Seeing how hard landing a job (especially TT) at good universities is, I'm curious what universities prefer when they're looking at candidates:

1- A 36-year-old with a lot of research and teaching experience and an extensive track record of publications and grants.

2- A 26-year-old who just earned his PhD and shows a lot of promise but - obviously - only has a few publications (say 2-3), some teaching experience, and no grant record.

It is clearly preferable to hire people with more experience, publications, etc. if they're at comparable places in their careers. I wonder how age and potential play into it, though.

see title

College-related subreddits are obviously targets for what may politely be called "paid assignment services." Sometimes they look like bots, but other times they appear to be (or maybe they are?) real people.

This is the first time I've seen an entire subreddit populated by stupid AI talking to other stupid AI. Who would you even report this to?

https://www.reddit.com/r/Assignmentcafe/comments/1h0602m/beat_the_deadline_urgent_assignment_help_from/

Hi everyone! Today was my first day of teaching at university - it was very spontaneous because I had only volunteered yesterday since a colleague had fallen sick. The class itself was fantastic - the students were very nice and participated actively. However, I was horribly anxious before the class and even threw up because I was so nervous :( As soon as I had unlocked the classroom, my anxiety had vanished. I am assuming that part of my anxiety stemmed from being underprepared and still being very young (I'm in my early 20s), but I would need some reassurance that this gets better over time and I'm not the only one who felt this way. Thank you very much in advance and thank you for reading this!

In an English class for beginners in the language today, I set the students to writing a single sentence to define a single item from a group of 31 photographs (*e.g., '*A turtle is an animal that has a hard shell, has four legs, and lays eggs.').

When I was going around to see what the students had written or were writing, I spied a student with a long, detailed, exceedingly specific definition that included taxonomic and population genetics terms and no spelling mistakes.

'This is ChatGPT, isn't it?'

'No, I wrote it myself.'

The student's smart phone was on, next to the sheet of paper, and had ChatGPT showing the exact text.

​

Being a TA/RA in the Computer Science(CS) department right now feels surreal, especially when I look at the rest of the university (and many of the posts on this sub). Let me explain.

The future of the software industry is AI-driven. Engineers are heading towards being the people who provide the right prompts and make a few tweaks to get the results they need. I’m lucky that our department has been ahead of the curve, allowing the use of AI in all graduate-level courses. One of my professors put it perfectly: “I don’t care how unique or good of a writer you are; I want to see if your methodology can outperform the current state of the art.”

For undergrad courses, things are trickier. Our department cannot officially allow AI use because doing that requires approval from the university senate, so for now, we TAs are simply not enforcing it. Earlier this semester, I even ran two workshops for senior undergrads on how to use LLMs effectively for their work. During our university's research week this semester, our professors had multiple seminars and panel discussions where they tried to convince the rest of the university to embrace AI.

Just to give you an idea of how things work in CS now: our senior professors themselves admit they can’t fully grasp the insane amount of knowledge and experience today’s graduates are expected to have just to land their first job. They are just gonna fall behind than their peers choosing not to master LLMs. When we design assignments, we make sure to do it keeping AI in mind. We start by asking LLMs the assignment questions ourselves, then layering extra challenges on top of the basic answers. This way, students have to keep refining their prompts and thinking critically to get anywhere close to the solution.

Here’s my (admittedly naive) take on the future: LLMs aren’t going anywhere. In fact, most of the recent research grants in our department have been focused on LLM-related work. Even Canada’s federal funding agency has started allowing the use of AI in grant proposals, which says a lot about where things are headed.

I get that in some other fields, relying on AI could hold back students’ academic growth, and honestly, I don’t have a solution for that. But this constant cat-and-mouse game of trying to ban or outsmart AI just isn’t sustainable in the long run. It’s here to stay, and we’ll all have to figure out how to work with it, not against it.

