For me, the intimidation factor involved in coming to the University from high school was huge. The size of this school is daunting. I remember initially feeling disconnected from everything — as if I wasn’t really there. I remember feeling as if my professors weren’t real people and their lectures weren’t meaningful. Professors seemed as if they were on another level from me and I felt insignificant. I felt they didn’t care about me. A large factor in this was that I never went to office hours; I wasn’t having trouble so I thought that I didn’t need to go. I thought going without a real problem was unnecessary and I know I wasn’t the only one. I, like many other students fresh from high school, had not yet realized the intrinsic advantages of going to office hours.
What I didn’t realize was that my professors and teaching assistants for the most part did care, but that it was hard for them to demonstrate that in large lecture halls. What I realized is that the point of office hours is not only to understand the material better but also to get to know instructors and connect with them as people. Office hours changed the way I looked at my instructors — both professors and TAs. Office hours are a way to find a proverbial middle-ground between the personalized attention paid to students in high school and the laissez-faire attitude of many professors here at the University.
Increased attendance at office hours would, furthermore, increase student understanding and ability with regard to course material. Some students feel so overwhelmed that they do not even know what questions to ask when they go to office hours. As a result, they do not even try to go. Simply showing up can force a dialogue where one’s weaknesses in certain concepts can be identified and very easily be rectified because the professor is right on hand to respond. Rather than mete out an understanding deep enough to solve problems and answer short questions alone, through an interaction with the professor a deeper understanding can be achieved.
Office hours are a time when a student can get a more passionate and qualitative interpretation of course material. A one-on-one conversation with a person with a doctoral degree can create interest in previously uninteresting fields. Lecture is boring just for this reason, because of the large and impersonal nature of a classroom it is hard to convey real interest and passion of the things that are being taught. Rather than asking questions that are not related to the coursework, students sit and wait for their curiosity to go away until it is quickly replaced by boredom. In office hours, such flashes of interest can be nurtured and real passion can be created rather than being suppressed as they are in lecture.
Making personal connections with one’s professors opens the door to greater opportunities in that department for research and for advice. Research can be an excellent way to develop a practical passion for a field away from the pencil and paper world of the classroom. Advice is useful because when a professor knows you well, it is easy for them to give recommendations for classes or even potential majors.
Office hours may seem antiquated when it is much easier to send an email or figure it out yourself. However, there are other, more intangible benefits to going. It is hard to recognize them and as such we tend to disregard them. Rather than continuing upon this impersonal path of emails, Google and Yahoo answers, why not go to office hours?
Sawan Patel is an Opinion columnist for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at s.patel@cavalierdaily.com.
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