Office Hours
Every professor who teaches on campus has open office hours that are times when they are in their offices to be available to see students. In my experience, most professors seem to be in their offices for longer hours than what their office hours are stated as. It may seem inconvenient or even scary to go into a professor’s office during their office hours to talk to them one-on-one about class materials and such, but I’ve found that if students are struggling in class, it is absolutely crucial that they go and talk to their professors.
If you’re struggling through a class and you won’t go talk to the professor because you’re too busy, then you must be too busy to get a college degree. If their office hours don’t work, you’re encouraged to email them so that you can work out a time to meet them outside of their available times. If you think it’s awkward or inconvenient to see a professor outside of class, think about how inconvenient and awkward it would be to fail a class because you didn’t want to get help.
Of course, you may decide to utilize the tutoring center, CLG sessions, or SI sessions for the classes–also a very good idea. But students seem to underestimate the amount of help professors can give to them if they are struggling. Professors are here to teach. That’s what they do. And students are here to learn what they can teach us. Sometimes, that may require talking to them.
Tags: getting help, Office hours, professors, talking to professors
