I have never experienced the bad attitudes about learning that I have this quarter. A sizable fraction of students treat it as unconscionable that you'd expect them to do work and petition demanding less of it then are outraged when you say no.

They see a normal college workload as excessive and complain vociferously. This excerpt from one of my evals accurately describes my workload, which is way less than any of the courses I TAd for in grad school. That's from one of my evals but I heard the same thing in emails.

After a lot of thought, I have three explanations as to why it's so bad. I'll give them in order of importance.

1) asynchronous teaching is a trap. In an effort to accommodate students who can't make it to class (those in Asian time zones, those w spotty WiFi, etc) we record lectures. This leads students to confuse flexible schedule w no time commitment.

Because students don't have to commit a *particular* block of time to school, they don't commit *any* block of time to school. You see this in students overcommitting. They take more than 12-16 units and/or they work full-time. The squeeze class in and complain when it pinches.

2) The university has been a bunch of simps. When we are overly solicitous to student concerns and tell them that bad circumstances justify lax pedagogy they get the message.

At UCLA in spring the administration encouraged faculty to cancel finals (and sold out those who refused) because students because students were upset about BLM. Is it any surprise that in fall they not only demand lax pedagogy but feel aggrieved when denied?

If you give a mouse a cookie it will ask for a glass of milk and if you refuse it will bite you.

#3) some students actually do face objectively bad circumstances. I have had several students who got covid, which while generally not fatal for young people is still debilitating. Maybe 10% of students are in Asia and so have to stay up very late at night to attend section.

Here's the scary thing, none of this will end when we're all vaccinated and covid is in the rear view mirror. Universities are committed to distance learning and students like the flexibility of recorded classes. So the present is the future of higher ed.