NEWS

How to communicate with professors

Students paying attention to their instructor. Courtesy of Pxhere

Lilly Kujawski
Editor

To whom it may concern,

Reaching out to a professor can be intimidating. They have full classes of students and busy days. Sometimes it’s hard to know how and when to ask for help. Maybe you’re afraid of saying the wrong thing, or being a bother.

Danielle Joye, a communications instructor at WCC, said students shouldn’t hesitate to get in contact with their professors.

“Sometimes I get students who say ‘I didn’t know if I could’ or ‘I didn’t know if I should,’ or ‘if this was a silly question,’” Joye said. “Always reach out!”

Leon Swan, a math instructor at WCC, encourages students to stop in during his office hours whenever they need help.

Here are some tips to ease up your stress so your professors can feel a little more approachable and—dare I say—human?

Email is usually best, particularly for part-time instructors who share office space and aren’t on campus everyday, and might not get the message right away if you call, Joye said. Always remember to use your WCC email when emailing professors, Swan said.

Introduce yourself to your instructor in the beginning of the semester. Joye said she loves when students do that, and it’s really important to establish a relationship at the beginning of the semester. “If the teacher knows who you are, it really goes a long way,” she said.

Send a follow-up email if you have already emailed your teacher and haven’t received a response, said Joye.

Utilize professor’s office hours, Swan advised. He said some semesters he had students coming in three or four times a week and he was always happy to help.

If you know something is coming up, let the teacher know as soon as possible, Joye said.

Open communication is key, according to Joye. She recommended letting teachers know as soon as possible if something out of your control happens that could interfere with attendance or assignments.

“Reach out to your teacher first if you are having any academic issues in their class,” Joye said.

“I think a lot of students are sometimes afraid, for whatever reason, to reach out to the teacher but I don’t want students to feel afraid to do that, because your teacher is there for you,” Joye said.

She said sometimes students will let the problem go for too long, and then it’s too late to fix it.

“Always let your teacher know before it gets into a bigger issue,” she said.

Thanks.