This blog post was written by Kenia Caro, a member of the IU Bloomington Class of 2025 and an Undergraduate Consultant for the Student-Faculty Partners Learning Community hosted by the CITL. Kenia, a first-generation university student, is currently pursuing a Master of Science at California State University, LA. Connect with Kenia on LinkedIn.
At a recent meeting of the Student-Faculty Partners Learning Community, professors and students were handed an activity where the professors built what they thought the average student’s schedule was and the students did the same with the professors. Since these professors were previously students a couple of years ago, their idea of how our day looked was clear-cut.
Then the students presented to the professors how we thought their day looked. We were way off target about the workday of our professors. As students, we thought our professors spent their day just sitting in their office sipping their third cup of the day and hanging out with their colleagues. After we finished presenting, the faculty showed us what their day really looked like: filled in between classes were meetings and office hours.
As a student, I always wondered why professors only had two one-hour office hours per week. I always brushed it off as either the professors not wanting to deal with us or being lazy. After seeing how they spent their day, I appreciated that they were trying to meet with us. They were going to faculty meetings to improve their teaching style and finding ways to effectively communicate difficult topics with us. I could really see that they wanted us to succeed. They did not just go to a classroom and get to teaching, then after class ends, just leave and pretend that their students don’t exist. I had heard horror stories of professors that were really like that. 
This meeting helped me humanize professors and realize that they were there for us and not there to talk for an hour and leave. I feel guilty for thinking that my professors were trying not to deal with us or being lazy. Now I feel grateful that our professors take time out of their busy days to help us succeed. As we met for meetings as the year went on, I feel like I could sympathize with my professors more in terms that they also have to deal with sort of being a “mature college student” with a job with the university. This experience overall, has helped with what a professor’s day looks like and has helped me figure out my future career goal of becoming a professor.
The Student-Faculty Partners Learning Community pairs interdisciplinary undergraduate students with faculty to create more student-centric courses through community building activities, like the one Kenia described, and course observations. For more information about the program, contact Sarah Pedzinski at spedzins@iu.edu.
Not only students think that this is how faculty spend their day. Apparently our upper administration does as well. How do we decode Academia for our top administrators?
Thanks for this. I’m glad your curiosity led to a better understanding of “the secret lives of professors” (great title, by the way). In addition to teaching, many of us also have research and administrative obligations that are central to our jobs. There’s a much bigger secret life still be discovered.