A few years ago, one of my students came to my office concerned about her performance in Calculus I. This student had been anxious during our Summer Bridge program, so much so that her mother told me the student’s family had been trying to leave the program for hours, but the student wasn’t having it. Fast forward to the middle of the Fall semester. The student was doing poorly in math, and I asked “Have you spoken with the professor?” Her eyes fell. “No.” I called her over to my desk, logged out of my email and said to her. “Log into your email account and ask you professor to meet with you.” The outcome was classic. Within minutes, the professor had emailed the student, and they set a meeting for the following day. The student completed the course with an A- and for a while was a Math minor This shy student is now (Spring 2019) finishing her Master of Arts in Teaching and will soon be an elementary teacher after being a lead mentor for our program. Faculty are often the first source of help for students as noted in this site’s lifeline post.
Students believe college faculty are impossible to talk to, yet talking to faculty members is an essential skill students need if they want to succeed in college. Think about it: most are comfortable speaking with high school faculty. Many college students were involved in several co-curricular activities in high school with teachers as their coaches. So why are they so afraid of college faculty?
They Have Higher Degrees/ They Just Seem so Smart
The doctorate, be it a Ph.D., Ed.D., or something else places mental barriers in students’ minds. They believe they’re not supposed to need to speak with faculty in college. Yet college moves between twice and four times as fast as high school and college students need to understand course material at a deeper level than they did in high school. How in the world will they do that if they don’t talk to faculty?
Sure, faculty have higher degrees than high school teachers because those degrees are required for their positions and because they engage in a lot of scholarship in their field, but that doesn’t mean they’re unapproachable. My first advice to students who look on college faculty as unapproachable is to remember that they go to the bathroom the same way they do. A little too much information for some, but they get the point.
Doing This On My Own
Student often see getting into college as recognition of their intelligence and academic talent, and that’s often the case. Unfortunately, they take this to the extreme by believing that once they’re in college, they must face every challenge without help. It’s akin to getting your license when you’re sixteen years old with no driving experience, then getting the keys to a car and being told to drive yourself to school. Who does that? No: we give people instruction and have them drive with us for a while so they learn the ropes and make a few mistakes under the watchful eye of a parent or driver’s ed instructor.
The Reynolds School at the University of Nevada, Reno makes it clear to their students that their faculty can “help with assignments, projects, or general questions.” In fact, that’s what college faculty do. They know the college classroom differs significantly from a high school one, and most will ask students throughout a class “are there any questions?” often to blank stares. It drives faculty crazy. Your student can be the one to challenge this, by raising their hand and saying “I have one.” Here are some tips that should help.
Making The First Move
I encourage students in my scholars program to go to each of their professors’ office hours and introduce themselves. It often surprises the faculty, but they appreciate it. I don’t do this for the exercise: I require it so students make made the first move, and often find the faculty members friendly and approachable. That’s the point: the vast majority are friendly and approachable. And now that my students have made the first move and know their faculty members aren’t three-headed monsters, when they need help they’re more likely to ask for it. That’s the same approach—introducing themselves to faculty—promoted by Her Campus. This approach shows the faculty the student is serious about doing well in the class and has the “adult skills” to pull it off. It makes a great first impression on the faculty, too.
One part of making the first move is to address the faculty properly. And while many faculty members have doctorates, some don’t. Students should rely on the term “professor” unless told otherwise. But beyond that, remember that faculty are people first, professors second.
Show What You’re Made of and Show Your Effort
Sometimes students run across a faculty member who appears less likely to help them. One of my students told me she was completely lost in a class, and the professor was unwilling to help her. This really ticked me off, but instead of calling the professor and yelling at him (news flash, I never do that), we settled on a new tack. I told the student to work on the problems in the text and get as far as she could, then show the faculty member where she was stumped. By showing the professor she had been working hard on the class materials and was stuck, the professor could see how to help her. Mind you, I’m still ticked about how he handled it the first time, but the student and I came up with just the right plan to push past the impasse.
Be Ready to Develop a Plan B
Study Breaks lets students know that even when they do all the right things in working with faculty members, they may not get what they want. The student may not like that, but they’re experiencing what most adults do when speaking with supervisors, customer service people or folks they run into at the mall. What I emphasize with students is they still have to make the best of things even when working with a challenging faculty member. Their job is to find out how, through tutoring, asking for academic help from other faculty members, and being adult enough to ask others. Maybe the students need to vent to someone—like you—who they know won’t judge them.
Our job as other adults and parents in their lives is to help them use the college experience to become better and more productive adults. When they call you with academic concerns, ask them who they’ve spoken to, including other students and other faculty. Suggest that they find tutoring on campus and pursue those avenues as a way of circumventing a difficult faculty member. The vast majority of faculty aren’t like this, and are much more open to students seeking their assistance than students think they are. We become college teachers because we want students to learn, especially in our own classrooms.
Urge your student to use all of their available resources, starting with their faculty. They’ll find a wealth of genuine support if they would only ask.