It is fall. The light has changed, and when you are not in the direct sun, the air is slightly chilIy. We are almost a third of the way through the semester, and this past week the students got their “in progress” grades for freshmen- and sophomore-level classes. For fifteen or twenty years these have replaced our midterm grades. In-progress marks are designed to give students feedback early enough in the semester that they will not have put as much time into the weaker classes before dropping them.
Advisors get copies of these grades (again, these are only given for 100- and 200-level courses), and it is up to us what we do with them. Most faculty at my university have at least some academic advisees. I love advising students on their programs; it appeals to the problem- and puzzle-solving part of my personality. So I am pleased to get these advisory grades. It gives me a chance to check in with students in how the semester is going. Unless I happen to have a student in class this semester, I won’t have seen them since the spring.
When a student has a faculty member express concern, either through a grade of D or F, or a text message that indicates an issue with class attendance, poor quality work or performance on exams, and/or not completing homework or lab assignments, I will contact the student. I want them to know that they are not the only ones who are paying attention to their class performance, and that there is someone other than the instructor who might be able to provide them with advice and support. I can let them know about academic support resources, such as tutoring and university counseling, and talk with them about time management, study strategies, etc. Someone is completely welcome to ignore my advice and that is just fine. I cannot make a student listen to me. If I could, I would be the most brilliant teacher ever. But sadly I am not.
So this is the time of the semester when I feel I can help my students the most. I have a couple of meetings scheduled for next week, with students in my classes as well as with my own advisees. I know some faculty, even at my own undergraduate-focused university, find this activity time-consuming, perhaps taking away from other higher-priorities. But it while it doesn’t necessarily benefit the full class or the broader university community, I think students who work their way through challenges, both personal and professional, can influence their friends and colleagues, helping them figure out ways to cope with stress and setbacks as well.
There are a lot of reasons a student can be struggling early in the semester. These can include issues that have nothing to do with their classes, or anything around here at all. Students regularly have siblings, parents, friends, and grandparents who are not healthy, and may even be dying. I didn’t have my grandparents when I was at college, with one exception and with whom I wasn’t terribly close. I was (and still am) lucky that my parents and brother are still around. But I can see how health issues and other family stresses (financial, divorce, etc.) can affect people who aren’t even directly dealing with them every day. And of course, there are students who at age 18 or 19 are dealing with serious health issues, or with roommates who are doing so. None of these are my business, but a student’s academic success is, and I have had students volunteer external causes for their lack of success in their classes. I can’t solve their problems, but if I can I try to help them figure out ways to develop strategies to cope with the challenges they are dealing with.
I already have two appointments set up with students next week, one with a student in one of my classes, and one with a student who is my advisee. I look forward to talking to both of them. I think this will be one of the semesters in which I can help them be better by the end of the semester — happier, healthier, better informed, and able to evaluate/analyse disciplinary content with more skill and confidence.
The best part of my job is probably the most challenging, but also in my opinion the most rewarding, the working through of the barriers to a student’s success, one by one, until that student can find his or her way to graduation. I think that preliminary, in-progress grades can be a useful tool and a prompt to discussion with students who might be at risk.
I also enjoy talking with students who are enthralled by my courses, or the subject I teach, ones who would love nothing more than to talk about Egypt or England with me, ones whom I see at gallery receptions and accordingly I can talk with them about those shows. But putting in the effort to help a student who is at risk of failing one class or more, or at risk of not graduating at all, and having that student make it through to the end of their degree program, is challenging and rewarding. It can also be frustrating. Sometimes it can be draining and depressing as well. I firmly believe that if someone doesn’t want to be at university, then he or she would be better at least considering not coming back until the desire is to be here. Its expensive to go to even a public university, let alone a flagship research university or a private one. I do think you are better off waiting until you feel you need to be in college rather than being there but not putting out the effort needed, and having that result in a GPA low enough that it would prevent you from graduating.
How much do you think is your responsibility with your advisees? What is theirs to you and to themselves? How do you help your student learn the material and demonstrate mastery thereof if the class in which they are having trouble is not your own?