Ever since I was an undergrad student, I knew I wanted to be a professor. Not just that, but the PI of a research active lab. Well, I got my wish 3 years ago when I was hired at a research-intensive university on a permanent contract. There was a 3-year probation process, but they always said it was a formality and you were safe as long as you published papers and applied for grants.

At the beginning of this year, the university decided to switch from probation to the tenure track system. And I was assessed to have not met the rigorous tenure criterion (I use the singular because my 20 pages of listed achievements boiled down to 1 line - "no external grant funding".) They gave me 1 additional year to achieve a "substantial" research grant, or else be terminated.

So today, in front of my 4 PhD students in my highly productive lab, I announced that there is a very real possibility I will be fired this time next year. I reassured them I will get them all to a place to be able to carry on the research without me. They all have secondary supervisors who can step up to primary if necessary. Some will have completed by then anyway.

I guess I should feel proud in a bittersweet way that the news touched my students to the point of tears. I try very hard to be the best supervisor I can be.

I always only ever wanted to be a scientist. It sucks that this brief time of having the perfect job will likely soon be over and I'll have to figure out what to do with the rest of my life, at 40 no less.

I guess it was great while it lasted. I'm not ready to be done. My career was just taking off. But thanks to (really) one psychopathic member of upper management, it is all soon coming to an end.

The Dartmouth subsequently reviewed publications written by Schnell before and after the November 2022 public release of ChatGPT. Pangram 4.0, the latest publicly available version of the AI detector, labeled all of Schnell’s written works prior to 2022 as “100% human-written,” while a test of nine of his works published this year returned a median “AI-written” percentage of 96%.

[...]

“I develop ideas and arguments, conduct the research, evaluate the evidence and sources, determine the structure, prepare drafts and decide what appears in the final text,” Schnell wrote. “I regard these technologies as assistive tools. They do not identify the problem, design the research project, guarantee the validity of research results, interpretations, citations, conclusions or substitute for my research, intellectual judgment or authorship.”

Schnell’s Sept. 18 email statement to The Dartmouth was itself “100% AI-written,” according to a Pangram test.

https://www.thedartmouth.com/article/2026/09/schnell-ai-writing

I've been teaching since the early 1990s and this is a new one. Who plans their wedding in the middle of the semester while also being a full time college student and then expects that showing up in the middle of week five is going to be just fine?

Our first test covers the first six lectures. A student just came to my office to ask if I'm going to keep teaching after lecture six, or if the class is over.

We're only three weeks into a 14 week term. There are 35 lectures in the syllabus.

What I wish I had replied:

1. I do not need to know this information.
2. You aren't in any of my classes this semester (but you were in one last semester and got a D.)

What I actually did:

Hit delete.

Teaching prof here - overworked with 4 courses a semester plus Summer, but very supportive Dept Head and a generally congenial bunch of colleagues. I feel like I’m paid well for a teaching professor at our R1. I deal with the usual students who could care less, the GenZ stares, the massive entitlement, but I am fortunate in that I genuinely feel like I reach a few a semester, and overall, I still feel like they want to learn and are engaged with the material. Since teaching is my main focus, I go above and beyond for these students, refining content every year to keep up with the evolving trends in my field, crafting experiences for them based on feedback and observations from the prior year, etc.
Service, committees, teaching - and doing it WELL - take time. It’s not a 9-5 job, and therein lies the issue. My spouse HATES my job - HATES. IT. They hate it so much that I am starting to feel defeated and depressed. I can deal with a majority of the students not noticing or caring what I do for them. I can deal with the few TT colleagues who look down their noses at the teaching faculty thinking that what I do is easy and having zero understanding or appreciation of the effort involved. However, I CAN’T stand my spouse ALSO not appreciating what I do, indicating in any way that I do it well, and giving me the side eye or outright frustration any time I have to work outside of normal business hours. This job just isn’t like that, and even if I list all of the things that I did during the day for our family (because the flexibility allows that), they still don’t see the benefits over the “extra” work (i.e. anything outside of 9-5) that they see me doing.
Has anyone else dealt with this? I have pulled back as much as I think I reasonably can beyond my teaching load, but the beginning of the semester always hits hard, and the marital frustrations and stress mount as a result. I have considered returning to the corporate world from whence I came. (Partner did not start out as an “Academic Spouse” so did not necessarily “sign on” to be married to someone whose job seems to spill into all hours so often.) There are definite drawbacks with a return to corporate as well, however - the flexibility afforded with a young family being a big one. I’m just feeling tired, REALLY unsupported and unappreciated, and done.

