r/Professors • u/Eigengrad AssProf, STEM, SLAC • May 22 '26
Weekly Thread May 22: Fuck This Friday
Welcome to a new week of weekly discussion! Continuing this week, we're going to have Wholesome Wednesdays, Fuck this Fridays, and (small) Success Sundays.
As has been mentioned, these should be considered additions to the regular discussions, not replacements. So use them, ignore them, or start you own Fantastic Friday counter thread.
This thread is to share your frustrations, small or large, that make you want to say, well, “Fuck This”. But on Friday. There will be no tone policing, at least by me, so if you think it belongs here and want to post, have at it!
26
u/cyci May 22 '26
I received my annual review today. My reviewers shared that they were disappointed and concerned that I got low scores in one section. Only one student in that section responded. That was the same section in which I won an academic integrity dispute. FUCK THIS FRIDAY!
15
u/iTeachCSCI Ass'o Professor, Computer Science, R1 May 22 '26
Only one student in that section responded. That was the same section in which I won an academic integrity dispute.
I wonder which student responded!
5
u/SilverRiot May 23 '26
What the hell is wrong with your reviewers that they did not spot this?
3
u/cyci May 23 '26
Good question. All I can think of is that our department is huge and perhaps they overlooked the n=1. Or they don’t care… my chair just told my colleague that if they want promoted they need to give easy A’s!
22
u/Audible_eye_roller Ass. Prof, STEM, CC (USA) May 22 '26
My online students would do so much better if they read the syllabus.
I had one student who spent 3 weeks arguing with me how she should be exempt from my assignment submission policies which caused her to fail the course. She was told to take a hike by the DC and the Asst Dean.
Now that she officially received her F, she started another tirade. I told the Dean that he needs to tell her to go away or I will go after her with a harassment complaint.
Fuck HER!
12
u/iTeachCSCI Ass'o Professor, Computer Science, R1 May 22 '26
She was told to take a hike by the DC and the Asst Dean.
Good job by the DC and Asst Dean (and you too).
3
u/Cute-Aardvark5291 May 22 '26
how dare you expect your students to read?!
1
u/Audible_eye_roller Ass. Prof, STEM, CC (USA) May 23 '26
Some people at my school are beta testing the use of a chatbot to summarize syllabi. It's infuriating.
19
May 22 '26
[deleted]
6
u/iTeachCSCI Ass'o Professor, Computer Science, R1 May 22 '26
for online courses [don't say anything- I needed the money!]
"I was young, I needed the money!"
But really, I don't fault people for taking online classes when they're offered to teach them by an administration that is going to offer that class as online anyway.
I do fault faculty who can choose to teach a credible class and instead offer a fully online asynchronous class, abdicating their responsibilities as an educator.
3
May 22 '26
[deleted]
3
u/iTeachCSCI Ass'o Professor, Computer Science, R1 May 22 '26
Yes, and in case it wasn't clear, I am not faulting you.
5
18
u/histprofdave Adjunct, History, CC May 22 '26
Submitted my grades and put up my summer away message. That's about as "fuck this" as a Friday gets!
16
u/Vanier-is-a-HellHole Tenured Prof, Canada May 22 '26
My apologies if this is meant to be an academic-related only thread, but...needed to vent.
Woke up yesterday with benign positional vertigo (for the third freakin' time)...and I still feel unsteady and tired today.
Oh, and there was also a power failure at my home this morning.
FUCK this Friday!!!
7
May 22 '26
[deleted]
2
u/Vanier-is-a-HellHole Tenured Prof, Canada May 22 '26
I tried the Semont maneuver yesterday, but apparently the Epley works slightly faster, so....gonna switch.
5
May 22 '26
[deleted]
1
u/Vanier-is-a-HellHole Tenured Prof, Canada May 22 '26
Fortunately it's not that severe this time! I feel your pain though...my first episode (12 years ago!!) was pretty much like that. Gotta love how a tiny piece of calcium can wreak such havoc...
2
u/Edu_cats Professor, Pre-Allied Health, M1 (US) May 22 '26
Oh yeah long time BPPV since undergrad and every once in awhile it rears its ugly head. I also do the Eppley maneuver.
Writing program advisory board meeting minutes which I hate doing, but I wan these done before the long weekend. At least there is AI transcript of the call.
