Professors Must be Held to a Higher Standard

It’s high time for Harvard to expect excellence out of its professors in more than just research.

Earning tenure at Harvard is the pinnacle of academia. But often, such professors go on to blatantly violate basic teaching standards.Whether it be missing syllabi, lackluster feedback on assignments, or nebulous grading policies — the lax behavior professors too frequently employ must be regulated out of existence.

Harvard, it’s time to apply the same standard to your professors that you apply to your students.

As a student, I know the basic expectations — show up, be on time, and be reasonably prepared for class. I’m expected to put at least minimal thought into my assignments. If I don’t do these things, I get a zero — it’s a simple system.

Similarly, there are a few basic expectations professors should be expected to meet. Currently, not all can claim to do so.

Let’s start with syllabi. The University doesn’t require professors to upload a syllabus by the end of the course registration period, and clearly, some professors have taken notice. With less than 24 hours remaining until course registration closes, several professors’ syllabi are conspicuously absent.

Oftentimes the courses without syllabi are being offered for the first time. With neither syllabus nor Q Guide scores, students are left completely in the dark on how to make scheduling decisions that could considerably impact their academic experiences.

The syllabus conundrum highlights another, more insidious problem: How does a class get approved by administrators without an understanding of what it will teach and how it will be taught?

Then there’s the assignment feedback issue. Often, professors don’t return papers, exams, or projects: they simply assign you a grade and move on. Pedagogically, this is poor practice. There’s no way of knowing what went well or what needs improvement. I came to Harvard to learn, not for a GPA — it's frustrating to put time and energy into an assignment and receive almost nothing in return.

I’ve experienced this problem many times myself. I am currently enrolled in a class where I have been assigned eight assignments, and none have been returned. The final is a cumulative paper building on earlier work — but I’ve yet to receive feedback on anything.

I understand the principle likely guiding Harvard’s practices. As an institution, the University is trying to give professors the freedom to conduct their teaching, grading, and feedback mechanisms as they wish.

I am in no way saying that professors shouldn't have any flexibility. But when such freedoms impinge on the student experience, it’s time to curtail them.

The solution is easy: match faculty expectations to those of students.

Students are required to sign up months in advance for courses. If they fail to do so by a specific deadline, they incur a late fee. The College should expect the same for professors: post your syllabi or course information by a given date. New courses shouldn’t be approved without a full syllabus ready to be posted.

Likewise, deadlines are currently one-sided. Students are obligated to turn in assignments by a specific date, while faculty seem to have no such guidelines — and if they exist, they certainly aren’t enforced. If students are given a week to complete an assignment, faculty should return the grades in a similar timeframe.

Harvard should require faculty to deliver feedback on final assignments, and should not allow professors to upload grades to the registrar without returning them to students.

For educators that decide to repeatedly violate these rules, Harvard should consider their standing as a faculty member the same way they would consider a student who had repeatedly violated the basic college expectations.

College is complicated, learning is complicated, teaching is complicated — professors doing the bare minimum for students should not be.

Naftali T. Horowitz ’27, a Crimson Editorial editor, is a double concentrator in Economics and Government in Cabot house.