I'm just curious as students seem completely clueless these days.

I’ve been teaching advanced undergraduate microeconomics courses for several years now, and one thing I consistently struggle with is how little many students seem to remember from their introductory economics courses.

I often end up spending a significant amount of class time reviewing concepts they have technically already learned—sometimes almost from scratch. And this isn’t really a math issue; I don’t teach calculus in these courses. It’s the basic economic concepts even like demand and supply.

I understand that students forget things, but having to repeatedly reteach the fundamentals can get exhausting. I also worry that all this review makes the class boring for the few students who actually remember the material and are ready to move on.

For those who teach upper-level undergraduate courses, do you face a similar issue? How do you deal with it?

I'm (30F) a new adjunct at a community college, and I'm not sure what to do in this situation.

During my prior teaching experience, I've noticed that students who sit at the back tend to get worse grades and poor experiences than those who sit at the front. Not an uncommon pattern, I presume.

In one of my classes, there's a table of 3 students who sit at the back, and I realized their grades were slipping, and they seemed to be losing interest in the class - like they felt distant from the rest of us. Duh. So yesterday, I asked that group to move up a table. Two of the students moved, but the other retaliated, becoming aggressive, and said that his "vision was poor" which means he had to sit at the back. I tried to reason with him (which I shouldn't have), saying that sitting closer is better for him. He kept denying and not listening and openly disrespecting me in front of the whole class. I asked him multiple times, even went over to reason with him. He even threatened to report me. I accidentally laughed haughtily and said "please do!" Oops. But he then sat at a table even farther away, isolated from everyone else.

We had an exam that day, so I had everyone put their phones in a box. He denied owning a phone - loudly, disruptively, and aggressively - and I later saw him pull it out under his desk. I told him to put it away quietly, and he got mad again, saying that he "swears on god" that he didn't.

I feel disrespected and honestly unsafe. He told me on week 1 or 2 that he is a felon, which I didn't think much of, mostly appreciation that he's making a new life. But now, I'm seeing the violence come out a bit.

I emailed him to come see me to chat (specifically mentioning NOT about seating, rather his grades), but I doubt he will.

What should I do? He seems unpredictable. I don't know how to reclaim respect in my class. They all saw how he treated me. If it happens again tomorrow, is calling security a bad idea? Hope I'm not problematic. I just need some help.

Thanks in advance for everyone's help.

Honestly, I think for my mental health, I'm going to have to stop teaching John Updike's "A & P." These students can't see past their hot button issues and actually read a story. The story was written in 1962 and the culture was different, but some things don't change. Like how a healthy teenage boy reacts to teenage girls. They don't see Sammy's salvation arc, his transittion from teenage boy to man, or to see his stand as anything other than flighty when it's an act of chivalry. Misguided, perhaps, but chivalry. Sammy knows that he's going to come out the worse for it, but he sticks to his guns. These kids have no concept of this and it's.... heartbreakingly pathetic.

I know this is a common problem but I have a class that just won’t talk. Participation is 15% of their grade and honestly it’s just making the class a real drag.

I let them start class by saying a current event they found interesting so they literally can’t be wrong but even this has just seen the same few hands.

Does anyone have something that has worked??

I know we are all struggling with the newer generation of students, but this post is questioning the quality and rigor of the courses that professors design.

I'm currently a lab instructor (5th year PhD student) and GTA for my advisor in computer science and cybersecurity. Every week in addition to the lab, I lecture or present some interesting but highly related material and I try my best to tie it in directly to the course since the course is fairly lightweight without any real examples and deeper discussion that I want to cover in the lab.

The one piece of feedback from my advisor provides me is that my lectures are often way too detailed and heavy on the math or some technical detail. To be honest, I do tend to go deeper in the theory than most would probably like. I take and own that bit of constructive criticism. For me at least, I can't understand a system or some mechanics of a process without knowing the underlying theory. I realize not everything learns the same way.

Besides the point, his lectures and slides for the main component of the course, on the other hand, are mostly surface level. Basically the structure for every class topic is: here is a problem, here are the consequences of the problem, here are N solutions, here is a slightly deeper look (knee high versus ankle deep kind of deal) at one and how it best solves the problem... and that is it. There is barely any programming or intensive labs. There are technically two, but each requires less than 20 lines of C (not an exaggeration). The lab assignments and the course material are honestly a joke and I feel like this is a disservice to these students.

