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What motivates requiring a diversity statement from minority applicants?
Applying for many academic positions in North America often requires a diversity statement.
As someone who is a disabled, racial, sexual and religious minority, immigrant, and someone who grew up poor, I couldn't help but feel a bit insulted by the necessity of providing such a statement.
Growing up, I was often the only non-white student in the class. I was bullied severely for being different throughout K12. As a result, I have developed mental illness and my experience has deeply affected my sexuality as well.
But now I am told to write about how I feel about about diversity and inclusion?
Even being prompted this question is insulting, as if the asker has never ever opened a book about the experience of minorities (esp. racial minority) in NA.
Yeah, I guess would appreciate some diversity and inclusion. But, one, I don't want to write a book about my experience, and two, I don't want to relive trauma.
That's only on the emotional level.
On the technical level, many researchers have already pointed out that diversity (a "feel-good" slogan) affects basically no structural change on the ground. As an illustrative example, if your organization is morally corrupt, then "diversity" in that organization simply means you have many types of people working towards that corrupted goal. So simply being diverse is not enough. But is this view considered as "against diversity", or "for diversity"? - This all depends on how the hiring committee feels.
What motivates requiring a diversity statement from minority applicants?

How would the committee know about the challenges you experienced and how you overcame them if you don't tell them? The diversity statement is a great opportunity to describe this and how you would use your experience to support students to overcome their own challenges.

What the department actually wants to know is whether or not you're going to be able to help attract and retain students of diverse backgrounds. It sounds like you might be able to leverage your experience to help with this. Make this clear in your statement, which doesn't have to contain details about your past if recalling it is painful, but should contain details about precisely what you plan to do to improve the diverse student's experience.

Better question: Should anyone?

"I don't want to write a book about my experience, and two, I don't want to relieve trauma."  Like many people on this site, you have incorrectly decided that a diversity statement is about your experiences and identity.  It is not.  It is about how you will be effective at the job you are applying for.

The body question and title don't match.

Also, it's not like there's no animosity between racial and religious groups, either. Not being White doesn't mean someone will be treat all non-White people well.

The purpose of a diversity statement is typically how you approach the diversity of others in the classroom (whether neurodiverse, physical, economic, or ethnic) and how your own research concerns diversity. How does your teaching experience create a better situation (than you've experienced) for diverse learners? You are welcome to comment on your own diversity, but in my experience attending DEI workshops on writing diversity statements and working on disability justice issues, they really want to know how you approach this from the standpoint of a professor. In this sense, you can distance yourself from personal aspects. From my perspective, I've found the distancing helpful. It's also been helpful to have others, for instance, someone I trust in the campus diversity and/or teaching and learning center, review my diversity statement.

Coming from a minority background does not automatically make someone good at addressing/accommodating diversity issues within their field. Whether you come from a minority background or not, as a professor you're going to deal with students from backgrounds different from your own. A diversity statement is an opportunity to describe how you approach the classroom and how you create an inclusive environment for students. It has very little to do with your specific background, and to the extent your background matters, it matters less than your pedagogy and training in the subject.
Failure to write a diversity statement as a minority candidate, or worse, writing a flippant diversity statement are both worse than writing a bland statement. The former, at best, makes it seem like you can't follow directions. The latter, at worst, opens up a whole can of worms that could torpedo your application.
If you absolutely can't stand diversity statements, then write something bland and half-hearted. You'll be in very good company. That's not intended to knock anybody- every candidate has their own strengths and weaknesses. Not everyone is expected to be a DEI superstar.
But, search committees do take diversity statements seriously. If you have two otherwise equal candidates, but the first has a good diversity statement and the other doesn't, then the first one wins.

TDLR: Asking for a diversity statement from minority applicants is motivated by the fact that recruiting rules state you must ask all candidates the same things.
Let's start by acknowledging that the original intentions behind diversity statements was well meaning. If we genuinely care that professors are able create environments were everyone feels included, supported and equally catered for, then its stands to reason that we should judge a candidate's ability to do this when they are hired. It's the same reason we hadn't just judge someone on their research abilities, and then complain that they aren't any good a teaching.
Next we should note that at least where I am from (the UK), if you ask one candidate something, you have to ask all candidates the same thing. All candidates must be asked for the same application materials, and all candidates must be asked the same questions at interview. Asking candidates from non-excluded groups to provide a diversity statement, but not candidates from excluded groups would lay the university immediately open to a discrimination lawsuit.
Now, its true that many diversity statements are bland, meaningless, and verging on dishonest. They have become a box to tick (teaching statements also read like this surprisingly often).

diversity (a "feel-good" slogan) affects basically no structural change on the ground. As an illustrative example, if your organization is morally corrupt, then "diversity" in that organization simply means you have many types of people working towards that corrupted goal. So simply being diverse is not enough.

Is you were feeling brave this seems like a great sentiment to put in a diversity statement (Or at least, a Diversity, Equality and inclusion statement). It would immediately mark you out as someone who took the issues seriously, as long as the effect was to make the reader believe you were interested in serious change rather than cosmetic sticking plasters. However, it would need to be followed up with suggestions for what "structural change on the ground" is necessary, and how it could be achieved. It may also be appropriate to talk about who this work falls on, and how it shouldn't all fall on the shoulders of people from minorities.  Finally you would need to talk about what you could do to help your student navigate the structural problems as best as is possible in the meantime.
Such a statement might ruffle feathers. It might harm your application at some places, but boost it at others. You would have to genuinely ask yourself if you would rather have a job at somewhere that didn't care about these structural issues (and therefore might not be very understanding of your own issues) or risk not getting a job at all. I'm not saying there is an easy or correct answer there.