I know preventing / mitigating AI usage is a big topic here, so I thought I'd share this recent discovery I came across on Twitter. Seems that by overlaying a very faint, practically imperceptible name you can crash any ChatGPT image query. There's some further discussion on useable names in the Twitter thread for those interested

As semester ends, I was reviewing my budget and bank accounts this year and found that my spending keeps increasing, such as car insurance, bills, grocery, rent, and food. I am lucky I don’t have debt and my university increased the salary for faculties this year. However, the inflation is still wild, interest is high, and it’s harder and harder to save a decent amount money. I am a tenure-track faculty and this is my fourth year in my career. Almost all of my colleagues have bought houses. They enjoyed the good timing and the rate. I wish I could buy my own home as well. So, my financial goal 2025 is to save as much as I can for the down payment. I was wondering what’s your financial goal for the next year? What are your suggestions or tips in terms of saving money?

Hi everyone,

I'm one of the final candidates for an assistant professor of psychology position at an R2 school. I just had my on-campus interview right before Thanksgiving. I think it went well - I have both my fingers crossed because this is the only position I'm still a candidate for!

While everything else felt pretty standard, there is one thing that, according to my advisor, is very unconventional. In my final meeting/interview during my visit which was with the department chair, the chair said that I should send him a list of renovations I would need done for my potential lab space in a week; and a request for my startup budget in two weeks. The search committee chair had actually given me a heads-up before I arrived on campus that the chair would ask me about this. However, I had expected this to be a topic he would bring up in an informal conversation, rather than a full-on request at the very end of my visit. The chair added that he is asking this to all of the candidates for their budget so that he can bring it to the dean to give him a better idea of the cost of bringing someone in. He also gave me rough ideas of what can go in a startup budget - like equipment, furniture, and research personnel.

Since the one-week mark from my interview was yesterday, I sent him a list of potential renovations. Along with that, I confirmed that I had another week for the startup budget and asked if he had a template or guideline in mind that I should follow for the startup budget. The chair responded today, but did not answer my question about the template - just thanked me and confirmed that I can send him the startup budget next week.

I'm quite confused about how I should approach this startup budget. Some questions I have are (1) How detailed and comprehensive should this budget be? The chair gave me a very rough list of items, but I don't think it's very comprehensive, as it leaves out conference travel, professional development, research expenses, and summer salary. Can I include these too in the budget, or should I just stick to the items he mentioned? (2) The chair had given me a rough maximum budget. Should I aim to max out the budget? I'm worried that this budget might be part of my evaluation, particularly around how feasible or affordable hiring me would be. (3) Is this budget going to have any actual binding power if I get the actual offer?

Long story short, I'm just nervous and confused about how best I should approach sharing a startup budget before actually getting any offer. I would love to hear more expert opinions and experiences from you all. Any and all tips will be appreciated!

That has to be a record?

Article says the new president was previously provost and oversaw the loss of 74 TT lines while increasing his own pay $100k per year. I guess that’ll do it.

https://marquettewire.org/4129253/news/marquette-faculty-vote-no-confidence-in-university-leadership/

I teach a class that is 100% online and delivered by Zoom in the morning/early afternoon. I get notices in my email box whenever anyone logs into our Zoom room.

Now for the weird thing: I pretty regularly get notifications of students logging into the Zoom room at weird hours. For instance, I just had a student log into the Zoom room at 9PM (my latest class ends at 3 and there is no class tomorrow (I was considering whether maybe students were making sure their zoom works in advance, but that seems unlikely).

Has anyone else observed similar/have ideas regarding why this may be happening?

I’m an Adjunct at a somewhat prestigious College in the Northeast. I got hired to teach ARE (Anti-Racism Education) courses and it’s been mostly going well so far.

One of my students is currently getting a D+ in my class and asked if I do extra credit. After informing him that I don’t but there’s still time in the semester to work and bump up his grade, I received a request from his mother to have a meeting about my class.

I immediately forwarded it to my Chair because of FERPA and he told me that while the student hasn’t completed the form, to send him the link and if he does to then set up a time with his mom.

