-Jane, Red group

Cal: I like the fact that my major - most of the teachers are also professional on the side. Some ofthem work in real life experiences. Sometimes they might miss a class, because they are on assignment. I am in media, and so there are reporters and magazine writers and stuff like that.

-Cal, Blue group

M: But usually you find that professors here at Hunter generally treat students with respect and do you feel like you can have conversations and contribute?

Trudy: For the most part, I’ve found that true – whether it’s a huge class of 500 people or a class with like seven people…. They’re excellent. In fact, my major has the best faculty…renowned…renowned faculty.

-Trudy, Yellow group

Many participants also made positive comments about the interactive nature of some Hunter professors’ teaching style. They particularly expressed high levels of satisfaction with teachers who encouraged student participation.

Meg: I mean they (the professors) encourage participation and if you don't talk, they get you, so everyone starts laughing. But you get laughing along with it like - OK. So you tell your part, what you think about the story and whatever.

-Meg, Gray group

Kara: He (the professor) knew how to engage students in conversations. I have never seen anyone so good at making people comfortable talking. He was also very fair about things. You really got the feeling that he really wanted to know what you thought—he really cared whether or not you learned something. He had the right attitude.

-Kara, Red group

Hope: …. He (the professor) always did it in terms of discussion…and um he kept the class very active, very interactive between him and the students. And it was very, very good. It was not the classic, standard, tradition “Well, I’m the professor…I’ll stay here (Right.), write on the board, and you just do what I say.

-Hope, Yellow group

Outside of the generally, positive views most students held about Hunter’s faculty, most students could relate a few bad experiences that they had had with certain professors. Some students complained about the punitive and condescending style of some professors. Others complained about the boring nature of some professors’ lectures when professors read directly out of the textbook.

Meg: The teacher was very impatient, with the students. And it's a math class and you know you've got to have a lot of patience for math. And whenever you ask questions, she would get agitated, like [imitating] "Didn't I just go over that?Wasn't you listening?" Like, "I was listening, but obviously I couldn't get it, that's why I'm asking you. Right?"After a while people didn't ask questions any more, 'cause you just get scolded at.

-Meg, Gray group

Lana: And I ended up like…just debating her (the professor) on something that she said…I’d go, “I like to look at it from this angle.”… And she just went off on me. Oh my gosh. She made me feel so bad; she really…She said, “Are you saying that I am wrong?

-Lana, Yellow group

Meg: And don't, like, OK, let's read a passage from the book. You know? Make it interesting.

-Meg, Gray group

Jane: I only had one teacher…I think…it was too easy and just…she would just go along with the book. So it was basically, if you read the book you didn’t have to go to class. Or if you went to class, you wouldn’t have to read the book. I can’t deal with that.

-Jane, Red group

A few students complained that the poor English skills of some professors affected their ability to understand the course material. One student commented that it requires students to spend extra time outside of class to clarify the lecture material of a professor who does not have a basic command of the English language.

Meg: Yeah. Like that ________ class that I had, so the man had an accent, (uh huh) so I really didn't know what he was saying. I had to take a no-credit for that class.

-Meg, Gray group

Ally: Generally, in science classes… the graduate students whose English is not so good do the labs. …But especially when you do labs and you don’t understand what they are saying, accidents can happen.

-Dora, Blue group

Judy: I have to go to every single departmental advisor at Hunter and it’s for like 15 classes. And it was honestly a week of waiting in line for hours. And I mean their hours are so terrible; I mean - I had the worst experience. And I got to see what it was like with everyone. And every time I was there - there were like twenty people in line, and I was waiting like a half an hour.

-Judy, Blue group

Manny: I think the problem with advising is the accessibility. Again, they’re dealing with a lot of students. It seems like - correct me if I am wrong - but it seems like for every department there is only one advisor.

-Manny, Manny interview

Furthermore, most students expressed frustration with large classes at Hunter where individual contact with the professor is limited and it is difficult to ask for clarifications of the material presented.

Judy: In a general assembly hall - you know - people are trying to ask questions. And I don’t know anyone who had an easy time in that class and not because the material is actually hard….

-Judy, Blue group

Hope:…. because it was at a lecture hall…and uh…we didn’t have enough time to ask questions or get individual attention.

-Hope, Hope interview

Sam: Anything in a lecture hall is horrible. I’d say it’s just impractical to conduct any kind of class there. You are better off just studying by yourself. Taking the textbook and doing your thing and coming in for the test. Because…not to put any professor down, but the acoustics are horrible most of the time and usually it’s an Adjunct where English is their second language – which has been my experience. So…it all makes for a bad experience.

Manny: Sometimes it is boring - especially when…I feel its like high school…you still see half the class … has not read the book at all….the teacher feels obligated to inform the students that haven’t read - what they should have read. So…they’re learning something new - that’s when its boring a lot of times.

-Manny, Manny interview

Kara: I feel the same way; I’m not challenged. I should be more challenged. Everybody puts pressure on the professor to get a better grade, but they really don’t want to work for it.

-Kara, Red group

Jane: I think that the papers that you have to write here at Hunter are really short. In high school I was writing 10-15 pages long papers, and I haven’t had to do that here once; the longest ones I have written have been five or six pages.

-Jane, Red group.

In contrast, some students perceived the coursework at Hunter to be quite challenging and were struggling to adjust to college level work. These students seemed to cluster in the low achiever or active adapter categories.

Ada:…that and plus I don't know it was either going too quick, teachers going too fast, or… You can't really slow down since it's a lecture hall.

-Rae, Blue group

Joe: My classes are very challenging. I don’t really have any complaints; everything has been going well.My major is accounting. So far - so good.

- Meg, Wanda, Ada, Gray group

In terms of how these struggling students handle the challenge of college level work, some students stated that they had sought out some of the academic services that Hunter offers such as the Writing Center and Math Labs. Unfortunately, most of these students complained that these academic services were not entirely helpful.

Rose:I went once (to the Writing Center) and we basically, but they're there to guide you but they're very clear that they will not help you in any way to write it. So you have to just keep reading the paper out loud over and over, and you have to decide if you want to change it.

M:OK, uh, that sounds very labor intensive….

Rose:Yeah I never went back. Like, I went once and I never went back. I was like, "Forget this."

-Ada, Ada Interview

Kelly, a high achieving student, commented that in her work as a math tutor to other students, she has to provide more extensive academic assistance than just help with a Math concept.

Kelly:… sometimes I tutor the students not for math, but how to use the book. I teach them skills that they should know already. That’s amazing to me. And it’s not only with freshmen, because I would understand if it only happened to freshmen, but it happens to upper level students as well.

Kelly, Red group

Hope, an active adapter, acknowledged that some of the college’s attempts at teaching study skills through various workshops (i.e. workshops on Test-Taking Strategies or Math Anxiety) were a step be a more comprehensive program put into place to help students with study habits.

Hope: …they started having those workshops (Um hmm.) which are not most of the times available.

M: … you think there should be another course maybe that talks about studying strategies?

Hope: Definitely. And some people might find it…that it …might not be useful…at the beginning…. Because – Freshmen –that’s what we all think back then - “This is not useful!”But inthe long run – you will find out that it is.