"If we genuinely care that professors are able create environments were everyone feels included, supported and equally catered for, then its stands to reason that we should judge a candidate's ability to do this when they are hired." - Yes, this would be a common sense interpretation, but this is not how the system works in the US. When I took a mandatory training few years ago as a member of a search committee, such attitude was described (by the trainer) as "cultural precompetence" and would be worth only 3 points out of 5. (Or even 2, if it were deemed "colorblind".)

@MoisheKohan Being able to create an environment where everyone feels included, supported and equally able to excel does not imply that people should necessarily be treated equally. I'll leave for people's own diversity statements to argue whether equal treatment is correct, or whether treatment needs to be culturally specific, but nothing in my post argues for one or the other.

Firstly, I’m sorry to hear that you were bullied in school and that it had such negative effects on you.  I can certainly understand why you might not want to discuss that issue with potential colleagues at a university you are applying to.  I cannot offer a perspective on what it is like to submit a diversity statement as a minority applicant, but I can tell you a bit about diversity statements, what they are for, and how a selection committee might view your position.
Contrary to the other answer given here, the real purpose of a Diversity Statement is not any improvement in the quality of teaching or research.  That is the “brochure explanation” of its purported purpose, but the real purpose of these statements is primarily to act as a political litmus test to minimise hiring and promotion of academics who dissent from the neo-Marxist orthodoxy of modern academia (for discussion, see e.g., here, here and here if interested).  As you correctly point out, diversity training and diversity statements have a poor record in bringing about any positive change in institutions with respect to interpersonal behaviour between people of different races, sexes, etc., but that is because that is not their purpose — their purpose is political/ideological, and they achieve their actual purpose quite successfully.
It is extremely tricky to try to predict the reception of a diversity statement, primarily because there remains quite a bit of heterodoxy —despite the goal of weeding this out— in relation to how academics view these.  At the risk of oversimplifying, you might expect to get two kinds of main views, plus variations of these occurring in the middle.  On the one extreme are academics and diversity administrators who find the statements desirable as a means of imposing a political litmus test on applicants, and they will favour applicants who express the correct neo-Marxist orthodoxy that they hold (the more radical the better).  On the other extreme are academics who think that the entire exercise of diversity statement is illegitimate/useless and they will tend to give them little weight or ignore them completely.  In the middle you will find various academics who try to square-the-circle, acting under the pretence that they can judge the diversity views of an application without any political or ideological favouritism.
As to your particular circumstance and your attitude to these statements, that is perhaps an unusual position, but not an unreasonable one.  The advocates of diversity statements flatter themselves in thinking that these are a tool for helping minorities, so I suspect they would be inclined to respect your wishes not to discuss information that is sensitive to you due to your minority status.  The other answer here gives good advice insofar as it notes that you can concentrate on output-based issues (e.g., your teaching, research, etc.) and ignore your own personal characteristics if you want to.  On the other hand, ideally you should be able to speak to your actual views on diversity exercises, and you ought be to able to use the statement to mount the anti-diversity-statement argument you have given here.  The very nature of the statement as a political litmus test means that the result of this is unpredictable, and heavily dependent on the ideological and political views of those who read it.  Since your view is that the statement is window-dressing and that what is needed is “structural” change in the university, that would probably put you on the desired side of the ideological divide that the litmus test is designed to elicit (arguably more radically so), so you would be unlikely to face negative repercussions from taking this view; depending on who reads your statement, it might even count as a positive.
One day, perhaps we will all be mature enough to judge an applicant entirely on the quality of their work.  Until that day comes, you may have to resign yourself to being one of the many applicants whose employment prospects hinge on unobserved ideological and political discrimination.  Hopefully this answer is useful to at least help you understand the position you are in.

Update: You might also be interested in this: FIRE statement on the use of DEI criteria in faculty hiring and evaluation.

Not exactly sure if this addresses the question of "how do you feel about submitting diversity statement as a minority applicant"?

Hence the disclaimer/explanation in first paragraph.

@AnonymousM Oddly, this answer is better cited than the other answers that are upvoted and as much or more opinion based than this answer.


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How can I deal with students who try to steer a course (in the online setting)?
I am not a course instructor, but I am a teaching assistant for a large course in STEM in the large US school. I have been soliciting advice from students to improve the course and tutorial for the past some eight months.
However, during this time, I have been dealing with a series of taking students suggestions (or witnessing the instructor taking students suggestions) that "steer" the course, but then regretting it because it made things worse.
For example,

I host tutorials using PowerPoint slides. Students requested en masse that I should post my tutorial slides ahead of time. I followed their suggestion and the tutorial attendance plummeted to around 10 students, down from 80ish and the tutorial interaction disappeared altogether. Now I am basically talking to an empty room.

Students requested that the course problems should be more representative of the course, i.e., they should look like exam questions. The instructor and I decided to put test questions as assignments. Now the students complain that it is too hard and too lengthy. We augmented the questions and made them easier, now the student demand to see the actual exams and solution because now the questions are not the original ones.

This happened in the last semester. Two very vocal students went on week long rants about how hard the course was and how because of COVID-19 and all the stress we need to lower our exam difficulty. We took their advice and made the exams simpler. The course average wind up to be ~95% and those two vocal students were actually the best performing students all along. Even a snail could pass this advanced, highly technical undergraduate level course. The past year average were around 75%.

I have reached the perhaps pessimistic conclusion that

some students don't know what they want

some students just love to complain very loudly, even in anger, knowing that we have to remain placid, professional no matter how bad things get

students don't care about learning, only care about high score on exams. Some students would love it if the entire course was just one guy explaining the solution to all the previous year's exams.

