PFS: Interactions with Professors

Rachel Lindhart Author

08/12/2020 Added

4 Plays

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Tips for success on building professional faculty-student relationships.

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[00:00:06.546]Hello, I'm Eric Malina. I'm an Associate
[00:00:09.793]Professor of Practice here in the
[00:00:11.675]Department of Chemistry. I wanted to
[00:00:13.707]spend a few minutes talking to you about
[00:00:15.612]your interactions with professors. College
[00:00:19.454]can be a very different climate than high
[00:00:21.702]school. High school tends to be more
[00:00:23.989]casual, teachers are there and interacting
[00:00:26.944]with you on a regular basis day in and day
[00:00:29.740]out. College tends to be a little more
[00:00:32.221]remote. Interaction with your instructor
[00:00:34.669]takes place in a very structured
[00:00:36.467]environment, and it's also involving 200
[00:00:40.997]students at a time. Well, okay, maybe not
[00:00:43.762]in COVID-19 terms, but my usual lecture
[00:00:46.992]hall would be packed with 180-190 students
[00:00:50.040]So as you come into college and you're
[00:00:54.029]getting this transition into this new
[00:00:55.951]environment, two key words are to keep in
[00:00:59.099]mind: Responsible and Professional. That's
[00:01:03.245]our expectations out of students. You're
[00:01:05.510]transitioning into your future career. We
[00:01:07.635]want you to learn those professional
[00:01:09.467]interactions, communications, those habits
[00:01:12.571]that will have you across as a solid
[00:01:15.452]professional in our communities. But it's
[00:01:18.499]also responsibility on your end to seek
[00:01:21.147]out the help when you need it. Can you
[00:01:23.745]keep track of what the communications have
[00:01:26.784]already been, so you're not repeating
[00:01:28.795]questions that professors have already
[00:01:30.617]answered. Being respectful even of our
[00:01:32.962]time, and our efforts that are taking
[00:01:35.393]place. To give you a first example, let's
[00:01:39.640]take a look at an e-mail that I just got
[00:01:41.605]recently. The e-mail was from a student,
[00:01:44.752]said "Hi Eric, I think quiz2 Question8
[00:01:48.016]answer is a wrong answer." My first read
[00:01:51.747]on this is, I have a student telling me
[00:01:54.195]I'm wrong. It can put the professors
[00:01:56.926]off when you're saying, 'Hey, you have
[00:01:59.773]made a mistake. Also, notice how it starts
[00:02:02.921]'Hi Eric.' Very casual type of interaction
[00:02:06.102]Most professors are going to get put
[00:02:08.500]off by that or take offense by that. Not
[00:02:11.996]to mention, notice quiz2 in that text is
[00:02:14.795]more like it came through a text message
[00:02:17.442]not an e-mail. Make your e-mails look
[00:02:21.189]professional. Something like, 'Hey, or Hi,
[00:02:25.469]Dr. Malina. I have tried multiple times
[00:02:28.802]to figure out the answer for Quiz 2,
[00:02:31.945]Question 8. I keep getting the same answer
[00:02:34.726]and even the TA can't seem to figure out
[00:02:37.074]where I am going wrong. Is there possibly
[00:02:39.792]a mistake in the answer for this question,
[00:02:42.303]have I done something incorrectly? I have
[00:02:44.552]attached my work.' Here the student is
[00:02:48.099]giving me a chance to critique their work,
[00:02:50.213]check my answer, and seeing if maybe I
[00:02:53.677]made a mistake. Sure, I am human. I make
[00:02:56.874]mistakes every semester. I am very willing
[00:02:58.989]to admit that and correct for that. But I
[00:03:02.430]don't want to get it thrown in my face,
[00:03:04.568]right? Be professional in how you interact
[00:03:06.983]with your professors. Try to give them all
[00:03:09.597]the information that you have to help them
[00:03:12.278]maybe see a mistake that they may have
[00:03:14.510]made. One respectable or responsible piece
[00:03:19.390]as well is professors tend to be very busy
[00:03:21.454]We don't want a long, lengthy e-mail or a
[00:03:24.541]long, lengthy conversation to take place
[00:03:27.116]when we're busy trying to get other
[00:03:29.332]things done. Here's an office hour
[00:03:31.879]conversation I had earlier in 2020, before
[00:03:35.076]we went into remote instruction mode. A
[00:03:37.788]student came into my office, didn't even
[00:03:39.806]say hi. Very first thing out of their
[00:03:41.594]mouth was, 'I don't understand chemistry.
[00:03:43.852]Can you help me?' Way too broad of a
[00:03:48.032]statement, so of course I followed up with
[00:03:51.113]'Could you be more specific?' Which they
[00:03:54.860]followed up with, 'Everything you covered
[00:03:56.892]in lecture yesterday.' That doesn't help
