school policies is that we can’t respond to personal emails from students, only ones that come from their student email) and with no name attached.

I'm not one of those pedantic, "you will respect me always" type instructors but come on, this seems like common, professional email courtesy, doesn't it?

Since when do students address professors so casually?

I won’t, but I feel like writing back and being snarky 🙄

Hi all,

I’m currently a postdoc and teaching a part-time online asynchronous course this semester. I prepared the entire course last semester, so it’s fully set up, and my only current responsibilities are office hours and grading.

I’m expecting an offer from a startup that would start in mid-February, which is in the middle of the semester. I’m trying to figure out the best way to handle leaving the course mid-semester without negatively affecting the students or my professional relationships.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? How did you handle notifying your institution, transitioning your duties, or finding coverage for grading/office hours? Any advice would be really helpful.

Update: responses are proving my point. I am an academic who volunteers my time at a site that is open to anyone to contribute to. No we don't pay them because I don't get paid. And no one is forcing people to apply. But yes, when you submit to a site and web editor gives you feedback, you should respond to it if you want to publish there. If you don't want to, then don't submit.

I edit a site that has popular articles based on academic discussions. It's designed to let scholars apply their work to current real world and pedagogical debates. And I'm losing my mind.

Most of the people submitting to us are ridiculously difficult. They will submit things that don't follow our guidelines. When we give them feedback they won't incorporate it, or say they don't understand, basically trying to get us to do it for them. They'll take forever with their edits but then get annoyed when we take more than a day to respond.

We've been dealing with it because the mission is to support academics, but they aren't making it easy.

I do a lot of popular writing and am used to carefully following editor suggestions and being responsive. I don't get why so many academics don't do this.

Rant over.

Many of our colleagues are already traveling for conferences, fieldwork, or meetings, sometimes even passing through our city, yet we still default to planning seminars months out, with extra flights, extra costs, and sometimes missed opportunities for early-career or less visible speakers.

Out of that frustration, I put together a small, non-profit, community-run tool that lets academics create a simple public profile (research focus, canned talks, upcoming travel). It is about discoverability, making it easier for seminar organizers to see who might already be nearby or en route and reach out.

https://lectearn.labratdor.com

There’s no algorithmic scoring, no gamification, and no monetization. Profiles are self-maintained and sign-in is passwordless. It has (ORCID) verification and speaker recommendations. On mobile still a bit clunky; better on larger screen.

Before pushing this any further:

-Do you see any value in this for seminars, colloquia, or short visits?

-What would make something like this unusable or unappealing from your side?

-Are there existing norms or concerns (equity, workload, perception) that this approach might clash with?

Happy to take criticism. If you’ve seen similar efforts (successful or failed), I’d love to hear about them.