Weird demands your faculty members make
We have all heard the stories our seniors told us about how amazing university life is. How the torture ends after college, how university life is all about hanging out with friends, attending concerts and sitting in a coffee shop with friends and drinking overpriced and overhyped beverages. However, the only part they forgot to mention was the faculty members we would face and the crazy expectations they would have from us. Here are some of the weirdest yet common demands our faculty members make.
READ IT YOURSELF
Even though we spend most of our lives trying to get adults to trust us with work, they don't. They always think we will mess stuff up and for some reason, we require their supervision 24/7. But the one time you will gain someone's full trust is from that one faculty member who literally asks you to go through every slide, every book, and every reading material ever on your own. And then when you see your answer script and realise that you got a D+ because "The answer was not exactly what the teacher wanted" you feel like this is probably the course that's going to give you the push you needed to drop out.
COLOUR CO-ORDINATED ESSAY
Of all the weird demands that your faculty members make, this is probably the weirdest. When you are writing an essay, every paragraph has to be written using a different coloured pen. Black, green, blue. As creative as this may seem, maintaining a colour combination while writing an essay might not be as easy as it sounds.
MAKE A TEAM
This is one almost everyone can relate to. When you walk into the class on the first day of your semester and all of a sudden the faculty member expects you to make a group of five and submit names by the end of the class, it is not that rational of a request. How are you magically supposed to realise which five of the 60 strangers in the class are fit for group work or what skills they have? So you sit around awkwardly looking all around you and just as the class ends you make a group of the five people sitting next to you. And these are all the ingredients that make up for a perfectly disastrous group project.
TWO EXAMS IN A DAY
Having to sit for the finals and quiz number 3 on the same day? Even a CGPA 3.9 can't handle sitting for the finals and then sitting for a quiz which had a completely different syllabus. Even if it's a 10 minute quiz, the fact that you have to go through two completely different syllabi isn't a negligible factor. At least not for students who do not want to fail.
WEAR FORMAL BUT NOT TOO FORMAL
University presentations, the time when students consent to be judged on the basis of what they are wearing. We all know the dress code is "formal". But what we don't know is what the word "formal" means to our faculty members. While some think "formal" means a suit and tie for everyone, other faculty members believe formals mean suit and tie, saree, salwar kameez, or just a tucked in shirt. So every time there is a presentation, you go on wondering how formal is not too formal?
SHOW UP AT SUNRISE
Imagine scheduling a 10 am class and letting people know at 7 am, and then expecting everyone to show up. Whether your faculty uses Google classroom or Facebook or WhatsApp or just the old school texting method to communicate with you, in no way is it possible for students to show up at 10 am when they are notified about the class at 7 am in the morning. Students can't attend 10 am classes even when they were scheduled months ago let alone showing up at three hours' notice. It's not only impossible for students who are lazy and sleep till 12 am but also for the ones who live in faraway lands like Mirpur, which is really far.
ARE YOU FREE ON FRIDAY?
Friday, the one day of the week when you get to sit around and watch BoJack Horseman without worrying about the opportunity cost because it's a socially accepted holiday. Well, not anymore. Because there is no limit to gaining knowledge, just like your Friday morning extra class when your faculty keeps going on and on for 4 hours straight because it's a holiday and what better to do than enlighten students with endless knowledge.
LET'S SOLVE A CASE
Solve a thirteen pages long case? Sure. Sit through boring lectures? Sure. Sit through a boring lecture for 1 hour and immediately after solve a 13-page long case study? No. Just no. But you have to do it anyways, because you are already failing two other courses because you can't wake up at sunrise or show up to the Friday classes.
Megha is probably going to be a dropout of university. If you think you are going to do the same, you can find her at megharahman26@gmail.com and share your thoughts.