mortiz0010

It’s been a very busy two weeks of giving presentations all over the country. And there has been a common question coming up in as diverse places as Rock Springs WY, NYC and Conway, AK . “Are students more upset today than they were in the past?” My answer surprised a few folks. “Yes. They are.” Students are more easily upset and even prone to outbursts of anger more this year than they have been in the past. People are even hearing more gerunds coming up in discussions with them. Gerunds? Words ending in “–ing” used in phrases such as “this #%&ing school”. Students as customers are reflections of our society and the result of the culture’s culture or lack of it. And today’s national culture is one of free floating antagonism, anger and attack. They and the campus are not separate or isolated from what is going on in our society.  In fact they bring the societal mood and the messages that are floating in our society onto campus, into the halls and classrooms each ...

There is actually something worse than delivering poor or weak service. And that is promising great service and then not delivering. Or mollifying the customer by telling him or her you’ll look into the situation, will get it resolved and either do not get it resolved or not get back to the customer. Say a student or customer com es to you and asks for help. Perhaps a student leaves a phone message or an email account of the problem asking for you to assist in a problem he or she has. You get back to him or her by telephone but miss the person. So you leave a message. I am sorry to hear that you feel you may have a problem… ….. (Yes we do use the conditional all the way through to protect ourselves as the HR and lawyers taught us to do . May, perhaps, could, maybe, might, possibly, or com binations might possibly may perhaps have an issue …..But never simply say, holy sh%t, he did that? Never com mit or accede. That’s the way to please the lawyers but perhaps, maybe, possi...

How have you handled an instructor that habitually starts a semester with 25 students and ends up with 7? This question came to me from an administrator the other day and is one that plagues many. The situation can be a tricky one considering interpretations (usually by weak teachers) that academic freedom can mean that some faculty can be insufferable bastards to students, colleagues and certainly administrators. Moreover, faculty too often will take the approach that they may really dislike a colleague, but they must protect his or her right to be miserable. To do otherwise might be taken as not collegial, not academic, not my job. BTW, this is not necessarily different among administrators whose job it is to deal with any and every person who treats students and colleagues poorly. Administrators do not always accept the responsibility. It is everyone’s’ job to demand civility and initial respect toward one and all and especially for our clients, the students. Custome...