I awoke today at 8 am to my phone vibrating on my end table.
Not new, really. I wake up lots of days to see that happening.
But it wasn’t a phone call. It wasn’t a text. It was a blitz of emails hitting so fast the notifications looked like a call ringing in.
“Wow, 37 emails,” I think to myself. Then I see the subject line of the first one “force add.” Oh shit, it’s THAT day again.
I think every college has this, but I consider Miami’s to be a unique choke-point. In Interactive Media Studies we have 1 faculty to about every 100 students, so right about the time the regular sophomores get their turn to schedule (after the pre-reg, the honors, the seniors, and the juniors), most of our classes are full. It’s just the reality of teaching in an area where the growth of majors is vastly out-pacing the addition of faculty.
But when we get to crazy-force-add day, there’s rarely the proper decorum from students. Some are overly pushy. Some demand. Many expect. Almost all are not formal enough. Only a handful say please or thank you.
So once again, as I have posted in years past, here is my list of recommendations to any students wanting to force add a class:
- If your advisor told you to use the force add request button at the top of aims.miamioh.edu, don’t assume your advisor was lying. That’s the way into a class in AIMS if it is full.
- If you must contact the instructor to feel that you’ve done enough–bearing in mind that if it’s me, and probably everyone else feels this way, if you email me about a force add and aren’t on that list from the website, you will go at the bottom as an afterthought behind the people who actually followed directions– please do the following things: A) Make sure I am the person teaching the class. Being first in alphabetical order doesn’t put me in charge of AIMS or set me as the teacher for every class. Man, that’d be a sweet paycheck, tho B) Only email me once C) Don’t contact me through Facebook or any other social media where you can locate me D) Don’t come to a class I’m teaching and try to walk in while class is happening to ask if I will add you to a class in the fall E) Don’t call me Mr. Alexander (I worked hard to get a PhD, so if you want to be formal, get the Dr. right), and for the love of all things holy don’t expect a favor if you call me Alex because you read so fast that you didn’t realize I have two first names by most people’s standards, and F) Don’t go over my head hoping one of my bosses can add you to my class, because none of them will and that, too, puts you at the bottom of the list
- If/when you contact me (or if you fill out the form like you’re supposed to) make sure you are specific about the course and the section. As much as I love students, I cannot possibly answer “can you add me to your class” with anything like precision. Because while I don’t teach all the AIMS classes, I do teach three at any given time.
- Have a good reason, and be RIGHT about your reason. For example, if you’re a major outside of IMS, and my class is on a pick list of like 20 classes you could take, you do not NEED my class to graduate, so don’t insist that room has to be made for you ahead of majors who DO need the class to graduate. If you really do need the class, give me all the information you can to make your case (how close you are to graduation, how many times you’ve tried to take the class, why you want to take it with me and not someone else offering it right now, etc.).
- Don’t tell me I’m adding you to my class. Because I won’t if you insist that it’s a right you deserve. That’s my way of spreading the lessons contained in this list/rant. Being force added is a special circumstance favor that as instructors we do for students. I do it more than most (in fact this semester I took 42 students into a class that capped at 25, something that ended up being a mistake since about ten of those students fail to show up every week and another five or so think it’s a good idea to just walk out in the middle of activities). Which leads me to the next point…
- If you ask for a force add and get it, don’t be a bad student in the actual class. Because in a small program, you might need the same or a similar favor again later, and I do not take kindly to assisting students who took advantage of my good nature.
- This is something no adult should need to be told, but remember that “please” and “thank you” are the proper things to say in an email asking for a favor.
- Similarly, I’m not your brother, I am a dude but don’t think I should be addressed as one, etc. When you contact an instructor you don’t know, it’s not a txt message to a friend. Start with something like “Dear Dr. Alexander, I know this is a busy time in the semester and you’re probably receiving numerous requests for force adds…” then pepper in a good old “Thank you for your consideration.” Obviously if you know me already, you can be less formal, but some instructors aren’t that permissive, and a “hey, brah, your class looks bomb. Can you add me?” will get you nowhere.
- As professors, we all understand the desire to resolve your schedule as soon as possible, but if you ask for a force add at 8 am, don’t email again at 10:30 asking if you can have it. In the case of AIMS, we make those decisions right before open registration starts, so if you are asking for a force add as a sophomore, you still have to wait the week or so for first years to schedule before we’re going to even consider making decisions. It isn’t that anyone doesn’t like you. We just have a policy. You’d know, if you read the page where you put yourself on the wait list.
- Lastly, think about how stressful and annoying scheduling is for you. Then realize that whoever is in the office fielding the questions you aren’t asking your professors (in the case of AIMS the super-talented Jen Fox) is the person who has to handle ALL the scheduling for all of the program’s classes. That person’s nightmare of handling spreadsheets and looking at seat caps and CRN numbers dwarves yours, so be nice to her. Don’t get demanding with her. If anything bring her a coffee and a sandwich. She deserves a break.
So if you’re a student– anywhere, but particularly at Miami– follow the force add protocol. It’ll make everyone considering your request happier. And the happier the person making that decision is, the better your chances. The last thing you want to do is be thought of as a pest.