Our Voice

    We wrote an article this week about the different offices on campus, about their eccentricities and oddities.  We got interviews at three fascinating offices.  These offices were great for the purposes, and we’re grateful to the Peacock’s Feet, Dr. Rob Viau and Dr. Brian Mumma for allowing our  reporter in to see the sights.
    But the article could have been so much more.  Our reporter went to many offices that she was told were interesting, but ran into a problem every single time.
    The professors were not in their offices.  Even though our reporter would go during their posted office hours, nobody would be there.  Sometimes, the doors would simply be closed, cold and uninviting.
    Plans change, we understand, and office hours are sometimes cancelled.  But no notes were left on doors explaining this, our reporter found out, and nobody usually seemed to know where the professors in question were.
    Her calls usually went unanswered, which isn’t overly surprising.  What was surprising, however, was that these calls went mostly unreturned.
    Our reporter did find out (after the article was submitted, unfortunately) where these professors had been, and most of their reasons for their absences were good and valid ones.  Still, some method of letting visitors know that the professor would be AWOL for a short amount of time would have been painless to the professor, and extremely useful to students, visitors and stray reporters.
    This set us to thinking.  Professors have office hours in order to assist students with whatever needs they have. And what good does it do anyone if the professor in question isn’t in his or her office?  Or, more importantly, if no reason is left for the office being unoccupied.
    These same professors expect us to be in class regularly, and expect us to arrive in a timely fashion.  Each professor has their own policy for how tardiness and absence will be dealt with, and can penalize students as they see fit.
    So, isn’t it fair for students to expect professors to be in their offices with their doors open during their appointed office hour times? 
    As students, we often have to work our other commitments and social lives around classes; shouldn’t professors have to do the same for us when it comes to their office hours?
    Unfortunately, students cannot penalize their professors for not being present.  We can simply hope that the professor at hand is reliable, and committed to his or her pupils. 
    So please, professors, keep the doors open.  You never know when students, or the occasional reporter, will come to call.
 
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Posted by Colonnade Archives on Jan 26 2007. Filed under Opinion, Our Voice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry