Editorial

The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect those of the staff of this publication, or of the Student Union.

Terri-Lynn Hall, former editor of The Gem, wrote a great editorial last year which questioned the teaching abilities of professors and the related training (or lack of) they receive, especially in comparison with public school teachers. I thought it was such a good piece as it echoed the feelings of many university students, frustrated by the quality of education they were receiving.

While talking to some of these frustrated students a couple of weeks ago, Terri-Lynn’s editorial popped into my head. (Scary thought, how these editorials stick in your mind.) Now unlike Terri-Lynn, I am not an education student, so I am not an expert on the training our profs receive. Furthermore, the editorial’s already been done, and it’d be kind of dumb to ramble about something which was already discussed last year. —

Instead, I wanted to mention a few pet peeves about professors that I’ve picked up during my over- extended stay at UPEI. Before I get going though, I just want to mention this: I hem-ed and ha-ed about doing this editorial because as a student, bashing professors is not exactly a wise thing for me to do. But see, that’s exactly why I’m doing this. I know for a fact that there are a lot of discontented Students out there that don’t want to complain, because who wants to get on the bad side of their prof?

Secondly, I don’t mean to come across as "bashing". I sincerely want to be constructive and hope to make things better for both students and professors. I have no experience being a professor, so I admit that I’m not really qualified to criticize. On top of all this, I know that I myself have some really

nauseating habits that must drive my profs insane (yawning like crazy, playing with my calculator during an English class, walking in late, etc.)

Finally, I want to make it clear that I am not referring to any particular professor. These comments have been gathered from different professors I and other students have had, and furthermore, all of these nit-picking points refer to actions which more than one professor on more than one occasion committed.

1. Please keep your office hours. Wait, first of all, please set up some office hours, tell us your office hours, and then stick to them. If for some reason you can’t keep them on a certain day, please inform the class A.S.A.P.

2. Please don’t keep us late. I know we students have a bad habit of closing our books and putting on our jackets five minutes before class is over, but I know I’m doing it because I don’t want to be late for my next class. If not for the students, do it out of consideration for the next professor who'll be getting late students. :

3. Please please stick to the class outline/syllabus/agenda. This means in terms of mark breakdowns, assignments, reading, lectures, and whatever else is in your outline. It’s very frustrating to kill yourself over a test that was supposed to be worth 50% of the final mark and then find out it was changed to 15% (vice versa’s even worse!).

4. While on the subject of outlines, please try to be consistent with other professors who are teaching the same course. (Again, in terms of course content, assignments, mark breakdowns and reading).

5. Please use the reserve facility at the library for solution sets for answers, additional notes, suggested readings, old exams, etc.

6. Please try not to give back a test, paper or

The UPEI X-Press

October 25, 1990

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