This threw me for a loop. For context, I’m 9 years teaching, 4 in a Private High School so I’m great with parents, but now 5 years in Higher Ed I’ve never encountered this. I’ve stellar observations, student evals, etc. I’m just pretty drained at the end of the semester and not in the slightest mood to discuss anything with an “adult’s” parent about how their kid slacked off all semester.

Curious if anyone has ever done this in College? Or any thoughts about it. Thanks in advance.

I laughed so I hard I was in tears when reading this piece. Enjoy!

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/a-faculty-members-self-evaluation-at-the-end-of-the-semester?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR3_YOvx5ZtmEKeiwziOohKkCLHUtfwUsTT4dZJk0SDYoqDreZ8kOpoVdNA_aem_hZ-0IwLrJgMC8No9zxoZcA

Class is a Leadership Dynamics and Collaboration class, so students have to work together - that's a core learning objective. Students have a 4-week series of milestone deliverables; we just finished week 2 of 4. I scored the work today and one student barely participated, so they got a very low score. I got an email asking for a re-grade based on their participation, which boils down to they were the one who made the What's App the week before, so they "took a step back" this week. 🤦🏻‍♀️

I genuinely want my students to succeed—I update my course materials regularly, incorporate more engaging and relevant content than I did a decade ago, and provide clear deadlines and exam reviews. But somehow, it still feels like a losing battle.

Technology distraction: Students spend most of the class looking at their laptops or phones. They claim they want to learn, but when I’m teaching, they’re zoned out.

"It's boring": Some say the content is boring. Sorry, but I’m not here to entertain you—I’m here to teach you skills and knowledge that will help you in the real world.

"Deadlines are confusing": Deadlines are posted everywhere—Canvas, email, and announced in class—yet some students still act like they had no idea.

Exam expectations: Despite offering exam reviews, I get asked for test banks or even the exam questions in advance. Seriously?

Today, things hit a low point. A group decided to present without notifying me, which messed up the schedule for other groups. I asked one group to wrap up a bit faster to ensure the last group had enough time, and afterward, a student confronted me about "cutting them off." I tried to explain that I was balancing everyone’s time, but they were upset. Can we not show a little collegiality and understanding for each other?

I’m frustrated because I care deeply about teaching, and I know my current course content is more interesting and engaging than it was 10 years ago. Yet, my evaluations are lower now. It feels like the culture has shifted to "me, me, me," with little regard for the bigger picture or mutual respect.

Has anyone else had similar experiences? How do you handle this kind of disconnection and entitlement?

I was sitting at a coffee shop today, grading papers, 90% of which contained some of the following: 1) content from Generative AI, 2) Quillbot-style terribly rephrased sentences to avoid plagiarism while displaying a total lack of knowledge, 3) total refusal to follow the most important assignment instructions. I looked up and saw a young woman open her laptop, then copy/paste online exam questions into ChatGPT to get the answers, then return to the online exam to enter her responses. AI cheating on my screen, AI cheating on her screen. My semester (and many of yours) summarized perfectly.

I’m having difficulty “commanding” an authoritative presence with my students. Not in a strict sort of manner but I just want to be taken seriously and not to be undermined. Ethos wise, I’ve worked with/in a semi non-hierarchy projects and job sites but I feel this experience isn’t helping my pedagogical approach. It’s only until I give written feedback or marks back that they take the assignments and course materially seriously however I’m still up against condescending remarks or dismissal of my in world expertise…

Coworkers/friends have said in the past that my tone is valley girl. I also do not look my age (so I’ve been told by students). They say I look about 24 when I’m actually in my mid-30s. I guess I’m just frustrated by these observations because they are superficial but I cannot fault others for not knowing my professional and academic career but I just assumed at this point of my life I would be oozing competence.

Maybe, overall, teaching isn’t for me if keeping a classroom in check is something I am having difficulty with. Students don’t necessarily skip or leave my class early but the demeanour of the room just feels like I’m stepping into a boxing match to which I’m just too lethargic to fight for.

