IF YOU WANT TO:
Keeping your office door open unless you really cannot be disturbed.
"Students should have first priority on my time," one engineering professor says. "I always keep my office door open when I am in and am willing to stop whatever I am doing if a student comes by. It's important not to appear stand- offish, to act put-upon, bored, or too busy to spend time with students out of class."
When he is working in the lab, he leaves a note on his office door inviting students to drop by the lab if they want to talk. "Actually, I like to have students visit me in the lab," he says, "because there they can really see me at work, and can get some idea of what I do."
Finally, because he has discovered that some students will never come to the office or lab, he tries to spend several hours a week in the department course center where the students study, socialize, eat lunch, etc. There he can converse with them informally and get to know them better.
Limitations on Use of Suggestion
Copyright 1983 by the Regents of the University of California