How do we deal with following student suggestions in the online setting? I noticed that due to various online platforms and discussion board we provide them, in addition to semi-anonymity, some students are much more vocal, persistent. The instructors I've worked with are also more likely to give in to this small minority, lower the course standard, and basically getting steered by students into making the course worse.
Obviously I am a TA and my power is limited. But this might be useful for when I become a instructor myself or for other course instructors.

(1) Yes, some of them don't know. They're young. (2) I think you're ascribing too much malice here. Argumentative doesn't mean evil. (3) Of course students care about grades. Grades are important for their future. And everyone's scared their grades are going to suffer because of Covid19. So of course they're lobbying to safeguard their grades. Just because it turned out they did well doesn't mean it was strange for them to lobby. And it doesn't really say anything about whether they care about learning.

I don't see a problem with (1). Some students decided they learn better without being present at the lecture. So what? It's their decision, the exam will show if it was a good one.

I think you should add a 'US' tag - in the European countries where I studied and then taught such demands would be first met with incredulity and afterwards simply ignored. It is probably because we are not customers of our students but we have experience in how to best teach them (which is of course megalomaniac, I am not saying that this is better, just different from the US)

"I have been soliciting advice from students" current students? That's a kick-me sign. 'Meet it with incredulity', aka: learn how to say no. Or read the page length answer below that amounts to winning friends and influencing people.

Regarding the high scores, have you implemented methods to deter and catch cheating online?  Last semester, I tried to administer exams so that cheating was minimal, but I also had to report a large number of students for copying homework solutions throughout the semester.

I've had profs whose policy it was to make homework harder than exams, because you only have so much time to spend on an exam, so naturally people won't be able to solve the same kinds of problems in a shorter amount of time; it'd be unreasonable to expect otherwise. I've also had profs whose policy it was to make exams harder than homework, because, well, it needs to gauge and differentiate the level of mastery between different students, and that requires it to be harder. So what's the right way? Idk, whatever floats your boat. I was fine with either, but both approaches got complaints...

I have had teachers tell me they don't provide answers to the questions because then nobody would come to class. The class then consisted of them reading the answers and us writing them down. So I have really strong feelings about the first point on your list. Attendance is not a sufficient sign of a good course.

As for point (2) regarding the difficulty level of the Homeworks, a general rule of thumb is to have approximately 70% of the assignment to be of 'standard' difficulty level, and then the remaining 30% to be of 'exam standard'. This way, a variety of student capabilities are catered for.

Make your lectures better and more interesting than what the students get from just reading the slides.  How much does your presentation add at the moment?

@ObscureOwl Your comment could be well expanded into an answer ;-)

The game is: you listen, but then, you decide. Just because students don't like something, you do not have to do what they ask. Check whether what they say has merit, if so, you can promise to change for next year (or for the current if there is enough flexibility).
Well-designed courses often cannot be massively adapted on the fly. I always explain to students my rationale about unpleasant things, and I do that upfront (very important!). If you have no rationale, it means you have no good reason to do it the way you do and you should strongly consider to change it.
Note that giving in to every whim of your students is the surest way to lose respect. I am considered strict, but make sure I find out what students need, not what they want. And I practically always explain my rationale. I most certainly not always do what they ask, but I take it into account where it makes sense and they always get an insight of my decision process.
Most react well to that. If someone complains, I give them one opportunity, tell them I will decide whether I take it aboard, but then close the discussion. They have had their input, I will contemplate it, and apply either in that round or in the next years' one. Once the decision is made (which needs to be balanced and fair), you thank them for their input, but the discussion is closed.
In your case:

If absence damages the learning, revert to not giving out the slides, and explain why. However, if you are simply piqued by them not attending while the performance is fine, let it go. Ego has no place in the consideration. Alternatively, if they can pick up everything from the slides, maybe the latter are too detailed, or the course is too easy. Which of these is it?

Don't make the homework questions easier. Keep them hard and explain to them why. I mean, they need to have a chance of solving them (it shouldn't be impossible), but it needs to be a challenge. They will initially complain, but as they get better, they will start understanding why this is university and not just a continuation of high school. They should be harder than exam questions, as in an exam you have limited time. However, lengthy homework is not always desirable, there can be short, hard questions. You do not want to waste their time for hours with tediosity, you want them to learn.

Because of Covid, you could easily argue, the exams need to be harder, not easier. As they are carried out at home, they can be given access to material they can not access in class. This makes it possible to crank up the difficulty. Their argument works against them.

People react to what works. If you give in into any request made, not only they know they can play you, but they perceive you as inconsistent, and the situation will become increasingly worse. When you make clear how inputs are treated and how you will work with them, usually people respond well. Make clear that ranting, and emotional complaints or pressure will not cause you to change your opinion, but only rational arguments have a chance to do so. Make sure you yourself know that, that will reflect back implicitly to your students.
You set the ground rules early, and stick to them. It may be difficult for people who strive to be liked, but if a teacher blows like a leaf in the wind, few will like them, and none will respect them. On the other hand, some people are just randomly strict without rationale ("because I said so"); make sure you do not fall into that trap, either, by always considering an argument and understanding why you dismiss it.

Thanks. Maybe this is what I needed to hear. I agree that the slides need not be too detailed to encourage attendance. However I doubt this solves everything because these tutorials are recorded anyways for people in different time zones. So I think the students simply will just watch it a their own convenience. I don't think there is a way to resolve this challenge.

@SanjayGupta If you have different time zones, then be kind. Not everyone has the same body clock and being remote means being detached. What you can do is to give "added value" to your presentations by encouraging questions or giving extra advice.

