Professor to Students: Don't Email Me!

Pictured above is a screenshot from a course syllabus produced by Dr. Spring-Serenity Duvall, a professor of media and gender studies at Salem College in North Carolina. During the Spring semster of 2014, she prohibited students from emailing her unless they were requesting an appointment to speak with her face-to-face.

Dr. Duvall is no Luddite. She's simply tired of students asking her questions that she already answered in class or in the syllabus, or addressing her in an overly familiar manner. She explains what she changed:

In a fit of self-preservation, I decided: no more. This is where I make my stand! In my senior-level gender and media course, I instituted a no-email policy and (here’s the hard part) stuck to it religiously. I explained to my students that there were a few very solid reasons for this policy:

1. They needed to read and know the syllabus and pay attention in class, rather than use email as a crutch to ask superficial questions. Taking these small yet seemingly impossible steps would make them more aware and engaged in the class.

2. Reading assignment instructions carefully and asking questions about the assignments in class or in office hours would force them to begin working on papers early, thus eliminating last-minute emails about instructions.

3. More of our conversations would take place in person – whether in my office or in class – rather than via email, thus allowing us to get to know each other better and fostering a more collegial atmosphere.

Did it work? Yes!

I am happy to report it was an unqualified success. It’s difficult to convey just how wonderful it was for students to stop by office hours more often, to ask questions about assignments in the class periods leading up to due dates, and to have students rise to the expectation that they know the syllabus. Their papers were better, they were more prepared for class time than I’ve ever experienced.

It is also difficult to tally the time I saved by not answering hundreds of brief, inconsequential emails throughout the semester. I can say that the difference in my inbox traffic was noticeable and welcome.


(Photo: eristerra)

In an interview, Dr. Duvall explains that, like many professors, she suffers from "syllabus creep." That's "where the syllabus just gets longer and longer and you try to account for everything." The longer a syllabus gets, the less likely a student is to read the whole thing.

And course syllabi are getting a lot longer. Slate's Rebecca Shuman offers an explanation of why syllabi are now often 20 or more pages long:

First, the helicopter generation—raised on both suffocating parental pressure and the teach-to-the-test mandates of No Child Left Behind—started coming to college. Everyone needed A’s, and everyone needed to know exactly what needed to be done to get one. When that wasn’t abundantly clear, that made schools vulnerable to lawsuits.

Second, syllabi went from print to online, thus freeing the entire professoriate to capitulate to the aforementioned demands for everything from grading rubrics to the day-by-day breakdown of late assignment policies, without worrying about sacrificing trees or intimidating the class with a first-day handout they could barely lift, much less peruse in a mere 75 minutes.

Third, the skyrocketing percentage of hired-gun adjuncts—as opposed to tenure-track faculty, who have both a modicum of security and a minuscule say in university governance—meant that a substantial number of instructors were taking on courses a matter of weeks (sometimes days) before they began. Thus, they relied heavily on extensive syllabi already in existence.


Comments (7)

Newest 5
Newest 5 Comments

I agree with Allen: good for her! There is such a thing as a stupid question. If you can find out for yourself by reading the syllabus or *gasp* paying attention in class, it's simply lazy to email the professor to ask. There was a time, before email, when students couldn't ask a professor a question outside class unless they went to their office or called on the phone. It's better that way--students quickly learn to figure things out for themselves when it becomes less work than making an appointment. A professor's job is to get students to think and research, not to do the thinking and researching for them.
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Interesting as I, as a businessman , took steps those past 2 years to digitize more and more my relations :
- text messages are fast, much much faster than voice mails. My cellphone message pretty much says : no voice mail + text me + emergency number! (and then my voice mail is blocked)
- email are detailed and they leave a trail, especially with the increase of un-responsible business behaviors. Every email is a registered mail, is a contract!
- they allow me to work contacts outside regular hours
- I don't put a limit on those contacts on the provider side of my business, but I'm quite cautious with the customers, to keep it "human" ; but they welcome it :after all... I'm their provider!

The world is changing, I don't know if it's for good, but meh...
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I'm married to a college professor and my mother taught high school biology for thirty years. I know first hand the sacrifices that teachers make to better the lives of their students. Don't group me with those that devalue teachers simply because I think this is a poor teaching decision.

I will give you that I should not have linked it to vanity, that was very poor form, to hold the position she does she is likely an excellent teacher. Still, that this has worked for a tiny classroom in a tiny college is not an indicator that it is a good practice. Nor should the other commitments of being a college professor justify its need.
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How many classes does she teach each term? How many committees is she required to be part of? How many student theses does she have to advise on each year? What level of publishing and/or research is required for her contract to be renewed?

