Speaking up in class

I’m in the enviable position this year of being BBA Program Director while also teaching a BBA class. This allows me to hear more about what’s going on than in previous years. And that’s a very good thing.

A consistent theme that I am hearing from students is that they are having communication issues (not speaking loudly enough, speaking too quickly, or whatever) with their professor in a class. Professors aren’t perfect (did you know that we know that?) so this is to be expected sometimes. Because I use a fast feedback form in every class, it is easy for students to tell me about problems they are having. And because I’m Program Director, they also tell me about issues they are having in classes other than mine. If I hear a common theme in these comments, then I take them to the appropriate party.

This process adds unnecessary and confusing steps to the process. It should be the students who go to the professor directly either during (the best option) or immediately after (second best option) class. Professors generally would like to think that they are teaching you something during class. If they aren’t, and it can easily be fixed, then they almost certainly would appreciate hearing about it so that they can fix it quickly. If students address this in a calm and constructive manner, then this would work out better for all concerned. The best thing about it is that addressing it the first time makes it easy to begin a semester-long dialog about this with the professor so that he or she can find out if the situation is improving. If, for some reason, the faculty member does not respond well to such comments, then you should consider taking your comments to the chair of the department to get another viewpoint on your concerns.

I encourage all BBAs to take responsibility for their education. If you can help improve the educational process for yourself or your classmates, then you should take the steps necessary to bring about this change. It’s another way that you can leave Ross in better condition than you found it.