You should be aware that some people absolutely need slides in advance, particularly those with learning difficulties. We are required to supply all learning materials ahead of to those with a "Learning Support Plan". While this is not specifically a legal requirement, there is a legal requirement to make courses accessible to disabled people, then the disablity office has ruled that thats what this means. In the end there were so many students that it became administratively impossible to just provide to those, so we provide to everyone.

To a certain extent, if they then choose to not attend, or only watch the recordings, that's their problem and their loss.

@SanjayGupta: Captain Emacs' point is that the instructor has to resolve this challenge by not being a pushover. From your question, it seems that the stated instructor just did what they want. That is not the way; you should do what you think is best, after taking into account their difficulties, not their whims and fancies, and doing so in as fair a manner as you believe possible, not only fair among students of that cohort but also fair to students of other cohorts.

@IanSudbery or their win. had one lecture recorded back in my day and that model was great, because I could rewatch the pieces I had problems with over and over until I got what was going on and skip over those I already knew or watch the (to me) easy stuff while having lunch. Only reason to go to the lecture was to see if I get into topics quickly enough to ask questions then and there, which at that lecture never worked because I needed time to warp my head around the content (was certainly not my strongest area^^). So saving the time to not go there typically was an improvement.

@IanSudbery Could still be improved. I find it weird now, people already need to work async due to  covid, but still try to go with the teaching models used for a necessarily synchronous context. Like why the heck are online meetings one person talking one-direction, when that part can be a video or slides or whatever too that anyone watches when they have the best time and the best mindset to do - and the synchronous time is then used for actual interaction rather than one-sided waterfall teaching, you know to ask the questions that are still unclear after waterboarding the recorded part.

great answer, I once had a tutor job where I learned that lesson. Tried way too much to read something reasonable into exercise answers, give students leeway as a way of being nice or skip discussing an exercise because someone asked to and I thought they all had gotten it somewhat right so why not; while some felt that was nice and easy going, some of them noticed and from them I got a "terrible tutor" feedback at the end because they missed important pieces or thought they got something right when they didn't. lesson learned.

@Frank Hopkins: I think there is some studies out their that show that students don't perform as well if they only watch the recordings and don't attend. Not necessarily true for every student, but on average. *There could be many reasons for this but some might be: Students try to "binge watch" the lectures just before the exam. *Online attension spans are shorter than IRL. All the videos we produce for this years async teaching are to be no longer than 20mins. *A good lecture is more than just someone standing at the front talking.  It should be an interactive 2-way thing.

@IanSudbery agree on the 2-way thing but rarely seen it (aside from sight contact). And yes, recently saw a nice talk by a teacher about this. Indeed face contract can have quite some influence, but part of that gets lost either way in an online meeting, especially when viewers have their cams switched off (but also with on as the reaction time and visibility is quite different). Mainly saying I see a lot of reluctance to adapt the teaching style to the medium.

Oh I completely agree about that. We do about 2/3 of our teaching prerecorded and the third of teaching that is synchronous is not supposed to be about delivery of material in a "traditional" didactic manner.

Your aim is to help educate better, in broad terms. So you need to look at everything in a class, primarily through that lens.
What will help students best gain from the course? Is this going to help students become competent at the required material? That sort of thing.
What you're doing now, is more "of they want it and it doesn't sound too awful, sure, be helpful by giving what's asked for".  You now know that some things work,some don't, and much more importantly, you now know the consequences/payoffs for your primary aim, of doing those 4 or so things.
That's inevitable. Trial and error,learning by doing, voice of experience... You have to try things, within limits, to see what happens. Watch for the rich learnings.
Be prepared to be surprised, too. Your PowerPoint thing... Attendance dropped. But if they only needed the PowerPoint slides and mastered the work, then you've discovered that in some cases that's actually what they need - they can use the time to study the presentation. Or perhaps they didn't... in which case take corrective action. "That didn't seem to work, but it was interesting to try. How did you all find it?"  And maybe next time "that doesn't work well in practice for all students, so I'm going to give them out after." Again, learn.
As a professional everything educates you as well. Let it do so. Over time you'll figure what works and doesn't,but you'll always learn new things.

This answer is based out of my own experience as a teaching assistant.
I didn't do much to respond to complaints because I'm a TA, not the professor. Since this is the professor's course, I defer to them when things like this happen (they generally have better decisions). I also generally feel that I'm not the one to set the rules; the professor is.
Students also don't argue when they know this is the professor's policy and not mine. If they dislike the policy, I recommend them trying to discuss it with the professor and not to argue with me. If I happen to dislike the policy, I just go on with it for the semester. After all, my responsibilities are to help the professor on this course, not to deliver knowledge on my own.
Regarding homework vs. exam: So far, my professors have been assigning equal difficulty for homework and exams, i.e. if both are worked on under no time-limit, both have roughly the same idea. The catch is, exams have very limited time as opposed to homework, and in itself it already makes exams harder than homework.

In hindsight, I know this answer does not represent the case where the professor simply says it's up to TA to decide the best for assistance sessions. Frankly I've never been in that position.

This is mostly the instructor's problem.

I host tutorials using power point slides.

You're using a non-interactive teaching technique.  That's not very helpful to students.

tutorial interaction disappeared altogether

The instructor should have required tutorials to be interactive, and that interaction should contribute to student's grades.  Then they would show up and interact.

Students requested that the course problems ... should look like exam questions.

If the exams are well designed, then the students are right.

Now the students complain that it is too hard and too lengthy.

