I am sure that we have all had that teacher who tells us all about how it is important to communicate and email them with problems, and then ironically does not respond to us in a timely manner. And I can almost guarantee that we have each felt the never ending frustration that comes from that.

I have recently dealt with a couple of professors who seem to not understand responding in a timely manner, or responding at all, to the emails sent out by students. Whether it be about registration for the new semester, or a question about class or assignment. If it is not beneficial to them, it seems as if they just do not care.

So, untimely professor, this is to you.

Remember that assignment that you assigned a deadline for? The one that I worked really hard on, made sure that it was some of my best work, and turned in on time? I respected your deadlines. I took that moment to sit back and say, "Hey, this deadline was given to me for a reason." I have these deadlines given to me because you have a lot of things to teach me and a very short period of time to do it. When we take a quiz and you need time to grade it, I realize that you are also very busy. Granted, I am not always the most patient, but I do not come up to you wondering about it, even though I rightfully could.

So, why is it that I either get an extremely late response or no response at all to that email I sent you? As I mentioned, I know that you are super busy. I get it. I am super busy sometimes, too. I feel that regardless of how busy you are, it is common courtesy to have a response to my email within 48 hours. I suppose it is a bit different if you have not gotten my email at all, but I have no way of knowing that if you do not let students know that you are normally fast with responses and to send it again if you do not receive a response.

Maybe I am just being picky. I can be that way sometimes, but I really like to keep things on schedule. If there is an assignment due on a certain day, but it is related to another class, too, the email needs a response. When I come to class, knowing I have sent that email and you act as though you never received it, I get extremely ticked off. A lack of response to my email makes me one hundred times less likely to participate in class that day. I feel a lack of respect towards me as a student when that happens. The other day in class, there was a student who mentioned the deadline was different for the same assignment in our classes, and it was as if I had not even sent my email.

Maybe you did not get a chance to read it. That is understandable, of course, but I did send it early in the day. I thought about when I should send that email, if it was even worth the chance, but I sent it despite my hesitancy. I put trust in the fact that a professor would check their email as frequently as I do. I was mistaken to do so, apparently.

Untimely professor, I understand that you teach a huge amount of students everyday. I also understand that you have papers to grade, conferences to schedule, and families to see. I hope, though, that you understand where I am coming from as well. I also have things to do. I have chapters to read, papers to write, presentations to start, quizzes to study for and extra curricular things to keep track of. Let us not forget staying up until midnight to register for classes because college is apparently like "The Hunger Games."

I hope that if you read this you do not take offense. I am simply trying to explain that I find it a little bit hypocritical that students are expected to be the front-runners of communicating, but it has begun to seem like we cannot expect that in return. I like to think that it is because you are super busy, and that you are not just ignoring my email sitting in your inbox. Although, I will get over it eventually if you just ignored it.

I hope that you have seen my side of things, and that you find it within your schedule to at least respond to the email from a student that is sitting in your inbox.

Thank you,

A stressed-out and busy college student