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An Open Letter to College Professors on the First Day of Class

Since this is my eighth semester in college I feel as if I’m qualified to say a few things to college professors concerning their behavior on the first day of class. I know that not everyone has been going to college for four years and that for some students this is only their second semester and they might still be adjusting to college life, but I believe even those students would agree with me when it comes to tolerating professors on the first days of a new year. Here are a couple grievances:

  • Do not pass out the class syllabus and then proceed to read through it word by word for the duration of the class period. I can read for myself. In fact that’s what I’m doing quickly and quietly while you’re pausing now and then to rephrase the sentences you’ve just read in an attempt to feel better about reading the syllabus out loud. For the most part all syllabi are the same. You might have added a few new clauses here and there, which you are more than welcome to highlight, but please, I don’t need your vocal verbatim recitation of the papers right in front of me.
  • Do not change the book list after it has been posted for a month. I, like many students, ordered my books off of Amazon for cheap. One of my favorite things to do on the first day of class is to show up only for my professor to tell me not to purchase one of the books because he changed his mind and we aren’t going to read it. This is not a decision that should be made any later than two weeks before classes begin. Be considerate of your students and post your final book list well before the first days of class. (Also, do not wait until the day before classes to inform the university of your book list so that students are surprised to find they haven’t purchased all their books after they’ve already budgeted for the semester.)
  • Do not make your students participate in icebreakers. I have at least one professor every semester who wastes half an hour or more making everyone in class take turns standing up and answering a list of questions about themselves that no one else is listening to and no one else cares about. It’s okay to do in a class of 20 or less, but no lie I was in a class of 60+ students once and had to partake in a class period’s worth of icebreakers. We the students do not care about your icebreaker. If you don’t want to teach on the first day, let us go early.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but these were the things that annoyed me most today, on my eighth first day of classes at the University of Kentucky. So if any of my professors ever accidentally run across this in a Google search, please, know I don’t mean you any disrespect. I would just like to hold you to a higher standard of first class etiquette. 

(Props to my French Film Noir prof for beginning class with a series of black and white movie clips while narrating the action in his best coming attractions voice.)

  1. purplelephant posted this