A month after joining N1, as I started to settle in and know the place better, I was given some responsibilities which involved dealing and interacting with students. I must admit that I initially tried to excuse myself from these duties. While I love to teach and academically interact with students in classrooms, I am pretty clueless about how to deal with them personally.[1]
Students at N1 are fairly intelligent and independent. They certainly do not expect their professors to babysit them. After preliminary investigations, I found that most of them are also fairly responsible and do not need monitoring. So, in the first few months, my policy was to keep my office doors open for them whenever they had an issue, but not necessarily to reach out to them on my own because I did not want them to feel that I was intruding into their space. In that sense, I was passively but not actively engaged in these duties. In this connection, I had some strange conversations with students, which made me wonder if I had spent all those years preparing to be a research scientist to go through this! Here are some examples:
[A] A student approached me one day and complained about rats in her residence room. I spoke to the local cleaning staff, who took measures for preventing this problem. A few days later, the persistent rat returned and this time, I was angrily accosted by this student on my way to a class. Exasperated, I asked, "Do you want me to go to the room and personally chase away the rat?" The student immediately apologized and now either chases the rat away herself or talks to the cleaning staff directly.
[B] Another student complained to me that she was eve-teased by some local person when she was out at night. "As a faculty member at N1, it is your responsibility to ensure that women students are not harassed," she said. I spoke to security personnel and instructed them to accompany women students at any time of the day or night [2] if they ask for protection. Since there is considerable distance between the students residence and academic buildings, the institute also arranged for door to door pick up and drop off at certain times. This student has never availed herself of either of these facilities, nor have many others. A (male) faculty colleague, also involved with students, has suggested that "in keeping with Indian culture," women students should be back to their residence by 9 pm. But, this rule need not be applied to men students!! Fortunately, the highest authorities at N1 disagree with this discriminatory practice and rules are the same for all students, irrespective of gender.
The next incident was the most shocking:
[C] A student walked into my office visibly upset with his academic performance. This third year student is not exactly a favorite at N1. He routinely misses his classes and has been caught playing cricket during a class test which counted towards his grade. In my course, I had a lot of trouble getting him to submit assignments on time. He poured out all his woes and mentioned how his first year courses were taught poorly. This, according to him, has "weakened his foundations". I first went over the several remedial measures he could go through to address his weaknesses. I also encouraged him to approach his instructors with his difficulties and to make use of tutorial sessions. He refused on the grounds that "professors here only care for their research and not for teaching" (a very unfair allegation, if you ask me). I made several attempts to convince him to seek help from instructors like his other classmates and also told him that he must take responsibility for his performance instead of blaming others. Not only did he not listen to me, he also started to make personal attacks against specific instructors. I lost all patience when he asked, "Can you return the precious years of my life that I have wasted in this god-forbidden place?" My reply was, "No, I cannot. Now please get out." He was surprised, but obeyed and has not used me as a punching bag ever since.
After completing a semester at N1, I went on a five-month sabbatical to North America. I was visiting one of the top universities in the world. While observing the student facilities over there and comparing them with the one at N1, it suddenly hit me how brave the students at N1 have been in choosing a new institute and a new course of study despite family pressure and lack of precedent. I resolved that on my return, I will take a more active interest in student well being.
After returning, one day, during a conversation with the director, I was surprised to note that he knew each and every student at N1 by name and in which program they were registered. He was also aware of the problems that many were struggling with and suggested practical solutions. This further motivated me to be more involved with students, while respecting their personal space. I now directly approach students from time to time and ask them how things are going and what they like to study, etc. This has, to my surprise, has provided me with very positive and useful inputs. For example, I mentioned in my last post how I had avoided a student for a long time, perceiving her to be reclusive. When I did talk to her, she was touched by the gesture and opened up and made me realize how much she wanted to reach out and fit in!
I would like to come across to students as a friendly, approachable faculty member, who cares for their well-being and is not just here to impose institute rules [3] on them. I am also catching up with the director in learning more about students.
Epilogue: As I was writing this post, one of my summer students walked in to say good bye. She gave me a card addressing me as "her sweetest teacher". I also received an email from another student saying that apart from great science, he has also learnt "teaching and other humanly values from my pleasant personality".
I think I might be going too far in my new approachability policy. [4]
[1] My brother, just a few years my junior, often complains that I "belong to a different generation".
[2] Of course, there are limitations to this step. Security personnel are employed to safeguard the campus and cannot accompany people outside the campus. I don't think that we can fully ensure her safety outside the campus. This, unfortunately, is the reality that many Indian women live with.
[3] although this too has to be done, sometimes with severity!
