http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/14/opinion/the-changing-role-of-the-professor.html?_r=0
To the Editor:
Re “What’s the Point of a Professor?,” by Mark Bauerlein (Sunday Review, May 10):
College students need not revere professors, and I am very glad that they do not want to become our disciples.
Students have many sources of knowledge and are free to come to my office for advice. I encourage that. But most of my students have jobs; many of them are also breadwinners for their families.
Those idyllic ’60s that the writer mentions are very different from today. We should not talk about the role of professors without mentioning that about three-quarters of current professors are part-time (adjunct) faculty who do not have the time or the resources to leave their door open and require students to come to their office hours. At best they have shared offices; at worst they need to run to their next class, often at a different campus. Class sizes are also larger than ever, making one-on-one contact even harder.
While I agree that being available and being a mentor to students is essential to the role of the professor, I disagree with the picture painted in this article. Things are more complicated than simply alluding to the cheapening of a liberal education. There are economic reasons that need to be taken into account. And in the Internet age the role of the professor has changed from being the source of information to a guide who encourages students to be savvy consumers of information.
VALKIRIA DURÁN-NARUCKI
The writer is a full-time lecturer at the College of Staten Island, CUNY.
To the Editor:
Re “What’s the Point of a Professor?,” by Mark Bauerlein (Sunday Review, May 10):
College students need not revere professors, and I am very glad that they do not want to become our disciples.
Students have many sources of knowledge and are free to come to my office for advice. I encourage that. But most of my students have jobs; many of them are also breadwinners for their families.
Those idyllic ’60s that the writer mentions are very different from today. We should not talk about the role of professors without mentioning that about three-quarters of current professors are part-time (adjunct) faculty who do not have the time or the resources to leave their door open and require students to come to their office hours. At best they have shared offices; at worst they need to run to their next class, often at a different campus. Class sizes are also larger than ever, making one-on-one contact even harder.
While I agree that being available and being a mentor to students is essential to the role of the professor, I disagree with the picture painted in this article. Things are more complicated than simply alluding to the cheapening of a liberal education. There are economic reasons that need to be taken into account. And in the Internet age the role of the professor has changed from being the source of information to a guide who encourages students to be savvy consumers of information.
VALKIRIA DURÁN-NARUCKI
The writer is a full-time lecturer at the College of Staten Island, CUNY.
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