Any advice or personal experiences with this would be helpful/motivational.

I am a professor in my university's FYE program and we would like to implement a course completion ritual for the students. Anyone already doing this? If so, what does it look like?

When did this become a thing? Does anyone say 'yes' to this?

I'm too old for this BS.

For context, I’m an independent person who likes to do things on my own time, in my own way. I work with a person who has what should be a minor leadership role in my department but has a significant influence on my Dean. This person is not easy to work with as she can be abrasive and bossy at times (I am uncomfortable around her and prefer to deal with her in a limited way). She keeps insisting we have meetings and do things together (like lab inventory). I don’t know how to say I’ve got this on my own, no thanks. I really don’t want to hurt her feelings or get in trouble with the Dean. Please advise.

I did a little in-class anonymous evaluation exercise today because, let's face it, the cookie cutter course evals offer little useful information.

At any rate, a few students wrote that they wanted MORE assigned readings for class and MORE accountability for getting the readings done before class! I consider this a huge win.

Hopefully your evals give you some hope, too.

Hi professors!

I have been a TA for over 15 courses, from bachelor's to MBA level, and have spent countless hours proctoring and grading exams. I've experienced how challenging it is to balance academic integrity with a good student experience. Especially now with AI, cheating has in many ways become unmanageable. While proctoring tools exist, we as faculty felt they were too rigid, difficult to use, expensive, and lacked real efficacy (all of the tools are easy to cheat and there are hundreds of YouTube tutorials on them). Hence, we did not end up pulling the trigger on any of them and were left to fend for ourselves in terms of proctoring and cheating mitigation. But it got me thinking, there has to be a better way to proctor tests and assignments...

So, I created a tool for proctoring any digital test (in-person or online) through authorship verification and behavioral analysis. We are currently piloting it at an Ivy League university. I will not go into detail as to how exactly it works; what is more important is what it gives instructors the freedom to do:

• Run your exams or assignments exactly how you would like. You can allow for any productivity software (Word or Excel, for example) or website to be used. Our solution can tell the difference between a student using a source adhering to academic integrity or not.
• Customize the degree of proctoring scrutiny, including the option to secure mobile devices and track geo-location.
• Works for both in-person or online.
• Captures non-compliant actions and generates a full report after the event.
• As easy to use as launching a Kahoot quiz.

We are going to be expanding to a couple more universities in early 2025. We would love to get your feedback before we do, hence the post.

If you are interested in learning more about the tool, feel free to drop me a DM!

I teach a graduate-level elective at a private college.

The final project is in two parts: the first part is due tomorrow, and a paper on their project is due a week from tomorrow.

Already I’m getting flooded with requests for extensions for the first part of the project. I’ve said yes to these as it doesn’t really matter when students submit their work as long as everything is submitted by the last day of class. I gave them two deadlines only to avoid them having too much work due on the last day.

But now I’m worried that with these extensions, many students will run out of time to do their papers and then might ask for an additional extension.

I’m pretty new at teaching, so I just want to be sure: is it reasonable for me to tell students that I will not accept any work submitted after the last day of class? The only exception would be in case of emergency, in which case I would need documentation.

As you might have guessed, I’m trying to be less of a pushover 🙃. I feel silly even asking this!

It’s just that I recognize my students are under a lot of stress, but they’re passionate, and I’ve particularly enjoyed my cohort this semester. Since it’s an elective, I feel like I should give them more grace. At the same time, hearing so many excuses is annoying and makes me feel I’m being taken advantage of.

I’ve taught this class for a few years, and the workload’s remained about the same. In past semesters I feel like late work was not so much of an issue as it is now.

Also I only have about a week to submit final grades after the last class. And I’m up for a promotion next year, so I realllly want to have good evaluations this term!

Thank you for any insight!

Anyone else exhausted? It's the last week of classes before finals and most are already phoning it in for final projects. Some haven't even started and they were introduced before Thanksgiving break! Some are good kids who are working which is great but my god I wanna take a nap in my office until the day is over.