[4] This, incidentally, is the Messiah guy from a previous post.
Students at N1 are fairly intelligent and independent. They certainly do not expect their professors to babysit them. After preliminary investigations, I found that most of them are also fairly responsible and do not need monitoring. So, in the first few months, my policy was to keep my office doors open for them whenever they had an issue, but not necessarily to reach out to them on my own because I did not want them to feel that I was intruding into their space. In that sense, I was passively but not actively engaged in these duties. In this connection, I had some strange conversations with students, which made me wonder if I had spent all those years preparing to be a research scientist to go through this! Here are some examples:
[A] A student approached me one day and complained about rats in her residence room. I spoke to the local cleaning staff, who took measures for preventing this problem. A few days later, the persistent rat returned and this time, I was angrily accosted by this student on my way to a class. Exasperated, I asked, "Do you want me to go to the room and personally chase away the rat?" The student immediately apologized and now either chases the rat away herself or talks to the cleaning staff directly.
[B] Another student complained to me that she was eve-teased by some local person when she was out at night. "As a faculty member at N1, it is your responsibility to ensure that women students are not harassed," she said. I spoke to security personnel and instructed them to accompany women students at any time of the day or night [2] if they ask for protection. Since there is considerable distance between the students residence and academic buildings, the institute also arranged for door to door pick up and drop off at certain times. This student has never availed herself of either of these facilities, nor have many others. A (male) faculty colleague, also involved with students, has suggested that "in keeping with Indian culture," women students should be back to their residence by 9 pm. But, this rule need not be applied to men students!! Fortunately, the highest authorities at N1 disagree with this discriminatory practice and rules are the same for all students, irrespective of gender.
The next incident was the most shocking:
[C] A student walked into my office visibly upset with his academic performance. This third year student is not exactly a favorite at N1. He routinely misses his classes and has been caught playing cricket during a class test which counted towards his grade. In my course, I had a lot of trouble getting him to submit assignments on time. He poured out all his woes and mentioned how his first year courses were taught poorly. This, according to him, has "weakened his foundations". I first went over the several remedial measures he could go through to address his weaknesses. I also encouraged him to approach his instructors with his difficulties and to make use of tutorial sessions. He refused on the grounds that "professors here only care for their research and not for teaching" (a very unfair allegation, if you ask me). I made several attempts to convince him to seek help from instructors like his other classmates and also told him that he must take responsibility for his performance instead of blaming others. Not only did he not listen to me, he also started to make personal attacks against specific instructors. I lost all patience when he asked, "Can you return the precious years of my life that I have wasted in this god-forbidden place?" My reply was, "No, I cannot. Now please get out." He was surprised, but obeyed and has not used me as a punching bag ever since.
After completing a semester at N1, I went on a five-month sabbatical to North America. I was visiting one of the top universities in the world. While observing the student facilities over there and comparing them with the one at N1, it suddenly hit me how brave the students at N1 have been in choosing a new institute and a new course of study despite family pressure and lack of precedent. I resolved that on my return, I will take a more active interest in student well being.
After returning, one day, during a conversation with the director, I was surprised to note that he knew each and every student at N1 by name and in which program they were registered. He was also aware of the problems that many were struggling with and suggested practical solutions. This further motivated me to be more involved with students, while respecting their personal space. I now directly approach students from time to time and ask them how things are going and what they like to study, etc. This has, to my surprise, has provided me with very positive and useful inputs. For example, I mentioned in my last post how I had avoided a student for a long time, perceiving her to be reclusive. When I did talk to her, she was touched by the gesture and opened up and made me realize how much she wanted to reach out and fit in!
I would like to come across to students as a friendly, approachable faculty member, who cares for their well-being and is not just here to impose institute rules [3] on them. I am also catching up with the director in learning more about students.
Epilogue: As I was writing this post, one of my summer students walked in to say good bye. She gave me a card addressing me as "her sweetest teacher". I also received an email from another student saying that apart from great science, he has also learnt "teaching and other humanly values from my pleasant personality".
I think I might be going too far in my new approachability policy. [4]
[1] My brother, just a few years my junior, often complains that I "belong to a different generation".
[2] Of course, there are limitations to this step. Security personnel are employed to safeguard the campus and cannot accompany people outside the campus. I don't think that we can fully ensure her safety outside the campus. This, unfortunately, is the reality that many Indian women live with.
[3] although this too has to be done, sometimes with severity!
[4] This, incidentally, is the Messiah guy from a previous post.
1 comment:
Sounds like you are doing as much as is possible to help students. That student was definitely using you as a punching bag and after complaining about others to you, may complain about you to others.
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