The dirty (not-so-)secret of academia: students aren't cared for, they're "handled."
Professors are selected for their research prowess, to a limited extent their teaching ability (depending on the school), and infinitesimally their people skills. Suddenly, they're thrown into a job where their primary function is dealing with people -- administrators, colleagues, students.
A few professors knew what path they were on for the beginning and relish this opportunity to Do Some Good. Most, however, go on autopilot.
I should add that most American profs seems to reserve their emotional energy for their graduate advisees (with whom they do research and spend a lot of time, if they have any time at all) and their own families. It's them against the world.
Yeah, all of this is stuff that I "know" but sometimes forget if I haven't been whacked in the head with it in a while. I can usually open them up if I ambush them in a context where they're "unprepared", but apparently I hadn't quite fully integrated the lesson that moving through conventional channels never works out well when you're trying to do something unconventional.
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Professors are selected for their research prowess, to a limited extent their teaching ability (depending on the school), and infinitesimally their people skills. Suddenly, they're thrown into a job where their primary function is dealing with people -- administrators, colleagues, students.
A few professors knew what path they were on for the beginning and relish this opportunity to Do Some Good. Most, however, go on autopilot.
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