Course difficulty should be determined by a consensus in your discipline.  You don't control that and neither do your students.  Explain to them why it is hard.

some students just love to complain very loudly, even in anger

Teach appropriate classroom behavior.  Teach constructive feedback.

Thanks. It is tough to be interactive in the online setting with only a few students that you can't see. I have no idea if they are even paying attention. I sometimes pause and ask them questions and no one answers and it becomes super awkward.

If you were talking and showing power point slides in person, they would not be paying attention.  Why would it be different online?  Use graded, interactive activities.  This isn't the TAs responsibility to manage.

Using power point slides does make things necessary non-interactive.

@Daniel Hatton Ooops, yes, should have said "Using powerpoint slides does  not necessarily make things non-interactive."

@SanjayGupta One way interactivity worked for me in an online setting (where most/all students have their cameras and mics turned off) was to tell them I expect their answers in the chat, and start them with small questions (a-b-c questions or fill-one-term) to get them warmed up. It also helps that the chat is not recorded while the lesson is. Oh, and it is awkward -- get over it :) I have a big, massive mug of tea on my desk almost solely for the purpose of staring at it's depths and sipping it while waiting for answers; and I make sure to give them at least 2 minutes before giving hints

What will be most useful for them going forwards?
Ultimately the test of any change is whether it helps the students learn the subject. Your course is not an island to itself - as an undergraduate program, it's delivering essential skills that will let your students become professional engineers/scientists. If they haven't learnt this, they will fail to progress further on their courses. Or perhaps worse, they will arrive in industry unable to do their jobs; and if this looks like a pattern then word will go round industry to avoid hiring people from your school, and then students will stop coming, and then your department gets shut down.
Slides available? Honestly, I've had lecturers who could have been replaced by a speak-and-spell, and the teaching would have improved. So that's a definite question mark.
Course exercises? I'm rather worried that the instructor doesn't know how to pitch coursework so that it assesses what students have just been taught. This indicates either complete inexperience or profound incompetence from the instructor. It very much sounds like the instructor needs mentoring from senior members of the department.
Making the exams easier though? Hard nope. If the exam can't show that the student is competent enough to continue, or (for a final exam) to show what grade they deserve for their degree, this is every kind of wrong. The instructor needs a PIP right now.

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How to get IEEE promotion code
I want to join IEEE community by purchasing IEEE student membership. On the check-out page there is a field for entering promotion code which offers discount. How can I receive a promotion code?

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Citing multiple works of same author at different positions in one sentence in APA 7 style
A sentence has to mention the author's name and cite two specific works of the author. Which version is correct in APA 7?

Cardon et al. were able to demonstrate in two studies that executive
functions are particularly strongly associated with abilities in
mathematical modeling (2009) and problem-solving (2019).
Cardon et al. (2009, 2019) were able to demonstrate in two studies
that executive functions are particularly strongly associated with
abilities in mathematical modeling (2009) and problem-solving
(2019).
Cardon et al. were able to demonstrate in two studies that executive functions are particularly strongly associated with abilities in
mathematical modeling (Cardon et al., 2009) and problem-solving
(Cardon et al., 2019).
Cardon et al. (2009, 2019) were able to demonstrate in two studies that executive functions are particularly strongly associated with abilities in
mathematical modeling (Cardon et al., 2009) and problem-solving
(Cardon et al., 2019).

A colleague told me to go with #4, but this seems a little much.

Either

Executive functions are particularly strongly associated with abilities in mathematical modeling and problem-solving (Cardon et al. 2009, 2019).

or, if you insist that the name appears in the main text and not in parentheses,

Cardon et al. (2009, 2019) showed that executive functions are particularly strongly associated with abilities in mathematical modeling and problem-solving.

You don't need to say "two studies" as that is obvious from the number of citations. You can also save some words by saying "showed" instead of "were able to demonstrate."

I agree "two studies" isn't necessary, but many papers report multiple studies; and a "single study" can often be reported in multiple papers.

In APA 7, I have never seen a stranded year-only citation, #1 and #2 look like errors to me. I agree with toby544's first suggestion, or if I wanted to mention the authors, I would consider (also including Toby's suggestions about word choice):

Cardon and colleagues [demonstrated] executive functions are particularly strongly associated with abilities in mathematical modeling (Cardon et al., 2009) and problem-solving (Cardon et al., 2019).

Coauthors are not necessarily colleagues, so I'd tend to prefer "Cardon and collaborators".

@Anyon I think this is really fine hair splitting, but I agree "collaborators" is also acceptable.

I'd accept any of the above, as it's clear which citations are relevant to which parts of the text. Generally, reference nuances like this have no impact on outcome, whether this is for publishing or an academic submission. Indeed, for the former, they have a team who will reformat anyway.


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If I accept and defer a PhD offer, should I comply with the April 15th agreement for this year, or next year?
I got PhD offers from a few US universities this year, and I've been deciding between two of them. I needed to defer my start date to the next year, so I asked both departments. University A deferred my admission (so I'm already admitted for the next year), but University B deferred my offer, but I should accept it now, if I want it deferred.
Question:  If I accept Uni B's offer and defer it, will I be required to comply by the terms of April 15th agreement as if I've accepted an offer next year, or as if I accept one this year? I mean, if I decide to take Uni A's offer next year, can I just withdraw my acceptance of B's offer next year and simply accept A's offer (as if I'd been given the offer that year and accepted but changed my mind before April 15th), or will I need a release letter from B?
I'm more inclined to Uni A, but they deferred my admission without guaranteed funding. They say every PhD student there is funded for the duration of the PhD, but since only my admission is deferred and not my financial package, it is possible (not likely) that they won't offer me a financial package next year. Uni B though, deferred the exact same offer, with guaranteed funding, but asked me to accept my offer this year. I don't know if I can do that, but take A's offer next year.