Mine would look something like this:

“This professor was the worst ever! Sure, I used AI to plagiarize every essay (then repeatedly lied about it), but I only did it because I shouldn’t have to learn anything. I’m here for the piece of paper that says I deserve a white-collar job. I paid for it; give it to me!!!!”

I feel that AI has evolved quickly enough, or students have learned to use it, so that I saw changes in the last few months in what students are submitting.

My online asynchronous courses generally depend on a lot of writing, but that seems increasingly problematic as AI manages to do tasks that it could not previously do.

Some colleages say they make their assignments on their own video lectures and this makes it difficult for students to use AI. I'm not quite sure how I can do that but I might try it.

I have been getting students to do video presentations. I might do more of that.

I don't expect to be able to completely eliminate use of AI, but I do want to discourage it or have assignments where it won't be much help. But I also want the assignments to actually achieve the course goals.

What plans do you have to adjust your online asynchronous classes so you can have at least some sense that students might be learning what they are meant to learn?

I am the faculty liaison for a club at my institute and I'm taking a group on a field trip to a nearby museum. Top of my list a good way to communicate with the entire group without handing out my cellphone number.

Beyond that, any general suggestions for having a good/safe trip? This isn't my first trip with the group, but the last one was only about 10 students and this semester's group has nearly doubled.

"I couldn't bear to lose a student on a school trip. Not again."

I am a female professor on a large campus that can get pretty cold. I try to dress what I might call smart casual or business casual. But outfits, especially footwear, is hard for me to keep professional as it gets colder. Would love tips, outfit ideas or even brands. I am more mindful of my clothes because people often think I look young (I’m also very short) and it works against being taken seriously at times.

I received this email to my university address over the weekend. Sometimes I answer these, but I've learned its not a smart thing to do. It is not from a student or an .edu address. I redacted some things to reduce identifiability. He is writing about a chapter that briefly mentions the Bay of Pigs decision.

Professor name,

In your essay titled "name" , you state the following: redacted.

JFK had nothing to do with this terrible decision. This operation was conceived and planned under the Eisenhower Administration by Allen Dulles, the Director of the CIA. Dulles went to JFK when he became POTUS and informed him of the invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs. JFK told Dulles he wanted nothing to do with it and wouldn't provide him any support with the US military. When it failed sometime later, JFK fired Dulles.

As an academic you should know these facts are easy to check. I suggest you read the books "JFK and the Unspeakable" by James Douglas, and "The Brothers" by Stephen Kinzer.

These kinds of mistakes by an academic at your level are inexcusable.

Regards, Name

Student of History

**Edit: I am really appreciating the advice so far; thank you!

I'm teaching an online freshman writing class during winter (I know, I know, I need the money).

Just letting everyone use AI doesn't sit well with me, but investigating every darn thing is also getting ridiculous. I have a whole lesson about what genAI is, why I'm not allowing it (we're developing our writing muscles!), make them sign a contract that they won't use it—and they use it. I've tried requiring them to write in either Google Docs or Microsoft Word Online and then share with me so I can view the version history, but it's so cumbersome and such a waste of time, and I don't want to just keep catching them. I want to be more proactive than reactive; I want to teach them, not police them. The work is not actually hard; they can do everything themselves and pass quite easily.

I've tried more personal assignments, and then I just learn about ChatGPT's made-up hobbies or whatever. I'm all ears for more AI-proof assignments, but I haven't figured this out.

We use Canvas, and I'm considering using Respondus Lockdown for some assignments so I can be reasonably assured at least those assignments are their own work. Would this work? I haven't had time to investigate it. I'm worried because so many of my students sign up for online classes and then have major issues with very basic technical requirements, so even just giving permissions to this extension may be a hurdle.

Does anyone have good advice, preferably folks who teach writing-heavy classes in an online environment? All experience and opinions welcome.