Professors that take forever to grade your papers.

justtotalk
Fri, 16 Apr 2010 04:07:25 +0000

Yeah, I see what you’re saying nyustudent, but your post is really more relevant to associate/assistant professors. And in those cases (at least at my school), course evaluations actually affect salaries for these guys.

Tenured professors (typically) bring in much more grant money. They obviously don’t bring in “twice the university’s endowment” but that’s irrelevant–many get grants from NSF and others that are far greater than their salaries. In fact, their grants typically cover the salaries of other graduate student positions.

These people, even though teaching is still officially their primary responsibility, aren’t evaluated on teaching skills anymore. Their salary increases are based exclusively on citations and other measurements of the quality of their work output. Those who sit around and just do teach their mandatory lectures will find their salaries have stagnated. Even if they hand back your papers the next day.

Anyone in college should know this–most lecturers are better teachers than tenured professors. It’s not to say that a tenured professor CAN’T care about their students or can’t devote more than the minimum amount of office hours/extra time that is mandated by the school. It’s just that they have no incentive beyond personal interest.

Tuition seems expensive to you, but your tuition fees don’t cover squat. It doesn’t even cover base salaries (certainly not in public schools anyways), not to mention the much more significant amount of grant monies being spent to sustain research.

Your education should be your responsibility, beyond the professional standards expected of your professor. A certain turnaround time for graded papers isn’t one of those standards. IMO, getting more is nice. Expecting more is self absorbed.