I think the title question is irrelevant.  Once you accept an offer, you should not "resign" even if the April 15 agreement says you can.  I'd suggest you pick your preferred institution.  Consult recent graduates about the financial situation before you pick.

https://cgsnet.org/ckfinder/userfiles/files/CGSResolution_Nov2019Revision.pdf

@AnonymousPhysicist The question is whether accepting a deferred offer this year is just like accepting a new offer next year, or not. If I accept an offer, I can change my decision before April 15th, right? Why shouldn't I?

https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/66377/what-is-the-xy-problem  Resigning after accepting an offer is dishonest and unnecessary.

I posted a late answer to get this one off of our backlog. I also edited out "question 2", as that has been answered ad nauseum on this site, see for example Accepting a graduate offer of admission and then turning it down.

The April 15th Agreement simply says that:

students have to inform their programs if they want to renege on an accepted offer after 15 April (no "ghosting");
programs cannot force a student to accept an offer before April 15;
"the conditions affecting such offers and their acceptance must be defined carefully and understood by all parties"

As you see, the April 15 agreement has nothing explicit to say about deferred offers. But it doesn't really matter, because the April 15 agreement allows you to rescind your acceptance at any time so long as you inform the program (which you would hopefully have done anyway).  There is no need to obtain a "release letter"; these were phased out before the Fall 2020 admission season.


text:
Should I take an S/NS grade during COVID19 if I want to go to grad school?
I am currently a graduating senior. The course in question is within my department, but will count as an elective (since I have already met the requirements, I just took this class for the experience). This class ended up being way harder than I anticipated, and online learning turned out to be more of a challenge than I expected. My current overall gpa is a 3.8, and my departmental gpa is a 3.96. I anticipate getting a B in the class, a C+ at the lowest. However, a B or C+ would prevent me from getting cum laude (which I would get otherwise), and would tank my departmental gpa. My question is, will taking this class S/NS be a disaster for PhD program admissions, especially since it is within my department, or will exceptions be made for Spring 2020 given current events? I am weighing the benefits of graduating with cum laude and a high gpa against the damage of having an S/NS grade.
More details as requested:

I have to register for S/NS now but can switch back to a letter grade later if I wish. I have access to all my scores so if I end up doing much better than I anticipated I could take the letter grade.
The class is only made up of 3 test scores (which are hard and difficult to gauge my performance before getting graded) so my fear is that one of them will tank my average.
S/NS means satisfactory / not satisfactory.

Do you have to decide now? Maybe you do, but if possible I'd recommend first seeing what grade you actually earned. In my experience, students' guesses are not always reliable.

@academic You can't choose S/NS after knowing your grade, since it would be kinda counterproductive. Of course, schools vary in how far into the semester you can pick (especially now), so one might have a better guess later.

At my university (a large state university in the US), the policy is explicitly that you are allowed to choose after the end of the semester. This isn't usual policy, just this semester because of Covid-19. (Whether the same is true of OP's university I don't know.)

Your country? And what is S/NS?

And why would this S/NS (is this the same as pass/fail?) be a diaaster for graduate admissions?

@academic: and my uni does not change anythinf wrt grading. But why is your comment relevant?

Please add a country tag.

No one can predict how it will play out as the world of academia, as elsewhere, is in a bit of chaos now. I expect, however, that most people will be understanding of such things. They will need to be, in general, since a few universities are only "grading" students on that basis for now.
But, I doubt that it matters very much which way you jump. Your description of the course indicates it would not be a major determinant of anything in your future. If you take the grade and are asked in the future, I think your description here would be fine, especially if you are doing well in other, more important, courses.
That said, cum laude will be nice to think on thirty years from now.

As you seem to understand the question: Is S/NS the same as fail/pass?


text:
Is tertiary education free of cost in Spain and Portugal?
I know that in some EU countries tertiary education is absolutely free (i.e., supported entirely by taxes) if someone knows the languages up to C2 level.
For instance, I know that irrespective of country of origin (EU or Non-EU) tertiary education is 100% free of cost in Germany and Poland if someone is proficient in the native language of those counties up to C2 level.
Is tertiary education free of cost in Portugal and Spain if someone is proficient in the languages of those countries?

I have some friends living in Spain and from personal anecdotes it isn't free, but the cost of tuition is very affordable, something like a few thousands euros per year. I'm going to leave it as a comment rather than an answer since it isn't a first hands experience and I don't want to look up info by my own.

"I know that irrespective of country of origin (EU or Non-EU) tertiary education is 100% free of cost in Germany [...] if someone is proficient in the native language of those counties up to C2 level." - still wrong. In many places in Germany you pay "Studiengebuehren" (study fees), independent of language skills or nationality.

