Office hour

Yesterday I sent an email to my PhD committee members, letting them know I am coming to Cali soon and want to meet with them (hope I have a draft of something by then!). They were very accommodating, happy to hear from me. I have in fact never had any trouble getting ahold of my professors when I needed to discuss something with them, which has always been really nice. Ideas flow so well in a one-on-one setting, it is amazing how productive even a short visit can be to get the various strands of thoughts to come together into something cohesive.

My friend Cassie told me that at the University of Iceland, professors only have to be available in their offices to meet with students 1 hour a week. So that the professors "office hours" is instead "office hour".

I can somewhat understand this, I mean I remember what a bummer it was, sitting in my office when I was teaching composition at Berkeley, and having no one come by. Then the 3 hours a week of office hours (spread into two different days) would really drag on. But around paper time and exam time the students took advantage of my availability, and I like to think I actually even helped a few of them.

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