What A Professor Expects From Students:

What A Professor Expects From Students:

The Do’s and Don’ts in Successfully Getting Through College

 

Do

 

1)      Complete all assignments on time;

2)      Attend class regularly, be on time, and remain for the entire session. (Note: If you must leave class early, please request permission of the Professor before class begins. It is considered highly discourteous to leave a class during its session!!)

3)      Come to class well-groomed, properly dressed and alert;

4)      Read assignments before class;

5)      Ask questions – but not to the point of annoyance or distraction;

6)      Show interest in the subject;

7)      Take adequate notes;

8)      Obtain the address, telephone and email address of at least two other students in the class in order to form a study group, converse on assignments, and in case of emergency;

9)      Be collegial with students in your class;

10)  Be courteous and follow any reasonable requests by guest speakers;

11)  Make appointment with Professor in advance if you have any questions or problems which cannot be resolved just before or after the class. (Note: Please understand that Professors are busy, too! So try to arrange appointments around posted office hours only! If another time other than posted office hours must be arranged, please understand that the Professor is “going out of his or her way” to accommodate you.).

 

Do Not

 

1)      Talk excessively or carry on long conversations during a lecture;

2)      Study for other classes during class session;

3)      Read any material (e.g., newspapers, magazines, texts, or material from another class);

4)      Use head phones, bring tape recorders and cellular phones to class. (Note: This includes telephone headsets and also shutting down cellular telephones before entering the classroom. Make certain to place all pagers on “vibrate” before entering the classroom. Nothing is more annoying and disrespectful than the sound of pagers going off during a class session!);

5)      If previously absent, ask the professor “If (you) missed anything important.” (Note: All classes are important!);

6)      Try to feed the Professor a lot of “Bull….”

7)      Sleep, put your head down on your desk, or close your eyes and take a nap during class;

8)      Gather your things and get up to leave during the class session or leave to go to the restroom and fail to return. Given the fact that classes are scheduled for certain lengths of time, e.g., 50 minutes, then one doesn’t get up and leave the class after forty-five minutes have passed. On the one hand, you are paying for 50 minutes of instruction when you give the University that tuition check – you should want to get your full money’s worth out of each and every class and unit. To do less is to take money out of your own pocket! On the other hand, leaving a classroom early with no justifiable reason is the height of disrespect to the teacher and classmates. It is distracting and discourteous, neither of which is acceptable.

9)      Be discourteous, disrespectful, or insolent (Note: This includes not only towards your fellow students and faculty, but the staff as well, especially secretaries!! Please remember, their (i.e., the secretaries in faculty and departmental offices) first priority is to assist administrators and faculty in “running” the university, not to “drop” everything and cater to your immediate wishes or needs. Secretaries are  oftentimes busy, too!!).

 

 

 

 

Acknowledgment made to Dr. James H. Bracy, a friend and colleague in the Pan African Studies Department, California State University, University, for first introducing this to me.

 

JS/2001