11/30/15
Parents,
I hope you had a great Thanksgiving break with your student. I wonder if you saw any change in your student. I’d love to hear about this. Just go to
One of the toughest things for parents to understand is when their student says: “I need to be going home now” - when they are referring to their campus home, not their home they grew up in. I wonder if you heard this. It’s kind of a sign of passage for young adults. It’s hard to accept, but you also have to be proud of their growing maturity.
I really enjoyed your responses to the survey from last week. Thanks to those who contributed. I was especially struck by so many comments on your student’s doing his/her laundry. I thought you might enjoy knowing that many campus romances start in the laundry room. That’s why doing laundry often is not the chore that parents think it is.
This is the last week that I’ll teach most of the students in this year’s class. They have been a delight to teach. I’ll be telling them that while the class is over, my support for them will continue. Although my class is over, my emails will continue throughout next semester. Like I tell my students, my support will continue.
For some of our students, that support will be to help them develop a recovery plan. I’ll go into this in more detail in next week’s email. For others, they may need support in such things as recommendation letters, scholarship applications, internship advice, etc. I’m more than willing to help, especially until they move into their major and have another faculty member who can help.
One of the things that I’ll be covering in class this week is how to appeal a grade. The University has a very well defined process for grade appeals. Let me cover some key points of this process.
- Ask the teacher how the grade was determined. If the student feels that a grade was wrongly determined, let the teacher know. Sometimes just a simple error was made and the grade can be corrected quickly.
- If the student and the teacher disagree on the grade, the student can make a formal appeal of the grade. I can help advise your student whether an appeal is justified. If the appeal is justified, I can also help with the appeal letter.
- The appeal process has some time requirements. The initial appeal must be within a certain time period. We will be covering these time periods in class this week.
- The most common successful appeals are in cases where the teacher deviated from the course syllabus. Students need to be able to demonstrate how their grade was adversely affected by this deviation. Again I can help on this.
Students will also do faculty evaluations in each class this week. I hope that they will be honest and respectful in their evaluations.
While the class is over, my emails will continue through the conclusion of next semester. The nature of the emails will change somewhat. I will be focusing on specific topics of importance to students and parents. If you would like to be taken off our email list just let me know.
Let me close with the story of Jessica. Jessica is a Chinese-American student who was having difficulty with the English language when I first met her as a freshmen. She had a terrible first semester. During her second semester, I arranged for Jessica to have a mentorr. I don’t think I’ve ever known a student who worked harder to improve her grades than Jessica. Unfortunately her grades didn’t get better. Initially I thought Jessica’s difficulties were language related, but her language skills got better and her grades didn’t. In the fall of Jessica’s sophomore year, I decided to have a conversation with her about her career when we met to do her advising.
Both Jessica and I arrived at the same conclusion. Engineering just wasn’t for her. I asked her if she had thought about another major. She had. She decided she wanted to go into Art. That’s a difficult major to get accepted into. I asked Jessica if she had a portfolio. She had a big smile on her face when she said “I do, would you like to see it?”
What Jessica showed me was incredible. I looked at her and apologized. I told her that we should have had this conversation much earlier.
Once Jessica transferred to Art, she would occasionally stop by my office to show me her work. She was doing beautiful sketches, and her grades had improved tremendously. Most important, she was happy. Jessica eventually transferred to the Savannah College of Art and Design and on her way to a career that takes advantage of her natural talents.
I share this story with students for two reasons. One to let them know that not everyone has the background or aptitude for engineering. Second I want to let them know that my support continues after the course is over and even if they are no longer in our college.
I had a student come by my office the day after I had taught this week’s class. He was a big guy (about 280 lbs/ 6’8” tall). I asked him how I could help him. He looked at me and said: “I’m Jessica.” He was telling me that he also needed to find another major.
Stories carry with them powerful messages and tend to be remembered longer than other information. That’s why I use stories in class and in my emails.
A lot of what I’ve talked about in this email concerns the future. A question I’m often asked is about my future and how long I’ll teach. My response is “It’s in God’s hands.” I want to teach as long as I physically and mentally can. The question that isn’t asked, but I can see it in the faces of those I meet with is: “Why don’t you retire and take it easy?”
My best explanation is contained in the two notes below:
“There were so many times where you could have just written me off, but you didn’t. You were always there with me trying to figure a way around my many problems. I am truly thankful to have known you while I have been out here. If there is any way I can help you or another student in the future please let me know. Thanks for everything you have done over the years. Sincerely, Thomas”
“Thanks for believing in me… yes, even when I didn’t believe in myself. It’s been a great journey and I can’t thank you enough for sticking with me the entire time. I’ve never seen a man willing to help so many people and want absolutely no recognition in return. You’re truly inspiring. Sorry I’ve made you want to wring my neck so so many times. I can’t wait to turn into one of your (successful) stories! Thanks again…and again… and again! Your Long-Term Student, Victoria”
These notes and many others like them are what sustain me. I’m just glad I could help young people realize their future.