TLC's Weekly Tip

No-hassle Availability: Avoiding the Reputation of Being Unavailable

Students feel supported and cared for when their professors are available. Although we include our contact information in our syllabi and post and keep all our posted office hours, students' schedules are not often compatible with ours. Even in these days of text messaging and cell phones, it's still inevitable that some visitors will come looking for us at our offices when we are elsewhere, and we will not know about their efforts to find us. This can be especially true in evenings, when classes are ongoing but support staff are off-campus.

A pencil, a piece of string, a bit of tape, and a paper with the heading "Looking for me and can't find me? Leave your information below, and I'll contact you" can solve the problem. "Below" includes ruled lines and two columns—one labeled "your name" and the other "your phone # or your Email address." Tape the paper to the outside of your door along with the string and pencil. (Yes, visitors often arrive without a pen or pencil.) For faculty who share offices, replace "me" in the top line with a specific name so that visitors can direct their information to the correct person. Follow up as soon as names and contact information appear on your door from visitors who missed you.
 
A faculty developer can also create the .doc attachment template and send to all faculty on campus. This saves faculty the time of making a sign, and they can do an immediate print and tape job using this attachment, or personalize it easily with their own words and tasteful decor.