No it's not.
You always have tuition fees, which in absolute term may seems negligible (between 1 and 2 thousands euro per year), but it can be a relevant chunk of a family income, considering the average salary being in the 700-900 euro range for most of the people living outside the major, rich, urban zones (Madrid-Valencia-Barcelona-Lisbon-Oporto, to name the largest).
Specifically to Portugal, there is a rule[1] the Ministry of Education establishes a minimum amount that varies each year depending on the minimum national wage rate.
According to Portuguese regulations, the minimum amount of tuition fees students are required to pay is 1.3 times the minimum national wage rate. For the year, 2010, the minimum national wage rate amounted to 475 EUR per month.
For upper education (like Ph.D enrollment) in Portugal the tuition fees may reach easily 2-3000 Euro.
[1] rather absurd, in my opinion Art. 16, comma 2 https://dre.pt/web/guest/legislacao-consolidada/-/lc/107958193/201708090100/73459622/diploma/indice


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How to approach a student with bad hygiene?
I teach engineering at a community college in the US. I currently have a student with very poor hygiene. He stinks pretty badly, has obviously greasy hair, doesn’t change his clothes frequently, and I usually seat him in the back of the room (during exams and labs, when I have power over seating arrangements) so I don’t have to smell his (relatively strong) body odor.
This student has also spoken with a colleague of mine about his low self-esteem. He’s worried that he isn’t making friends, and doesn’t know if the people he hangs out with are hanging out with him because they want something from him (help with classwork) or because they are truly friends.
In my opinion, this student follows me around like a puppy, and he tries too hard to impress people (students and faculty alike). I am a young-ish female faculty member and I try to create very large boundaries, especially with my male students. As an example, he frequently finds the need to explain to me (in way too much detail) why he gets questions wrong on exams (I don’t care, and I don’t need to know, which I’ve told him several times with no success). He also hangs around after labs (even if he finishes early) and always wants to walk with me to my office. I have had to tell him very explicitly (he doesn't take subtle clues) to leave labs when he finishes and that I like to walk to my office alone. I am not sure whether he does this with other professors.
So, I would like to mention to this student that his hygiene is off-putting and isn’t helping him out in the friends department. However, because he already follows me around like a puppy dog, I don’t want to encourage any more interaction from him. Additionally, it frankly embarrasses me to have to bring up hygiene issues with somebody in their late teens / early twenties. How can I bring this issue up while still maintaining my boundary as a female faculty member who doesn’t want her male students following her around and asking her for advice all the time?
I was hoping that I would be finished up with this student by now, but I am the only professor who teaches Electrical Engineering courses, so I can’t recommend that he take classes with someone else, or ask another colleague to discuss this with him. He will be taking another of my courses next semester and I don’t personally know any of his other intended professors for next semester to ask them to bring it up.

Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.

Related at Workplace.SE: How should I approach a co-worker on matters of personal hygiene?

Is there a student code of conduct that he needs to adhere to? I’d expect so and I’d also expect there’d be some scope in there for this sort of problem. There must be a section on “Personal responsibility”. These are often worded with “Including but limited to… ” and I think most people would agree that coming to class in the state you describe is a blatant dereliction of at least one of the most fundamental responsibilities i.e. personal hygiene

I think honesty is the best policy.
We had a pupil at school who also had a really bad hygiene issue, his body odor was horrendous. As an example, once another pupil squirted yogurt at him and it got in his hair, it was still there days later!
It turned out he had no sense of smell. A teacher noticed the problem and told him directly 'I think you have a bit of a body odor problem, most people shower every other day' Or words to those effect.
It turned out that he was actually grateful (after the initial embarrassment of course) and to this day his friend will gently remind him if he is a bit smelly.
If you feel a bit uncomfortable saying it directly maybe you could try to find out more about his home life. Surely his parents would tell him to shower more?
There could be a benefit on both sides if you tell him directly, it may make it clearer that you are his teacher and he is the pupil, it will probably reinstate some boundaries and reduce/stop the unwanted interaction.
Obviously I don't recommend saying it in front of anyone and I can see a problem with you calling him into your office alone, but there is bound to be a time when you happen to be alone together such as after class or something. Or you could wait until he brings up the subject about having low self-esteem, you could also have this conversation with your colleague who has previously spoke to him and maybe they could broach the subject with him. But as said above by having the conversation yourself you may eliminate any romantic feelings and reinstate the teacher-pupil relationship.
Also you have to remember that your role as a teacher is to make sure you give every pupil all you can for them to succeed. His poor hygiene is in no doubt holding him back and will do so in the future; can you imagine if he turned up to a interview like this? If he was struggling in class or under-performing on his projects you would pull him to one side and have a word with him, so pulling him to one side and having a word about his hygiene/odor is really no different when you get over the initial embarrassment.

Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.

In your position, I wouldn't bring it up.
The only appropriate way to approach a personal issue such as this involves building a personal relationship with the student, which you are trying to avoid. Even if you are able to bring it up in a way that the student takes well, it will make him feel he has established a connection with you. If it needs to be mentioned, you should find someone else who can talk to him.

I don't agree that this is an issue so personal it can only be addressed through a personal relationship. Such an extreme lack of personal hygiene is just plain rude to the people around you, and I don't see an issue of being up front about this. Though I understand that some people might not be comfortable being this direct with someone.

@LasseMeyer If I'm disgusted by overweight people, can I ask them to lose weight? I mean, that would certainly be in the interest of their health. It would also be in the interest of the people around them, considering that, in all honesty, slim people are nicer to look at than not-so-slim peole. Similarly, if I'm disgusted by smokers, can I ask them to stop smoking? I mean, surely smoking is unhygienic.

Yes, for some people the analogy might hold. @Pharap But an analogy that's about edge cases is not an analogy. I've deleted my comment, though, because it was over the top.

@MathematicsStudent1122 I think it is important to note that smokers know they smoke, fat people know they are overweight. But most people are unaware of how they smell, and the remedy is easier than quitting smoking or losing weight. So you're not telling/asking him not to stink, you're informing him so he may remedy it.

I think it is fine to tell students not to smoke in the classroom.

How can I bring this issue up while still maintaining my boundary as a female faculty member who doesn’t want her male students following her around and asking her for advice all the time?

