Your Healing Space: Communicating with Instructors

Wellness @ Columbia

Your Healing Space is our weekly newsletter that focuses on YOUR health and wellness.  We hope you'll be able to put these ideas and practices into good use in support of your education and life goals. Your physical and mental health MATTERS.

Dr. Beth Davis-Berg

Communicating with Instructors

Hi! My name is Beth Davis-Berg, and I’m a Professor of Biology and am serving as the Chair of the Science and Mathematics Department. I started teaching at Columbia way back in 2005 after finishing my PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Kansas. I’ve taught a bunch of different classes here at Columbia College Chicago, including Ecology, Evolution of Sex, Animal Behavior, General Zoology, Marine Biology, Environmental Justice: Troubled Waters, and I’m currently teaching Equitable Futures: Environmental Equity in Chicago this semester. 

I love teaching, especially teaching at Columbia College.  Our students are amazing, talented, and great to have in class. They ask questions that are often profound and come from many divergent perspectives. As an instructor, I think it’s important for me to learn who my students are, their names, their pronouns, and who they are in class. I try to remind my students that, eventually, they may need a letter of recommendation from a faculty member or someone to ask about classes, life, etc.  

To communicate with faculty, I’d recommend that students start by using that faculty’s preferred form of communication. For most of us, that’s going to be using email (often to set up a meeting either in person or online). If you want a letter of recommendation, I’d be prepared to provide your resume/cv, something about who needs the letter, and to have a chat about what you’d like the letter to say.  I can write a much stronger letter if I know why you want the grant, what your graduate school goals may be, or whatever is needed for the particular application.  I’ll add to this, get these requests in early, letters, especially the first one you write for a student take time. I always recommend that students ask if someone is willing to write them a good letter of recommendation.  If someone says no or they don’t have time, be prepared to ask someone else. 

Lastly, I was asked to talk a little about classroom expectations. I’ll start with one that I know many of us don’t always do.  CHECK YOUR EMAIL REGULARLY (sorry for yelling), but seriously, check your email.  Make sure to read the syllabus and the announcements in Canvas.  Make an attempt to solve something before you ask. Also, faculty, contrary to some beliefs, do not just sit on our email waiting to answer questions (even if it feels like that sometimes), so please give us time to reply before you send another message. I think expectations can vary by classroom, but most faculty would like students to show up prepared for class (homework, readings, notebook, etc.) and ready to think and work. Please don’t ask if you missed anything important when you miss class, you likely did, and at the college level, instructors would like you to take some responsibility for that by attempting to catch up. That said, if notes haven’t been posted on Canvas, but they normally are, please let the instructor know; just like students, we can forget things too. 

I always try to remember that we’re all people who may have good days and bad days, so it’s best to be kind and assume the intentions are good.  

Beth