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<p>lol!!! Hahahahahah!!!</p>
<p>One time I wrote an in-class assignment on the back of an article and the professor didn’t accept it.
I asked, “Why so sour, Dr. Lemon?” thinking my witty pun would win him over (his name was really Lemon). It did not.</p>
<p>What’s funny is it was Environmental Science. I tried to use the recycling argument, and it did not work either :/</p>
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<p>Because their jobs depend on how many students take their classes. They’ll soon get a reputation for not caring, and nobody will take their class, and outside of them bringing in twice the university’s endowment in grant money (they don’t), they’ll be fired.</p>
<p>I stand by my first opinion. If you can’t realistically grade it and turn it within 2 weeks, don’t assign it. Their PRIMARY job is teaching. Part of that job comes with preparing lessons, grading, and making assignments. That’s what they’re getting paid to do. If they wanted to just do research, work for a think tank. Oh yeah, I forgot, think tanks actually fire you for doing a bad job. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Professors have a duty of care to the students that are paying their salaries. Part of that duty entails doing a competent job teaching, which includes keeping students interested and turning around assignments on time. I think they need to be penalized in some way for turning around assignments unreasonably late. If you can’t grade it within a reasonable timeframe, don’t assign it and stop wasting our time. I’m serious. Our time is just as valuable as yours.</p>
<p>Here’s what i will never understand at my college: In chem, physics and math, the tests are always promptly graded within 2-3 days with the results posted on Blackboard, really awesome. And the TA’s have to go through each test individually, problem by problem, looking for miniscule errors and mathematical mistakes…</p>
<p>But in bio classes, which are often multiple choice, it takes them over a week to grade it. Makes no sense.</p>
<p>Yeah, I see what you’re saying nyustudent, but your post is really more relevant to associate/assistant professors. And in those cases (at least at my school), course evaluations actually affect salaries for these guys.</p>
<p>Tenured professors (typically) bring in much more grant money. They obviously don’t bring in “twice the university’s endowment” but that’s irrelevant–many get grants from NSF and others that are far greater than their salaries. In fact, their grants typically cover the salaries of other graduate student positions. </p>
<p>These people, even though teaching is still officially their primary responsibility, aren’t evaluated on teaching skills anymore. Their salary increases are based exclusively on citations and other measurements of the quality of their work output. Those who sit around and just do teach their mandatory lectures will find their salaries have stagnated. Even if they hand back your papers the next day. </p>
<p>Anyone in college should know this–most lecturers are better teachers than tenured professors. It’s not to say that a tenured professor CAN’T care about their students or can’t devote more than the minimum amount of office hours/extra time that is mandated by the school. It’s just that they have no incentive beyond personal interest. </p>
<p>Tuition seems expensive to you, but your tuition fees don’t cover squat. It doesn’t even cover base salaries (certainly not in public schools anyways), not to mention the much more significant amount of grant monies being spent to sustain research. </p>
<p>Your education should be your responsibility, beyond the professional standards expected of your professor. A certain turnaround time for graded papers isn’t one of those standards. IMO, getting more is nice. Expecting more is self absorbed.</p>
<p>It is not self absorbed to want your papers graded in a timely way. It is self absorbed of a prof to think s/he doesn’t have to grade papers of paying students. </p>
<p>It is my responsibility to learn? And the prof holds no responsibility to grade papers? That’s gravy? Pshhhhhh. What an attitude. </p>
<p>There are times when the prof simply sets the topic before you and it’s your responsibility to figure out a way to learn the material because the prof suxors. That is not great or good or adequate teaching. </p>
<p>Neglecting to grade student work is neglecting to teach is neglecting your professional responsibilities. Does it happen? Yes. Is it ok? No.</p>
<p>I care less about professors who take a while to grade and more about the ones that, when they finally decide to hand back tests, do so in the most torturous way possible. You know, the ones who say they’ll hand back exams at the end of class and then near the end of class spend 15 minutes talking about how people did on the exam (“grades weren’t as good as I expected” or “there were 10 As, 5 Bs, 3 Cs…”), spend 5 minutes writing the grade distribution up on the board, hand out the solutions to the exam, discuss questions that students had trouble on, and then hand back the exam.</p>
<p>This is not so much an issue when grades are simply posted online, fortunately.</p>
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<p>This is ridiculous. It’s a part of their job responsibilities. This should be a firing offense.</p>
<p>Your argument is ridiculous. Tenured professors can only be fired for cause (i.e. really serious offenses). Turning back papers later than some student expected is not for cause.</p>
<p>If you want a professor that spends more time with you, then attend lectures taught by lecturers or assistant professors.</p>
<p>I don’t take classes taught by tenured profs. They’re, as a group, less competent teachers, more arrogant, and make it clear they’re wasting their time.</p>
<p>When students miss deadlines, their grade gets penalized. When a prof misses deadlines (i.e. not grading papers within a reasonable timeframe), they should be penalized too. It’s a two way street. I don’t care how many hours of consulting you do on the side, how many bestsellers you’ve written, or how many second or third jobs you have, if you can’t grade it within a reasonable timeframe, then don’t assign it. It’s that simple. This is the professor’s duty of care to their students: grade papers on time, put in a modicum of effort into their lectures, and assist students in learning the material.</p>
<p>It’s perfectly reasonable to expect papers graded on time and expect profs to care about their lectures if you stop being a shill for universities. Fact is, tenured profs are incompetent teachers and belong at think tanks. Oh right, I forgot, think tanks fire for gross incompetence/negligence too. Taking more than two weeks to grade papers THEY assigned with 2 TA’s at their disposal IS gross negligence. Either that or gross incompetence. Either way, it should be a firing offense.</p>