Should professors get mental health training?

As a professor, every day you experience a TMI moment.  Or four.  Students tell us things they haven't yet told their friends or parents.

Like it or not, you're going to be the recipient of a lot more information and emotion than you probably want.  Some situations don't require much of a response.  For example, when students inform me that they have a bladder infection, I really don't need to add much to the conversation.

But what about if a student confides that she is pregnant?  Or getting an abortion?  Or has been assaulted?

What do you do if a student loses a parent?  If a student has a manic episode in lab?  If a student has a psychotic break in your classroom?  If a student is suicidal?

What if a student comes to class belligerently drunk?  Or is disruptive to other students in class?  Or is verbally abusive towards you during a lecture?

I've experienced the majority of these in my relatively short teaching career.  While you can't prepare for every possible teaching or student scenario, a certain amount of preparation and anticipation can go a long way.  Training in proper ways to deal with these situations can go a long way.  Just knowing what office or department to call helps, too.

I've had a lot of training in crisis management.  I have participated in numerous training sessions on how to handle some of the situations I've mentioned above.  At my current institution, very little training if offered on how to deal with problem or troubled students.

I'm wondering if this is true across the board.  Have you received training in how to deal with students who approach you will some of the above issues?  Or do you think profs don't deal with these issues?  Or that we have to?

Adjusting expectations at a PUI

I'm a tenure track professor at a predominately undergraduate institution (PUI).  Current grad students often ask me what's the most important thing I've learned about my job.  In my opinion, the most helpful thing I've learned in my first two years here is to adjust expectations.

I've adjusted my expectations about scholarship.  With my undergraduates only spending four to six hours a week on research, I have had to recalibrate with respect to research productivity.  Research tasks that would take me a week to accomplish might take my students all semester.  I don't anticipate submitting a paper before June.

I have also lowered my expectations about the strength of incoming students.  I've found that I can't take for granted that my freshmen are coming into college with the math and writing skills that I would expect.  More time is taken in the first semester to bring all students up to speed on written communication and problem solving.  Would it be awesome to just teach to the top 10% of my class?  Of course.  Would it get me tenure?  I doubt it.

Perhaps the biggest adjustment is to the state of funding.  My start up funds were not too terrible, but I can't bank them for next year.  I have to spend everything up and just hope I can get enough preliminary results to warrant a Big Funding Agency to decide that I deserve to be in the special top 13% group (or whatever the funding line is).  There are essentially no internal funds here, so I have to get outside funding.  This is a daunting enough of a task at a research institution, let alone at a PUI.  And so I've learned to not be surprised by the lack of internal and external funds here.  What if I run out of money next year?  Me stressing about the worst case scenario certainly won't help my undergrads be more productive.  All I can do is keep truckin'.



Now, should I passively accept subpar students or a paucity of funding?  Of course not.

But it certainly helps me maintain my sanity if I can adjust my expectations for the time being.

Drinking with students?

In grad school, it was a given that profs and students drank together.  After all, no one can work that many hours for that little glory without a serious cocktail habit.  (or maybe that was just me?)

If you teach at a PUI, the majority of your students are under 21.  I certainly wouldn't go grab a beer after classes with any of them.  THAT is frowned upon here.



But what about at conferences?  Drinking is an integral part of research conferences.  (or maybe that is just me?)

If an undergrad is 21, would you invite them out with a group of colleagues for drinks?  What about former group members from grad school?

They're out to get me!

...or so claim my students.


We're at midterms.  A few things are guaranteed to happen.


1.  Advisees will cry in my office.  Daily.

2.  Coworkers will beat the photo copier into submission.  Daily.

3.  Students will claim there is a Great Professor Conspiracy (GPC).


Oooo!  A conspiracy, you say?

Didn't you know that all professors meet, pre-classes, to decide to put exams all on the same day?  No?  You didn't know that all professors not only meet to decide this, but actually ENJOY the pain that this inflicts upon their students?


Yeah.  So this is what a small group of students claim every year.  I'm sure you have some students that propose a similar GPC.  ....right?

Things I Don't Think My Male Coworkers Have to Hear

Some of my coworkers insist that men and women are treated the same at my college.

Really?

'Cause I'm pretty sure my male coworkers have never had any of the following told to them / asked of them:


- I'm glad you don't have kids; you really have your work priorities in order.

