My son was asked by his LAC to write a letter in support of his chemistry professor for pre-tenure reappointment.
Unfortunately, he had a bad experience with that professor. He did poorly in that class (B minus), telling us he was taught by the lab assistants most of the semester because she was completely ineffective as a teacher(more of a researcher).
How we help him approach this letter?
He is asked to describe strengths and weaknesses, characteristics of effective teaching, the LAC’s commitment to excellent in UG teaching, etc.
The deadline is November 15th.
In this case, I don’t want him to be silent and to find his voice(constructively).
Is there a reason that he can’t just decline and be honest that his experience with this professor wasn’t positive and he isn’t comfortable writing a pre tenure letter?
I agree with momofboiler…the school asked for a letter in support of the professor. If the student can’t write a supportive letter, he should decline. IMO it’s analogous to a student who asks a teacher/prof for a positive letter of recommendation. If the teacher/prof can’t write that, they should decline.
If he didn’t try to address this when he was a student in the class (or since), this feels like the wrong way in which to find his voice. He should simply decline.
It’s not passive, it’s a life lesson. The tenure committee surely sees the “rate my professor” scores or hears the scuttlebutt on campus. So asking for something to enter into the official dossier means they are looking for counter-balance. And if your son can’t say something positive, he is well within his right to respectfully decline.
It would not be passive to decline to write the letter. This is how one normally handles situations like this in academia, no matter who is asking for a letter and who is being asked. If he feels like he cannot write a positive letter, he should just say that he doesn’t feel like he knows the professor well enough to write on her behalf.
I agree with @shelby_balik. . If he does not feel like he is the best candidate to write the letter of recommendation he should simply state that. That he doesn’t feel like he can write a letter/is not a good choice for this opportunity and that he will politely defer to another candidate.
It sounds like you want him to write the letter and are asking for advice on how to word it. There may be good reason to follow the advice given by others and decline to submit the letter (or simply do nothing and let the deadline pass).
The committee likely has some of tenured faculty in Chem as well as other profs and administrators. On the one hand a depiction of the prof as unsuitable and giving reasons furthers the interests of the LAC in providing a good education. On the other hand a LAC is a small world and unless other students are submitting negative evaluations your son may be known as the kid submitting the poison letter. Which isn’t going to help his experience at the LAC.
I’d save the critical letters/comments for abusive, inappropriate boundaries, “dating a classmate and everyone knows it” type of professorial behavior. That’s where to use your voice. Situations like this? Ehh.
Look at it this way – hopefully, he used course evaluations as an opportunity to give honest feedback on the professor and his experience in the class. Those evaluations will be part of the reappointment file, so the committee reviewing the file will have that information. Course evaluations are an appropriate place for that feedback, but a letter is not.
Thanks all. I believe it was that professor’s first year teaching that course.
In today’s political climate, I’m not sure there is an evidence-based correct answer.
Honestly, I think he will be happy to decline it.
I don’t think that declining to write the letter is enough. We all had professors like this, who should never have been teaching. at the very least, he should decline to write the letter, but perhaps an appointment with the Dean to tell him what his experience was of this prof’s ineffective teaching. You’d think that a LAC would want to hire someone who is both an able researcher and an effective teacher. They need to know.
If this is the case, then it’s even more reason to give a little grace to the professor by declining to write the letter. If the prof is a non-tenure-track instructor, they’re probably relatively new to teaching, and if they were teaching the course for the first time (possibly with little advance time to plan, as often happens), there are plenty of reasons it might have been a little rough. There’s a steep learning curve in those situations. It’s a little premature to write them off as an unqualified teacher.
I saw this thread earlier, and am just now having a chance to read it carefully and respond. This is exactly what I was going to say. There is a reason that course evaluations are anonymous.
And this was the second point that I was going to make. I attended an NSF-sponsored teaching workshop early in my teaching career. The faculty leading the workshop said that first year teaching evaluations were absolutely worthless in predicting what sort of a teacher someone would become. It was all about whether the instructor could reflect on feedback and do the work to improve.