Mutual Expectations hold communication roundtables

Communication, attendance, responsibility and respect are what both students and teachers want.

By Heather Gray

Published Sept. 30, 2008

Communications professor Michael Porter said no one would ever teach a large class if it were avoidable.

"It's not ideal," Porter said. "Why do we do it? It's cost-effective."

These kinds of discussions occur during Mutual Expectations, a group formed in 2005. The group met Monday to discuss the difficulties students and faculty face in a large classroom environment.

In order to improve the learning environment of these large classes, Mutual Expectations held a discussion where students could voice their expectations of teachers or voice their general concerns about large classes.

Freshman Mike McCafferty said teachers should make themselves more available and approachable in and out of class.

"I expect the teacher to grade fairly and to listen to the students if they have a problem," he said.

In response to this comment, Professor Dorina Kosztin said, "Read the syllabus."

Many teachers nodded in agreement.

Kosztin said she is frustrated when she takes the time to write syllabi and is then flooded with questions that could have been answered by a little responsibility on the students' part.

Some students said they believe their teachers don't help enough, especially in larger classes.

"I wish teachers would make an effort to challenge students and go further than the text in our class discussions," said freshman Lindsay Kill.

Professor Patricia Friedrichsen agreed.

"There is such a wide range of backgrounds from my students," she said. "I have students who have taken AP Biology in high school and some who have never taken biology at all."

She said the battle as an instructor is how to make sure everyone understands and is challenged at the same time, a balance that is often difficult to find.

While teachers are constantly balancing their lesson plans, freshman Jackie Braznell seems to constantly follow the balance in her checkbook, as many college students do.

"If I have to buy a book for class, I expect to use it," she said. "When we pay the money to buy these textbooks and don't use them for the class, it is really frustrating because our money was wasted."

Graduate student and community college professor Emily Walter said that in many cases, there is a push to provide textbooks for classes.

"There is a lot of pressure from bookstores to provide a text even if your class doesn't necessarily need or use one," she said.

Walter said teachers are constantly bombarded with new and improved books and receive quite a bit of pressure to use them and occasionally feel obligated to do so.

Although both students and faculty opened the door to communication Monday afternoon, the effort continues to effectively translate these ideas and concerns into action here on campus. Communication, attendance, responsibility and respect were the overlying expectations that students wanted from teachers and teachers from students.

Sophomore Daniel Shatzkin, an organizer of the group, said since Mutual Expectations has been introduced, there have been three campus-wide dialogues, and several smaller sessions for departments and freshman interest groups.