Email Changing Higher Education

An interesting article this morning in the New York Times; reprinted here in the International Herald Tribune (no registration and hopefully it will remain available more than a week).

Email is making college professors more accessible to students. You would think that would be a good think, but the professors don't always agree.

At universities and other schools nationwide, e-mail has made professors much more approachable. But many say it has made them too accessible, erasing boundaries that traditionally kept students at a healthy distance.

These days, they say, students seem to view them as available around the clock, sending a steady stream of e-mail messages - from 10 a week to 10 after every class - that are too informal or downright inappropriate.

One student skipped class and then sent the professor an e- mail message asking for copies of her teaching notes. Another did not like her grade, and wrote a petulant message to the professor. Another explained that she was late for a Monday class because she was recovering from drinking too much at a wild weekend party.

"The tone that they would take in e- mail was pretty astounding," said Michael Kessler, an assistant dean and a lecturer in theology at Georgetown University. " 'I need to know this and you need to tell me right now,' with a familiarity that can sometimes border on imperative."

While once professors may have expected deference, their expertise seems to have become just another service that students, as consumers, are buying. So students may have no fear of giving offense, imposing on the professor's time or even of asking a question that may reflect badly on their own judgment.

Well, at $45,000 a year, isn't the student a consumer? Yes, and professors -- particularly new professors hoping to achieve tenure -- are aware of the need to cater to student peference.

The stakes are different for professors today than they were even a decade ago, said Patricia Ewick, chairwoman of the sociology department at Clark University in Massachusetts. "Students are constantly asked to fill out evaluations of individual faculty." Students also frequently post their own evaluations on Web sites like rateyourprofessor.com and describe their impressions of their professors on blogs.

Last fall, undergraduate students at Syracuse University set up a group in Facebook.com, an online network for students, and dedicated it to maligning one particular instructor. The students were reprimanded.

And there is undoubtedly a useful purpose in use of these new technologies.

Every professor interviewed emphasized that instant feedback could be invaluable. A question about a lecture or discussion "is for me an indication of a blind spot, that the student didn't get it," said Austin D. Sarat, a professor of political science at Amherst College.

College students say that e-mail makes it easier to ask questions and helps them to learn. "If the only way I could communicate with my professors was by going to their office or calling them, there would be some sort of ranking or prioritization taking place," said Cory Merrill, 19, a sophomore at Amherst. "Is this question worth going over to the office?"

But student e-mail can go too far, said Robert B. Ahdieh, an associate professor at Emory Law School in Atlanta. He paraphrased some of the comments he had received: "I think you're covering the material too fast, or I don't think we're using the reading as much as we could in class, or I think it would be helpful if you would summarize what we've covered at the end of class in case we missed anything."

Hey, Professor. You don't have to do everything they say, but is it so bad to listen? (A little heads-up for you seniors. Not all professors are brilliant. Some are not very bright at all. Try to find the good ones.)

But how much is too much?

Kathleen Jenkins, a sociology professor at the College of William and Mary in Virginia, said she had even received e-mail requests from students who missed class and wanted copies of her teaching notes.

Ewick said 10 students in one class had e-mailed her drafts of their papers days before they were due, seeking comments. "It's all different levels of presumption," she said. "One is that I'll be able to drop everything and read 250 pages two days before I'm going to get 50 of these."

Well, like with everything else new that comes along, once you figure out what the game is going to be, then you need to establish some rules.

A few professors said they had rules for e-mail and told their students how quickly they would respond, how messages should be drafted and what types of messages they would answer.

Meg Worley, an assistant professor of English at Pomona College in California, said she told students that they must say thank you after receiving a professor's response to an e-mail message.

"One of the rules that I teach my students is, the less powerful person always has to write back," Professor Worley said.

Comments, anyone?