- Breast feeding isn't that big of a deal.  You can do the...uh...pump thing in your office just fine.  (Said by a male coworker to a female coworker)

- X (a female) must be hormonal.

-  Why is X (a female) asking for a sabbatical?  Didn't she just get maternity leave a year ago?

- I don't know why X (a female) needs maternity leave.  When my wife had a baby, I was back to work the next week.  (huh??!)

- I can't believe X (a female) would bring her child to work this one time!

- I think X (a male) is AMAZING for bringing his child to work this one time!  What a lucky wife he has!

- Don't have kids until after tenure.  Of course, I legally can't tell you that.  Wink wink.

- Have kids soon before you get too old to carry them.

- Can you go talk to Undergrad (a female) about her boobs?  (Seriously)






Okay, please share.


Oh, and men: please share the things that female coworkers DARE to say to you, if you're feeling brave.

Friday fill in the blanks: we're at midterms!

Back at the start of the semester, I never thought I ______________________.

Back at the start of the semester, I never thought I would be this far behind!  Yikes!

(I'm so far behind, I'm doing a Friday post on Saturday!

The Undergraduate Writing Process

This is EXACTLY how my students write their papers:

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

What are you worth?

I've been thinking a lot about my work/life balance.  Or lack thereof, depending on what day it is.

The aspect of my non-work life that stresses me out the most is my house.  Although I love my home, taking care of it seriously stresses me out.  The changing of the seasons always causes some insects to come inside from the surrounding woods, an event that only makes me feel worse about my housekeeping skills.

As for the yard... oh, man.  I am thisclose to hiring someone to do the yard work for me.  One of my coworkers commented that it was ridiculous to pay someone else something I could do perfectly well on my own.  Up until recently, I agreed with him.  It would be a waste of money, right?

But this week I got to think about it more.  Sure, it might cost 50 bucks to have someone do my yard.  That would be 25 bucks per hour.  Could I do the yard myself in two hours?  Probably.

But you know what?  My time is worth more than 25 bucks an hour.  That's right.  I'm worth more than $25/hour.


What are you worth?




In other news, I deleted (and then reinstated) my blog list in an attempt to fix the glitch with backlinks.  (Was I successful?  Who knows.  Thanks, blogger.)  I'm slowly repopulating it, so please leave a note if you haven't been added yet!

Friday fill in the blanks: compared to last year...

The students this year are ______________ compared to last year's.

I actually don't even know where to begin!

Smile-- you're on candid lab video!

Excimer over at carbon-based curiosities recently wrote about the lab sabotage scandal at UM.

The sabotage was ultimately confirmed by video from some hidden cameras. One was placed by a lab fridge and the other in the cold room.

After reading about the situation, two thoughts immediately popped into my head:

1. Wow, I'm glad the culprit got caught.

2. I wonder how many saboteurs do NOT get caught?

After stewing on the latter for a bit, I had to wonder about the hidden cameras.

There were times in grad school that I could have sworn that The Boss had us under surveillance. We as a group often joked about it.

But what if there really WAS a lab version of a Nanny Cam? Where would it go? A beaker wouldn't work, but the back of the hood has some possibilities. Or a pipet stand. Or one of the empty boxes that get stored on the top of the reagent shelves for three years for no good reason.

Just imagine the things a PI would suddenly be privy to. Happy data dances? Tears of frustration? Lab altercations?

What lab behaviors do YOU hope stay hidden from your PI (or from your students)?

Pondering a move

I said back in June that I wasn't going to go on the job market.

While N.A. and I didn't officially go to market, we came awfully close. Like, close enough that I had a cover letter drafted. Close enough that we had calculated how much money we would likely lose on the house.

Close enough for me to get excited about the possibilities.

I've had a lot of blog topics bouncing around in my head, but I haven't had the opportunity to give any time to formulize them. No energy.

Now that I'm past the great Job Scare of 2010, I should be more of a presence around here. Stay tuned for posts on such topics as academic accommodations, cheating (again. sigh.), workload, crappity crap, research with undergrads, and boobs. Yes, boobs.

Friday fill in the blanks: high point of the week

The highlight of my week was _____________.

(The highlight of my week was 7 pm this evening, when it ended.)