tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3671815.post6614079428869918577..comments2024-02-07T03:12:59.031-05:00Comments on Blogenspiel: Power and PrivilegeAnother Damned Medievalisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05231085915472400163noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3671815.post-14346600377500946582008-12-23T14:46:00.000-05:002008-12-23T14:46:00.000-05:00Tenthmedieval -- I think it's perfectly appropriat...Tenthmedieval -- <BR/><BR/>I think it's perfectly appropriate to do what you mention -- as long as it's something you'd do with all of your students (or all the students in a certain class). I think the issue for me is whether a faculty member is creating an atmosphere where students might assume that some are receiving special treatment and others not. If I say, "I'm having office hours in the cafe on campus, please feel free to join me" that's one thing. If I happen to be going to grab a coffee and ask a student or students who need to talk to me if they'd like to tag along, I think that's fine, too -- as long as I would do the same for any students. If I only choose to have coffee, and to stray from professional/mentoring conversation to the personal with only one or two students (and I'm talking undergrads, obviously), then I think that's a problem.<BR/><BR/>Speaking of which, I think that this last can lead to a blurring that some faculty take too far, and make the students their confidantes -- and that's a whole different issue. It's flattering to the student sometimes, but I think can place an undue and unfair burden on a student.Another Damned Medievalisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05231085915472400163noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3671815.post-18661188229036525052008-12-23T06:52:00.000-05:002008-12-23T06:52:00.000-05:00The phrase "inviting just one student to coffee" g...The phrase "inviting just one student to coffee" gives me pause. In some faculties in Cambridge, there exist supervisors who are prone to holding supervisions in the pub. I've never thought that was a great idea but obviously the students (graduates, as far as I remember) thought it was an excellent plan. And I've relocated one-on-one supervisions to the canteen when badly in need of caffeine, and never thought twice about it (though there is a certain confrontation if one offers to buy, I find). (And indeed at Birkbeck I held all my non-seminar classes in the bar or canteen but that was for lack of other space, and nothing was consumed.)<BR/><BR/>So how does that all register on the propriety radar? Was I secretly scandalising my students (one of whom was from a Prestigious American Research University) or should I not be worried?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3671815.post-77970546840992966682008-12-22T12:19:00.000-05:002008-12-22T12:19:00.000-05:00I babysat as a grad student, and had no problems w...I babysat as a grad student, and had no problems with it, because I did need the money. To me, it really wasn't much different from my advisor getting me a gig doing research or working in the library, I guess. I also housesat most summers for faculty. Even though I paid rent elsewhere, I didn't have to pay utilities, and always had a much nicer place with A/C and cable for the summer. <BR/><BR/>And I think NK is right about the SLAC thing. It's something I get, but don't get, in that it still feels wrong to me to invite just one student to coffee, for example. I generally will only do 'social' sorts of things after giving a general invite (unless I'm doing advising over coffee or something like that). As it happens, only one or two students will take me up on offers to go to the Big City to good research libraries, and we do develop closer relationships, but it's still very much mentor/mentee? as much as anything else. A couple of years down the line, after graduation, I have some students who are also friends, but it takes a while. <BR/><BR/>And Steve, as one of those students who waited tables, I'm *very* conscious of things like tipping. To me, there's a difference between paying a student who is working a job and asking a student to work for you. I ask students to housesit for me pretty regularly, but I make sure they are people who won't be taking my classes. I don't pay much -- it's usually a trade of a free place to stay during the summer term for a student who lives out of town and doesn't want to commute or pay rent, plus some cash. I think it ends up being an OK deal, because I've had repeat offers from students. But even then, I try to get all the terms worked out clearly.Another Damned Medievalisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05231085915472400163noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3671815.post-16650120865765687022008-12-22T11:40:00.000-05:002008-12-22T11:40:00.000-05:00Interesting about babysitting. At Former College i...Interesting about babysitting. At Former College it was absolutely normal to have good students babysit for you (paid, of course!). ("Good" here means students you get along with and think are responsible, not just ones with the highest grades.) The students I knew who did it, loved to. (Of course, most students at Former College didn't really need the money, which changed the dynamic a little.) For that matter, the sororities regularly sponsored "Faculty Night Out"s, where they'd do basically a drop-in day care for faculty to get a free night of babysitting. <BR/><BR/>I'll say again that SLACs have a very different culture from other kinds of institutions, and a lot of lines do blur. Sometimes in a really great way, sometimes in a pretty awful way (faculty-student relationships used to be rife in such places in a bad way - maybe still are, I don't know). But I think that one of the things students value about a SLAC experience is that they can think their relationships with professors are about friendship and intellectual interest at least as much as about power.<BR/><BR/>I'm not saying that there isn't the potential for abuse, but that people who choose a SLAC experience often do so precisely because they like what you describe as blurring of lines.<BR/><BR/>(About suggesting talks/events on campus - I so don't at all see that as remotely coercive, but then, I <B>never</B> went to a talk because a prof suggested it - in fact, in college I didn't go to many talks/events at all!)<BR/><BR/>Kelly in Kansas mentioned marital status and gender - I think class is a big issue here, too; the upper-middle class students that I've taught have generally had enough social/cultural capital in their lives that they occupied a different relationship to profs than working class students. (And in my own experience SLACs have many more upper/middle class kids than working class kids - not that that's universal, of course.)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3671815.post-83224978526177807832008-12-22T11:08:00.000-05:002008-12-22T11:08:00.000-05:00Have any of you profs who live in small towns had ...Have any of you profs who live in small towns had the realization that if you don't tip generously at restaurants, your students, or someone else's, will starve?<BR/><BR/>Serving wine: a role for future colleagues?Steve Muhlbergerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18136005762428407135noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3671815.post-39469206183421546662008-12-22T10:23:00.000-05:002008-12-22T10:23:00.000-05:00Great post. I agree with you about the babysittin...Great post. I agree with you about the babysitting--that would make me very uncomfortable whether I were the student or the teacher. <BR/><BR/>Recently in a comment on my blog, a graduate student told a story about a prof. from another department who sent out an e-mail looking for a grad student to pour wine for an evening function at hir house, for $100. Although she admitted that the pay was very generous, she said that the grad students resented the offer of employment essentially because it was a reminder of how poor and powerless grad students are (relatively speaking) compared to tenured faculty. So, in some ways grad students may be even more sensitive about this than undergrads, although I think that faculty feel fewer constraints in dealing with the grad students than the undergrads. (That is, there is more blurring of the lines, at least by the faculty.)Historiannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10615954696251174822noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3671815.post-72221044213397738992008-12-22T08:54:00.000-05:002008-12-22T08:54:00.000-05:00And my experience has been that your own marital s...And my experience has been that your own marital status and gender can play a significant role in what is acceptable and what is not even if the behavior and/or interaction shouldn't be occurring in the first place.Kelly in Kansashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14345236866213138914noreply@blogger.com