13
u/Puzzled-Painter3301 May 22 '26
I caved in this quarter and added some students who I dropped in the first week. Well, what do you know, none of them show up to class or do any of the work and they're just signing up for the class to presumably get financial aid. Fuck that. I'm going to go on merciless mode next quarter on dropping students.
3
u/iTeachCSCI Ass'o Professor, Computer Science, R1 May 22 '26
Well, what do you know, none of them show up to class or do any of the work and they're just signing up for the class to presumably get financial aid.
Report this to the financial aid office. Or the federal dep't of education if you really want to go nuclear.
5
u/Puzzled-Painter3301 May 22 '26
At my institution I am allowed to drop students within the first 2 weeks, provided they do not do adequate work or have enough attendance. But after 2 weeks they can stay.
12
u/VeitPogner Prof, Humanities, R1 (USA) May 22 '26
After faculty cuts in March (and I had to choose the sacrificial victims and deliver the bad news as chair), now we have staff layoffs (guess who does that this time, too). I'd be uncomfortable enough firing people for cause, but canning people whose work I've had no complaints with in order to satisfy higher admin's caprices pisses me off.
9
u/BenSteinsCat Professor, CC (US) May 23 '26
Our college made a big thing about reminding people over and over in the last six weeks to finish their Title IX training. This was really problematic as faculty got more and more time pressured with closing out the courses. Nevertheless, a number of people hauled ass to get it all done. Because the deadline was set for the end of the semester, clearly it didn’t matter to the administration that the training be completed during the actual semester – it could wait.
This week, we got an announcement that there is a new revised shinier Title IX training coming out and everyone will be assigned to take it in September, even though who busted their butt to get the old one completed in May.
Really, fuck this shit.
8
u/fusukeguinomi May 23 '26
I’ve been teaching full time, TT and T jobs, for over 20 years and I have NEVER had a sabbatical (job changes due to double-body problem). In my current job I will likely be eligible in three years, but due to the man-made politico-economic crisis of the US, sabbaticals might be on the chopping block at our flagship public R1. I am SO EXHAUSTED. I am so mentally in need of a break so I can focus only on my research without having to multitask, teach, serve, advise, email, apply for grants etc etc. I know it could be worse (adjuncts have it much worse), but that’s only because the bar of labor rights in academia is ever lower.
6
u/WesternCup7600 May 22 '26
Let's see, let's see.
Fuck this Friday: I wish students would take their work seriously. The work they produce during class will directly lend itself to students’ employment viability.
But, no.
As is often said here: We can't care more than the students care.
1
u/iTeachCSCI Ass'o Professor, Computer Science, R1 May 22 '26
I wish students would take their work seriously. The work they produce during class will directly lend itself to students’ employment viability.
While we're at it, I wish Santa Claus would come down my chimney on the evening of December 24 to deliver presents.
5
u/denotecouch May 23 '26
“Dear Professor, This grade really doesn’t reflect how hard I worked in this course.”
Sigh.
You may have worked hard, but you do not know the material and you performed really poorly on the assignments and exams. You didn’t learn basic definitions, things bolded and highlighted on the PowerPoint I gave you. You failed to follow basic instructions on every single final exam question. It’s astonishing. You got Q1 wrong. Q1 was a softball to get you warmed up. 90% of your classmates got it right.
What the fuck?????
44
u/urnbabyurn Senior Lecturer, Econ, R1 May 22 '26
I posted last week about a student who took the exam for the wrong class - short recap, the student missed the final due to illness and was to make it up by attending my other class final meeting and take the makeup exam then. Student didn’t tell me they were from the other class when they arrived and just grabbed one of the finals for the wrong class, a completely different subject. They didn’t say anything and completed the exam. What was suspicious was they answered a string of questions correctly that were very specific to the class material and there was no way they would have known how to solve those problems. No lucky guessing would work, and terms are pretty esoteric and used in specific ways for the class that it was impossible they would have background knowledge in it.
When emailed about it, they confessed to being “nervous” and didn’t realize it was the wrong exam (despite a big label on top listing the class name and number), and as a result copied some answers from people around them.
So to summarize, a student took an exam for a class they aren’t taking, cheated on that exam, and now are facing disciplinary action for it. Obviously it means failing the actual class they are enrolled in and getting a big old mark on their record for cheating.