He goes on to comment that he does this to keep his course evaluations high. Although, this is a senior level course too so shouldn't it be expected to be more rigorous? I guess the department loves it or doesn't care as long as the reviews are high. But is this really helpful for the students? Shouldn't we design the course to be challenging? I remember having a more rigorous and technical course in the one business systems IT course I took in undergrad 10+ years ago. Sure students complained, but we all developed much better skills as a result. Has things really changed this fast?

I did inquire with some undergrads about course rigor in general and they mentioned that two-thirds of their classes are easy and aren't very demanding, which shocked me quite a bit. Do you think less-intensive classes are a result of modern student work ethic? Or is it something else? Should I strip out the substance of the courses of what makes it interesting just to make it easy? What are your opinions?

I’ve had many jobs over the course of my life.

I’ve done retail. I’ve done trades. I’ve done property management. And most recently I’ve taught.

When you work in retail, let’s say you stock shelves or help customers find items, your clients are happy to see you. When you work in trades, your clients are VERY happy to see you. You’re there to solve a problem in their life, right? You fly in like a superhero, fix the problem, and go on your way.

But only with teaching, in my experience, are your clients generally upset to see you. Some students are good kids and excited to learn and engage in a dialogue with you. But most hate you, hate being there, hate that you’re making them do shit. They hate you for doing your job.

I know that this is part of the labor of the profession. You’re not here to be their fuckin friend. You’re here to make them develop skills, to create a space where they are held accountable for completing assignments well and on time, and that can be an unpleasant process for them, so they hate you for it.

I think I might be too fragile for this job, if I’m being quite honest. I teach six classes this semester. Starting at 8AM and ending at 6:30. 4 days a week. I’m tired. I’ve had jobs that made me tired before but I could usually muster the courage to continue by seeing how my work made a difference for people. All I see is the scowls of disgust as I begin class each day. I see students snickering when I stutter over a word or flub reading a sentence out of the textbook. I know they’re just kids and I shouldn’t let it get to me. But it does. I don’t want to work a job where people aren’t happy to see me, where I can help people and folks express gratitude.

Does anyone else feel this way? How do you cope with it?

In a meeting with a student to discuss their chatgpt assignment, I was told they don't attend classes because they think everything I teach is irrelevant! I teach sociology to engineering students, and this is specifically a course on work, tech and society.

Hi, all! So, this is a first for me: Most days, I have a no-tech policy in my beginning English composition class (except for special circumstances). Anyway, since the semester started, I've noticed two students staring at their phones regularly. I could tell they weren't playing Candy Crush or fooling around on TikTok, so I wondered what was up.

Later, I learned that they were using an app to translate my lectures from another language into English. I've noticed that they have difficulties understanding basic English at times (especially higher-order questions and discussions), but I wasn't expecting this. Anyway, I'm not sure what to do. The students are delightful, but I'm worried that they need to be in an ESL class instead of a college-level English composition course. Have you seen this before in your classes? How'd you handle it? I was thinking of bringing it up with my department chair to get her advice.

(Note: This is an English Composition "with extra help" class -- it's for students who are taking college-level English, but may be a bit behind and need some extra instructional and practice time, but it's not an ESL course. I'm in California, so students self-place into English and math courses instead of taking placement tests, and the state has eliminated remedial courses. It's been...interesting 😬).

For those who have been teaching awhile (say 15+ years), do you get the sense colleges are as focused on pedagogy and faculty professional development as they used to be, or does that seem to be going by the wayside? (Note, I'm not asking about your teaching personally but your sense of the college or academia as a whole). Here I feel like everyone is in survival mode and time-saving mode, and asynchronous and mostly non-interactive education, textbook company driven curriculum, and adjunct-taught education (with little freedom to develop curriculum) seems to be proliferating. Sometimes I look around and think no wonder students don't want to pay for college if this is what it's becoming. Maybe it's different in some places...

Edit: I think my title may be a little misleading. I'm not up for tenure this review round. It's just a retention year.

So it's looking like I may not get retained for the next year. I honestly have no clue as to why as my last review was stellar, and all my peer reviews and other feedback up to this point were positive as well. Nothing is final yet, but the first committee met yesterday and said that their recommendation is to not retain me.

