Skip to main content

Questions tagged [professorship]

Queries specific to the duties and responsibilities of professors, as distinct from all other academic staff positions. This tag should not be used for queries that could equally apply to researchers or instructors who are not professors.

159 votes
9 answers
22k views

Prof's neurological health is declining rapidly. What can I (TA) do?

I'm a law student acting as a teaching assistant/fellow for a tenured and notable law professor. Between last year when I took the course myself and now when I am a TA/TF, his mental acuity and health ...
Anonymous's user avatar
  • 1,572
129 votes
12 answers
33k views

Why are professors' websites so ugly?

I can't help but notice that even in CS, professors' websites are almost always difficult to navigate, poorly-organized, and just generally hard to look at (poorly-tiled backgrounds, inconsistent ...
Alex Reinking's user avatar
128 votes
13 answers
26k views

Should professors intervene if a student is wearing offensive clothing in their classroom?

A question about university dress codes reminded me of an incident that happened when I was an undergrad, in which a classmate came to school wearing a really offensive and misogynistic t-shirt. I ...
ff524's user avatar
  • 109k
120 votes
15 answers
40k views

How do you answer "Oh, you're a professor? What do you teach?"

I suspect anybody who's a professor knows this story: you meet someone new in a social setting and it comes up that you're a professor. The inevitable next question is, "oh, what do you teach?" It's ...
Dnuorg Spu's user avatar
  • 5,818
115 votes
15 answers
59k views

Is it appropriate to email a professor saying you enjoyed their class, after doing well in it?

I recently finished taking an undergraduate class and I enjoyed it. I was thinking of emailing the prof and saying this, but I don't know if it's appropriate or not, for a few reasons: I would have ...
user avatar
107 votes
14 answers
23k views

Is it ethical for a professor to get masters students to work on open source modules related to the professor's profit-making company?

My professor of Computer Science has a company (both based in Germany) that promotes an open-source software. Of course the software is free and open-source, but his company generates profits through ...
Jack Twain's user avatar
  • 4,022
104 votes
14 answers
413k views

Assistant professor vs Associate professor [closed]

What's the difference between an associate professor and an assistant professor? What can one of them do that the other can't? and which is a higher level? can any of them supervise a PhD student?
Mohamed Khamis's user avatar
92 votes
12 answers
24k views

Why do professors want to make sure that their notes written on the blackboard will not be published?

I am a university student and have recently found out how much easier it is to use my smart phone to take snapshots of notes professors write on the blackboard during lectures (since I am quite bad at ...
David Frank's user avatar
92 votes
7 answers
14k views

As a department head, what to do if a professor leaves without giving out grades?

I am department head. An adjunct professor teaching two courses in my department left without notice. He did not deliver the grades to me. We have no staff in that field to give the final exam again. ...
Mohammad Hassan's user avatar
90 votes
12 answers
17k views

Why do researchers need universities?

This is a follow-up question to How are junior professors evaluated for promotion? and probably an even more naive question. If I'm understanding the answer correct, professors need funding to do ...
Allure's user avatar
  • 133k
86 votes
10 answers
18k views

How to deal with a professor who grades assignments and exams incorrectly

I currently have a (graduate) professor who clearly does not understand the material she teaches at the level required by the course. This normally would not be a problem - I'm fine with educating ...
Jan Vincent's user avatar
86 votes
7 answers
22k views

Should I take threats from a former professor seriously?

Some Context: A member of my MA thesis committee, for whom I was also a GA (graduate assistant), threatened me several times while I was still in my masters program (last year). For example, she ...
adspeed's user avatar
  • 1,035
82 votes
9 answers
14k views

Is it acceptable for a professor to ask post-doc student to babysit for free?

Like the title says, I have a friend who is a post-doc and her professor is asking her and another post-doc to baby-sit for him. He does not pay them, he simply expects them to baby-sit for free ...
gillonba's user avatar
  • 954
81 votes
6 answers
15k views

Is it ethical for a Professor to disseminate wrong answers online?

I recently took a class where the Professor created multiple online study guides, on popular student sites, which intentionally contained the wrong answers. He did this because his exams were based ...
user123's user avatar
  • 964
81 votes
3 answers
26k views

Life as a math professor

I am currently an undergraduate math major in my 3rd year (in America). I have taken lots of pure math courses, and anything I put in my resume tells potential employers I'm probably going to be an ...
DCT's user avatar
  • 959

15 30 50 per page
1
2 3 4 5
68