The idea that teachers spend 45 minutes in a class and then sit around eating bonbons the rest of the time is not only wrong, it's damaging to our future generations.
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FINALLY! After 8 yeaqrs of speaking on this topic- ONE mainstream publication dares to cover the story! SALON!
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150685937090986&l=b5d605b39b
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Basically if you think Daniel Ellsberg should have been tried for treason for blowing the whistle on The Pentagon Papers and the Vietnam War or you want Julian Assange in jail you are consistent in hating Joe. But, if you think those guys were right - well eventually you will have to add Joe to the list. For what CIA did to Joe, and confess to on their website, I think that group should be ended.
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"Kazan who had directed such masterpieces as "On the Waterfront", "East of Eden" and "A Streetcar Named Desire" and who had won two Oscars as a director was ignored in favour of the left-wing Norman Corman who won lasting fame for "Attack of the Crab Monsters", "Swamp Women" and other masterpieces of schlock. So heavy was the stench of hypocrisy that even The New York Times felt impelled to comment on Hollywood's vindictiveness.

The famed then 87-year-old Kazan's unforgivable crime was to have truthfully told the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities in 1952 that he and eight of his friends had been fellow members of the communist party, from which he had resigned in disgust. Some of these men later admitted that Kazan told the truth. Nevertheless, until his death in 2003 at the age of 94 Kazan remained a political leper among Hollywood's politically correct.

These are same people who in October 1997 streamed into the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences in Berverly Hills to see Hollywood Remembers the Blacklist, a film glorifying unrepentant Stalinists who wanted to turn the US into another Gulag. Needless to say, these are also same celluloid intellectuals who support cop-killers and murderous dictators – but only so long as they are socialists." -- "Hollywood leftists, their blacklist and their treason", Gerard Jackson
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We don't need to censor posts because of political content; people can make their own minds up. We mainly delete comments that contain personal attacks or abusive language.
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"I had the great fortune to have a professor in college who was targeted by McCarthy and who actually was called to testify before the HUAC ..." -- Yakim Andrew

Amazing. The leftists who have wrested control of our colleges and universities are, next to Hollywood, the greatest blacklisters of all time. They have ideologically cleansed the faculties of these institutions of conservatives while ironically making a fetish of "diversity". How utterly hypocritical for any left-wing academic to complain about "McCarthyism" and "targeting".
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"Earlier this month Congressman Allen West told a town hall meeting ‘I believe there’s about 78 to 81 members of the Democrat Party who are members of the Communist Party. It’s called the Congressional Progressive Caucus.’ And he isn’t backing down from his statements either." -- Nick Gisburne

Gee, I wonder what would give hime that idea.

Dem. Socialists of America claim 70 Democrat congressmen as members?:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/35733956/DSA-Members-American-Socialist-Voter-Democratic-Socialists-of-America-10-1-09

Wake up.
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VENONA Project.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venona_project

Start there and then read the books:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Haunted-Wood-Espionage-Paperbacks/dp/0375755365/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335282353&sr=1-7

http://www.amazon.com/Venona-Decoding-Soviet-Espionage-America/dp/0300084625/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335282353&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/In-Denial-Historians-Communism-Espionage/dp/159403088X/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335282353&sr=1-3

McCarthy and Bobby Kennedy were right, the communists had infiltrated our cultural institutions and had gained access to the highest levels of our government.

How sad that the apologists for the "red fascists", as George Orwell called them, continue to push the ahistorical garbage contained in this post.
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Yakim- Joe McCarthy never chaired any HUAC hearings. Your professor was a liar. Show him this and tell him to sue me but he better prove McCarthy chaired a HUAC investigation. Nor did he have anything to do with the Hollywood 10. Miss Cellania, and by the way I love your posts, usually, just google names given and wikipedia and you can find the sources. But the best one remains the CIA. It has a full confession on it's STUDIES IN INTELLIGENCE website. It admits it did nothing to stop spies, it admits it gave McCarthy a fake name to discredit him (that worked. Everyone from William F. Buckley to Ayn Rand denounced him.The name is still classified- but easy to find. Google American General denounced by McCarthy). Google THE POND CIA and you'll find the full confession. The books AMERICA'S MOST HATED SENATOR and THE SWORD AND THE SHIELD (The KGB files)are great also. But the CIA confession is best. The CIA announced this chapter was on their site last Summer. Guess how many newspapers and news shows have covered this? NONE. Cowards and liars. So why does CIA on their website not call it the McCarthy era? The red scare era? What do they call it? THE CIA VS JOE McCARTHY. Are you starting to get it yet? The CIA broke its own charter DAY ONE. It has manipulated us the same way it does third world nations.It smeared and libeled a whistleblower. The story isn't even about Joe, but the POND. The greatest and most secret Intel agency we ever had. Privately run and very effective at finding spies. Raoul Wallenberg- who saved thousands of Jews from death camps was a member. The State Department had him killed. They admit it as well. The truth really is out there. Not speculation. Not guesses. Not conspiracy theories.The truth. AND THEY ADMIT IT. If you hate Julian Assange, if you think Daniel Ellsberg releasing the Pentagon Papers was treason- well, I can't fault you. You are consistent in your logic. HOWEVER. If you support those two in their actions you must support McCarthy. Or you are illogical. So, other than ignoring spies for years, why did CIA destroy McCarthy? It begins with 81 nazis. International law made it illegal to protect nazis. Smuggled into America from Mexico to work with Werner Von Braun as Mexican laborers, CIA was deathly afraid Joe would find out and expose them. Which would have ended CIA. So they destroyed him. They destroyed The Pond. Now we know the truth. Let's stop spreading the lies. I have spoken at The Navy War College, I have a medal from the Defense Intelligence Agency for my writing on the Cold War. We need to stop the CIA smear- now. Peace out. And thank you Neatorama for not censoring my earlier post. You are one of the only websites that hasn't.
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It is the biggest lie of all the lies told about Joe McCarthy. Did he while in Wheeling say there were 205 spies in the State Department? It has been ridiculed in films such as THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE. It is taught as fact in colleges everywhere. In January of 1952, the Gillette Committee called in Frank Desmond the journalist who reported the 205 figure and swore him in under oath. There was already a problem- not one other reporter had reported that or any other figure. Wouldn't that have made headlines if he had said it? Desmond faced jail if he perjured himself. He stated that Joe never stated a number. How many newspapers reported this? None.
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It's funny that "conservatives" are still defending the U.S. from communist infiltrators (here in the comments section) 60 years after the fact.