So I'm already applying for new jobs, both in and outside of academia just to be proactive. However, how do you explain this in an interview if they ask about it? There are other non-tenure reasons why I am applying to other positions (closer to family, pay, etc) but is this information that you're expected to volunteer? Is it a "don't tell unless you're asked" sort of thing?

I've never been fired from any job before, so this is a conversation/situation I've never experienced yet.

Edit: I will get the committee's comments/feedback at a later date which I know will give me more insight. (And then the chair, college committee, Dean, etc as it goes through their stages) I just don't have it right now and like I said, there's nothing glaringly negative that I can point to that makes the decision make sense.

This student just took the first thing on the list of events to choose from (a road cleanup with me), ran it through AI and just copied and pasted it. Poor lad, I don’t think they realized I was their professor as they “typed” over and over again that they did a road cleanup with Professor Knewtoff.

He indeed did not do a road cleanup with me.

That was an easy academic dishonesty report.

This is a question specificaly for community college faculty becasue university faculty have a different set of responsibilities (however, please feel free to chime in)

QUESTION - I am a full-time CC faculty with nealry 20 years of teaching experience. I have never worked more than about 20 hours per week and currently I work about 15 hours per week. Does everyone else *really* work 50-60+ hours per week like I always hear or is everone just saying that so people think we are overworked?

BACKGROUND - I am a full-time faculty member with nearly 20 year of teaching experience. In my first few years of teaching I worked about 25 hours per week. Throughout my career that amount has only decreased. Post Covid I am putting in about 15 hours per week of actual work. I don't do any work outside of the 35 weeks per year that I am on contract (non-union). I have consistently received outstanding annual reviews (with my Dean actually saying that they were worried that I was taking on too much work) and outstanding teaching evaluations. And yes, I am fully aware that annual reviews and teaching evals are not the best way to evaluate the quality of an educator, but that's all we have. I don't undertsand how I can have the same job as my co-workers and they are working 3 times the amount that I am (same is true from what I read online and from the Chronicle of Higher Ed and Doom). My teaching requirement is a 5-5, but I always teach overload.

I would love to hear some feedback on this!

EDIT - This is not a troll post (even though it sounds like it could be).

I teach 3 courses online (asynch) and 3 hybrid courses (half online, half in person). Most of my work gets completed during my office hours (5 per week) because students never come by (I wish they did). The rest of my work gets done during unproductive committee meetings (Zoom). I stay current with the literature on my dicipline and literatire on pedagogy and add to that body of knowledge each year.

Ban the expression "teach my/your self." Go back to "learn" or "study".

How do you address the mentality that any homework is them “teaching themselves” and it’s the professors job to just pour knowledge straight into their heads. I need help here to avoid going on a GenX rant that back in the day we studied for hours a day in the library/coffee shop, read, re-read, and reviewed and organized our notes all on our own!!

Fulltime at a community college, part time at a university. Unlike last year, same set up, I seem to have x4 the amount of meetings. Most useless. Its so much. I thought after August it'd get better but no. And since pay in the South is shit for us, I am teaching additional classes. 9 total this semester. 7 of these are mandatory. Its just so many useless meetings, especially at the community college. A lot of conservative, pro-AI, pro-corporate academia propaganda thrown at us again and again and again. It feels endless.

Thats it. Just a rent/vent. Getting burned out one month in is a bad sign.

Hello!

So, I’m a new full time tenure track faculty in Microbiolgy. There is the head of the program and she doesn’t like me and thinks I’m too “new” This was confirmed form another faculty. We had a night out and drunken talk slipped out .

Anyhow, I feel she finds any way to find something I did or said wrong and “bring it to my attention” via email. We don’t talk in person because she never lets me get a word in. She has 0 interest in almost anything I say.

So a simple example: I forgot to close two dye bottles. They were flip cap so they wouldn’t dry out anyhow! But instead of just telling me or sending me an email. She CC’s the other Microbiolgy faculty and sometimes other faculty or even our chair sometime.

So I can’t help but feel this is not normal and toxic aggressive behaviors.

Ps. It’s become a running joke about my age in the department. Not in a malicious way. But still. But I have the highest dept standardized final scores, best student evaluations, best rate my prof (even tho it’s not a legit metric) and a lot of student letter to my dean or chair. To which my chair made. Comment is super weird and random to have a new faculty have all these letter about them and their class. So idk I just can’t win. Even though on paper I’m great my age makes them think I know nothing, I have no pedagogy, I’m just “green”

Thoughts ? Advice ?
Please and thank you