Dealing with Student Concerns
Comments at the CLAS Unit Heads Meeting
October 28, 2009
Edward Aboufadel, Unit Head, Mathematics
Students will come to you because they have a concern about a faculty member. In my mind, there is a clear demarcation between (1) wanting to talk, and (2) wanting to formally file a complaint. Nearly all students who come are in the first category, although they may not realize it at first.
Students usually want to talk because they are not doing well in a mathematics course. My goal in the discussion is to learn what they think is the reason why, to determine if there are other reasons, and to encourage student-faculty dialogue rather than student-Unit Head dialogue.
As an example, a student may have an instructor for which English in not the first language, and they may blame the instructor’s accent for failing a test. The student shows me his first test, and the work on it is poor. I’ll go through the test with the student and the student will say, “I knew how to solve these problems in my room, but not on the test.” This indicates that the issue is preparing for the exam, not the instructor’s accent. I ask the student if he has talked to his instructor about the situation, and he has not, so I encourage him to do that. There is a time in these conversations to switch from listening mode to problem-solving mode.
If the student wants me to act in any significant way, I say that I need their complaint in writing. This dissuades most students from crossing the demarcation above. Students will say that they do not want the faculty member to know who complained, or that it isn’t that serious. I’m not trying to minimize the complaint, but let the student use his or her own words to explain the situation. I also ask for what remedy they are seeking. Sometimes the student is right, sometimes not.
Sometimes, it is necessary for me to explain how a grade appeal works. I tell the student that they have to get a final grade first, and then they can appeal it through the university process.
I keep a box of Kleenex handy, too, since I seem to average one crying student a month.
Sometimes, based on a conversation, I will talk to the faculty member about the complaint, if I can explain it to him or her without revealing who the student is. There is nothing formal about the conversation – it is more like mentoring. I have had to be clear with some faculty that I just want to talk about something, rather than having a formal hearing or anything like that. No one wants to hear about complaints about their work, of course, so I have to be diplomatic.
I have had faculty come and complain about specific students, too. For plagiarism, we keep records of any formal complaint made by faculty. If other faculty members are also dealing with plagiarism, they can ask me to see the list of names to see if the student is a repeat offender. We also send information to Ginger Randall.
Finally, you don’t have to make a decision when the student is in your office. I have told students that I need to “investigate further”, but I give them my business card and I do get back to them promptly. The investigation might include calling up another Unit Head and asking his or her opinion of a matter. We have a lot of experience among the Unit Heads of CLAS.