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[fishbrains]

Does anyone else have a student who contacts you in ways you have expressly told him or her not to? Repeatedly? No matter what?

I have a student in my online summer class who constantly leaves messages on my office phone. I'm not in the office much, and I have told him at least 5 times to email me with his problems or call me on my cell phone. But then he keeps calling my office phone!

I think he does this with the idea that I will give him extensions on assignments because, as he puts it, "You didn't call me back in time." However, I've refused to give these extensions, told him to call my cell phone or email me, but he just won't stop calling the office phone! I've even changed the message on my office phone indicating to people to email me instead of waiting for a return call.

Arrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh! There's one in every bunch!

Thanks for allowing me to vent.

[case_insensitive]

dear fishbrains,

just ignore the student's messages to your office phone. i prefer not to have voice mail at the office for just this reason.  email is quicker most of the time anyhow and can be answered from anywhere, unlike the office voice mail.  some students just don't get it...

case insensitive

[spork]

Generally I assign F's to students who don't follow directions.

[oldie]

Are you being too sensitive here?   

[menoetius]

Irritating isn't it. Change your voice mail message to say please email me if you want to get a hold of me. Sometimes you can even set up voicemail not to take a message at all--I can't some sytems let you. Check with your university communications department.

I want voice mail that emails me the messages, and converts them into text.

[fiona]

My office answering machine (we don't have an institutional voice mail) died last fall. I kept meaning to replace it, but I discovered I loved knowing there would be no messages for me. I had on my syllabus and office door that students should e-mail me. Those who wanted to, did. No one complained about the office phone.

I have not replaced the office answering machine.

[henri]

Why are you giving students your cell phone number?  Do you really want to make yourself that accessible?

[jds2006]

Are you sure that you did not accidentally give this student a readymade excuse? When you told him that you rarely check your office voicemail, you more or less gave him the dog that eats his homework.

If you can figure out a way to say, "Listen, moron, your papers are due on time or else you need to get permission in a way I accept," then you should do it.

[zenprof]

It'sannoying! Go ahead and vent.  But I'm with Fiona on this one.  

I have no machine or voice mail on the office phone. If people want to reach me, there is one centralized, convenient, 24-hr-a-day way to do so, a way that gives me a written record of our contact, a way that I check once every 24 hrs during the week and not at all on weekends:  e-mail.  

On the syllabus, I tell students that this and only this is the way to reach me, unless they show up physically during office hours at the 15-minute slot they've signed up for, or unless we agree, by prior email, to meet at another, mutually convenient time. They can also try calling on the office phone during office hours, but if I'm talking with a student who has taken the trouble to sign up and show up, I turn the ringer off so we are not disturbed by some random phone caller in his bathrobe or on her sundeck.

And then I do, faithfully, read and respond to all emails within the 24-hr window on weekdays. They can count on me from the start NOT to be available by phone, and to be VERY responsive by email.

Works well to shape their behavior---hope you can make it work for you, too.  I'd be annoyed by that student, too, but responding only reinforces/rewards the bad behavior you want to extinguish.  If you're untenured, set this system upin a very friendly, congenial way, explaining that you want to keep good records of your work with students and that what they say is important to you, so you want to give it your planned time and attention. Save the growling for when you've got tenure---they all know now, as if my grapevine magic, "Oooh, don't bug zenprof on the phone---send an email, and you'll get a nice answer instead of a growl!"
z

[zenprof]

PS just realized you're already stuck in this situation, so you could send out a mass email to the class (especially if you use WebCT or Blackboard etc) announcing that the office phone no longer has a recording device, so students need to contact you via email. And announce it in class too. Good luck!
z

[case_insensitive]

I do, faithfully, read and respond to all emails within the 24-hr window on weekdays. They can count on me from the start NOT to be available by phone, and to be VERY responsive by email.

My thoughts exactly! 

[diana_prince]

My administrator told me I needed to check my voicemail at least once a week, when I was an adjunct at a CC. Even though it was stated in my syllabus to use email through the online course I taught, I still had students who didn't follow instructions. Messages were left at odd hours about not being able to submit assignments, "the dog ate my homework, etc. etc." Your department might have a policy that you need to uphold.

[avaya]

My syllabus says, "Assignments are counted off at 10% per day, including weekends, unless you have a documented medical excuse."  I tell them in class that if they have other documented excuses, I will accept those as long as they have the paperwork to prove it (e.g., I had a student who was in a car accident and she brought me the police report).  Also, for the two classes that I give exams in, my syllabi say, "I do not give make-up exams for any reason other than a documented medical excuse."

This cuts down dramatically on student phone calls.  Students know they can't call and leave an excuse b/c I'm just going to say, "Where's the paperwork?"  And if they have the paperwork, they don't need to call me.  Other phone calls, I hate to say, I typically ignore - my classes meet 3 days a week and I can see them in class.  They are typically about minor matters.  If it's a real emergency, I will respond by phone, but I usually only have to do that 2-3 times a semester.

[thundering_m]

More of the same here, in conjunction with the email template shared on another thread (advice for new faculty). This is how I may express it to undergrads:

Email is checked up to three times a day. Given that I have difficulty hearing, the phone messages are not, and in fact are unlikely to be checked even weekly. You choose how quickly you'd like a reply.

If it is a request for modifying the requirements as stated in the syllabus, it must be in writing, and therefore e-mail will be the most efficient means. If the template provided in the syllabus is not completed, I see no reason to finish reading your message, and am unlikely to respond at all.

The only reason to call my cell phone is an immediately urgent situation requiring 911, in which case that is who you should call. Otherwise, it can probably wait until you have your email up and running.

If you are late, I will know this first by the empty chair and second when you walk through the door (as unobtrusively as possible, with no distracting announcement or apology for the late arrival). If you are absent, only the first will apply.

It is fair to point out that the difference between a phone call and an email is enormous to a busy professor. A phone call is usually interrupting something and demanding my attention when I can least give it; an email sits patiently until I have the time to open it, and is still there when I am ready to respond. The first is irritating; the second is collegial. So the question for you is which attitude you would like me to have when I give you an answer: irritated or cooperative?

It is indeed a courtesy to send an email for the record, and to keep me in the loop regarding any obstacles you have to being successful in this class. It is also a courtesy to respect the very limited amoutn of time I have been allotted to pay attention to you, and to use the office hours, classroom discussion, and email to establish contact.

[left_of_right]

On my syllabus, I write down my email address followed by "preferred form of communication" in paranthesis.  I have an office phone but I do not have the office number typed down on my syllabus.  I haven't had a single complaint about this policy.