Here's a protip: McCarthy was a piece of garbage who was willing to make innocent people suffer to further his own political career.
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Yakim, I'm curious what profession your professor failed to achieve because of McCarthy? I read very few stories of those who lives were ruined. Maybe I'm not looking in the right places.

Still, the Venona papers which were released in the early 90s, while not justifying all tactics used to track down Soviet spies, do prove that there were Communist spies deep inside the US government.

http://www.nsa.gov/about/_files/cryptologic_heritage/publications/coldwar/venona_story.pdf
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I had the great fortune to have a professor in college who was targeted by McCarthy and who actually was called to testify before the HUAC. She was one of the few who refused to "name names" and her promising career was destroyed as a result. To honestly beleive that McCarthy and his willing partners in this movement (including a young Richard Nixon, by the way) were anything but evil, power-hungry, bullying, thugs is to ignore the reality of what actually went on. Even worse, in my opinion, was the shameful complicity of many government agencies (see the F.B.I. above) and the press in general. The story of McCarthyism is a true cautionary tale of how, even in a modern democracy, tactics like "the big lie" and straw man witch hunts can still be used to pervert justice if not enough people have the guts to stand up and question what is wrong. He was an evil man who destroyed the lives of countless innocent people in a selfish quest for power and notoriety. To compare McCarthy, who relied almost entirely on lies and false innuendo, to Assange or Ellesburg who, right or wrong, tried to make the truth more available, is an extreme case of apples and oranges and is just silly....
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Documents from the former Soviet Union show that McCarthy was, indeed, correct that Soviets had infiltrated the US government, and that Alger Hiss actually a traitor. https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol50no2/html_files/BK_Soviet_Espionage_8.htm
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Nick - Mr West said "I heard", not "I believe". And such is life today that we've all "heard" a widely and wildly varying amount of drivel, so that much is likely true.
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This is an amazing collection of all the slanders and lies aimed at whistleblower Joe McCarthy. If you believe Julian Assange, Daniel Ellsberg and Bradley Manning did the right thing one must support McCarthy. If you think those 3 were dangers then you can include Joe as well. The key here is all the info is pre- fall of the Soviet Union. The tip off is there is no mention of The Pond, the secret agency that gave Joe the list of names. Nor is there any mention that the names came from a rogue head of the KGB. Nor that the names mentioned pop up in KGB files after the fall- all but one that is. So many lies and CIA spin here where do you start? Only one reporter stated a number at the Wheeling speech he said Joe said. Under oath, in a libel suit, that reporter confessed Joe gave no number. As did a Senator who claimed to have a recording of it.http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150414012065986&l=9f46ad3e15 Who started the rumors about Joe looking for a gimmick, etc? A Soviet spy- http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150244708835986&l=dcb7b2e394 What about the newspaper reporter who destroyed Joe? A CIA agent. http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150474761060986&l=9345150677 For years FDR did nothing to remove spies in our government, which were in numbers far beyond 200. This was not an issue until Stalin cancelled elections in Central Europe, China went communist and the Korean War began. 81 Nazi's had been smuggled through Mexico as Mexican laborers to work with Werner Von Braun on our missile program. This was against international law. The CIA was afraid Joe would discover this. Absolutely nothing written about McCarthy before the fall of the Soviet Union can be trusted. Nothing. He was naive only in that he did not realize the overwhelming forces aligned against him. There is no Soviet Union to protect anymore. Stop spreading nonsense. Every one knows nazis worked on our space program. It is past time to stop the nonsense. Google CIA THE POND. You will discover the CIA confessed to giving Joe one fake name to discredit him. A full confession that nothing was done to remove spies. The above is not theory. It is not guessing intentions. It is all from declassified documents- and the CIA's full confession. They have meddling in domestic issues since day one, which is against their own charter. The group should be ended. And their smears need to stop being repeated.
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What goes around comes around. Earlier this month Congressman Allen West told a town hall meeting 'I believe there's about 78 to 81 members of the Democrat Party who are members of the Communist Party. It's called the Congressional Progressive Caucus.' And he isn't backing down from his statements either.
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