[00:04:00.606]when I covered fifty minutes-worth of
[00:04:03.055]material in a lecture. As you're coming
[00:04:05.821]into office hours and you want to
[00:04:07.650]communicate with your professors, yes be
[00:04:10.714]concise, but be specific about the things
[00:04:13.961]that you need help with. Be clear in your
[00:04:17.192]communications. That's part of that
[00:04:19.507]responsible, professional behavior and
[00:04:22.154]demeanor that you want to get across to
[00:04:24.303]that professor. Here's another e-mail that
[00:04:27.916]I had gotten. This is getting at the
[00:04:30.397]responsibility issue. End of last
[00:04:32.662]semester. 'When will I know my grade for
[00:04:34.667]the course?' is the e-mail the student
[00:04:36.527]sent. That type of e-mail is not a problem
[00:04:39.940]except the issue with it is the previous
[00:04:43.137]day I sent an e-mail saying, 'The grades
[00:04:46.135]are on Canvas, and I'll upload them to
[00:04:48.516]MyRed the next day.' You need to be
[00:04:52.429]responsible in watching for the
[00:04:54.178]instructor's communications. Don't ask
[00:04:57.009]questions that the instructor already
[00:04:59.773]answered in a previous e-mail. That is not
[00:05:04.602]going to leave a lasting impression for
[00:05:07.883]the professor. Sure, you want to leave
[00:05:10.841]great impressions with your professors.
[00:05:12.749]Give them something for you to remember
[00:05:14.668]them by. When a student comes into my
[00:05:17.842]office and I've got 180 students and I
[00:05:20.923]am not sure I even know their name, let
[00:05:23.121]alone their background, where they're
[00:05:25.186]coming from, it's hard for me to make all
[00:05:27.584]that connections and get to a personal
[00:05:30.565]level with the student. The student could
[00:05:33.679]come in and say, 'Hey, I am so-and-so, I
[00:05:36.476]am in your Chemistry 109 class. I am
[00:05:39.258]having trouble with this topic. I am
[00:05:42.306]wanting to get into the medical field, so
[00:05:44.414]I feel like chemistry is really important
[00:05:46.479]to me. Could you help me get there? Or
[00:05:49.074]even something unique, especially in
[00:05:51.022]smaller classes. You might even go to the
[00:05:53.353]professor in the beginning of the semester
[00:05:55.452]and say, 'Hey, I'm in your Chem 390 class,
[00:05:58.628]I am just so excited to be studying mass
[00:06:02.875]spectrometry, I can't wait to get to know
[00:06:06.222]more on this because I'm interested in
[00:06:08.128]these things.' Or maybe it's more on a
[00:06:10.309]personal level. I used to drag race
[00:06:12.293]Mustangs. I don't know how many professors
[00:06:14.588]used to drag race Mustangs when they were
[00:06:16.536]younger, that's a personal piece that will
[00:06:19.117]help you remember a little bit about me.
[00:06:21.672]Give you a little more about my
[00:06:23.324]background. Hey, as you're interacting
[00:06:26.295]with professors, you need to remember
[00:06:28.376]some very basic things. Be responsible. Be
[00:06:32.456]professional. Yes, you are going to have
[00:06:35.053]to take the initiative to seek out the
[00:06:37.052]help, just make sure you do it in a
[00:06:39.117]responsible, professional manner. These
[00:06:42.665]instructors may be writing future letters
[00:06:45.445]of recommendations for you. You do want
[00:06:47.993]to leave a good impression. Do give them
[00:06:50.458]something to remember you by. And you
[00:06:52.889]don't want to be remembered by the 'Oh
[00:06:55.578]yeah that student always sent me
[00:06:57.219]irresponsible text message-type e-mails.'
[00:07:00.443]I want to be able to say in a letter of
[00:07:02.466]recommendation, 'They are very
[00:07:03.980]professional, very responsible,
[00:07:05.528]very hard-working.' Respect the
[00:07:08.793]instructor's time. Come prepared, be
[00:07:10.844]specific. And most of all, be polite. Be
[00:07:14.272]gracious in your interactions. Professors
[00:07:18.902]want to help. Every interaction matters.
[00:07:22.332]The theme within the university. And we
[00:07:25.003]want to interact with you in a meaningful
[00:07:27.011]way. Every single one of those will make
[00:07:29.742]a difference. So, hopefully you've
[00:07:32.553]found this helpful, get you started off
[00:07:34.555]on your college career. If you should have
[00:07:37.303]any other questions, remember, Dr. Malina.
[00:07:40.933]I'm in the Chemistry department. My
[00:07:42.965]emalina2@unl.edu. You're welcome to
[00:07:46.962]contact me with any sort of questions or
[00:07:48.943]follow-up you might have. Welcome to UNL!
[00:07:53.189]Hope you have a great first year.

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PFS: Interactions with Professors

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