I don't think that you can...because what you're wanting to do is cross a major boundary (discussing personal hygiene in private) and maintain a large boundary with someone who has boundary issues (following you like a puppy). You can't have it both ways.
As a woman, I can attest that our gender is taught to protect men's feelings from being hurt at all costs. That's why it's so hard to reject a man who we don't want to deal with, for whatever reason. We come up with all sorts of excuses because being direct makes us a nasty word, and we don't want to be perceived as a You-Know-What. You will have to set that aside and be direct in your communications with this student, and PLEASE do not invite him to speak privately. If he can't pick up on normal social cues, DO NOT invite him to be alone with you! I wish we lived in a perfect world where you don't have to worry about having your good intentions being taken the wrong way, but we don't live in that world. If I had a dollar for every time a guy misunderstood my friendly smile as being DTF, I'd be a millionaire by now. Don't most schools let you communicate with students via campus email? Why can't you send an email to him saying other students have complained that they can't focus because of the smell, and explain that most people shower every other day? Keep your note brief and to-the-point.
Maybe he does have no sense of smell. It's called anosmia. It's hereditary, so maybe his family is the same. My brother has this disorder, inherited from my grandpa. When my folks came to visit his dorm for the first time, they about died from the overwhelming stench of rotting chicken wings and moldy potatoes. My brother is incredibly smart and a sharp wit, but he didn't have a clue how bad old garbage smelled until he was told. Now he knows to take it out regularly. If the smell is that bad, try the email. If you want to follow up, do it in a hallway or courtyard, where other people are around but in the background. Of course you'll hurt his feelings, but he needs to learn this fundamental life lesson. Sometimes lessons are painful. You're doing him a huge favor by EDUCATING your student. One day he may even thank you.
Also, if you don't want him following you around like a puppy, then you will have to "use your words" and say so. Every time you let him do this, you're reinforcing the message that it's okay to follow women around. It's NOT okay. It's borderline creeper/stalker behavior.
Be firm. Be direct. Be safe. I wish you much luck in this!

I have a very close friend who has anosmia. He was fortunately diagnosed early and he knew he would not be able to know wheather he stinks or not. The solution in his case is not rocket science: he anticipates this by over-showering, carefully applying deodorant and perfume (but not too much) and changing clothes more often than others would do. And asking me if he is OK :) His wife now took over from me.

-1 It was going so well until "our gender is taught to protect men's feelings from being hurt at all costs.". This is not a gender issue, gender does not factor into the equation.

@Pharap In the current of society, of course it is. Sadly, gender factors in every equation.

@Evpok A) Which society? B) How exactly would this situation be different if the genders were switched?

Downvoted for the first sentence. If the student's body odor is interfering with the other students' attention to the class, it is no longer a personal hygiene issue.  Asking the student to shower and change his clothes before returning to class is setting a boundary, not crossing one.

Downvoted because this answer smells so much neo-feminism. And contains so many (imho) wrong advices and biases. Such as it's [not] okay to follow women around, and Be firm. Be direct. Be safe. This is not a war or a fight for all womankind. Rather, a situation where genders are irrelevant and has to be solved without mentioning them.

“We come up with all sorts of excuses because being direct makes us a nasty word” WHAT.

@AndreaLazzarotto Study after study have shown that women who are as direct as men in the workplace are viewed (by men and women) as being aggressive.  "Nasty word" is a euphemism for "bitch".

Normally my advice would be identical to Buffy’s, to simply talk to the student. At least, I would have liked to think that we live in a world where that would be the correct, and obvious, answer to the question. However, the reality is that in today’s culture there is a great deal of sensitivity about certain topics, such that when a college instructor makes a comment to a student about those topics, the result may be unpredictable.* This is particularly true in matters relating to personal appearance and behavior, even more so when other factors like gender, race, mental health, disability status and perhaps other things get dragged into the discussion (which may end up happening whether or not you think it ought to), and even more so when the parties involved are of unknown temperament, sound like they may not be the most sensible people around, and cannot be counted on to react in a reasonable fashion even to the most benign and well-intentioned of approaches.
Considering all that, given your situation I should think that it would be a trivial matter to go to your department’s staff and/or faculty administrators such as the vice-chair or chair, and ask for suggestions how to proceed. Make it clear to them that the situation is untenable and that the student’s hygiene problem is impinging on your other students’ rights to benefit from a physically safe and healthy educational environment while attending your class, so that you feel that some action must be taken. And do not worry about being a busybody or wasting their time - this is indeed a tricky situation and it is perfectly reasonable even for a very experienced instructor to wonder how to respond and seek advice.
Finally, if your administrators suggest that you talk to the student — which is after all the obvious, and probably necessary, solution — well, then, at least you will be able to say that you followed the advice of officialdom rather than strangers on the internet, should your friendly suggestion to the student end up being ill-received.

*
Many discussions right here on academia.se, among other things, have opened my eyes to this reality - one memorable one involved an instructor wondering how to respond to a female student coming to class in a bikini top, if I remember correctly. I remember being rather taken aback by the diversity of opinions on what should be done in such a scenario, as well as by the judgmental tone of some of those opinions.

I agree. TLDR: Talk to them, but ask your supervisors/admins what to do first. This moves blame to them if things go poorly.

Rather than or in addition to talking the the chair, consider talking to the office of student affairs or dean of students or similar title.  They have people who deal with these problems every day. Recently I heard about a situation where a student smelled bad and it turned out that the water in the family's home had been turned off so they could not wash themselves or their clothes. You do not know what the complexities might be and you many not be equipped to handle them.

Bikini top :)  LOL

This is a comment. It is grotesque that straightforward matters of interpersonal good manners need to be elevated to the faculty head in a university. If I were a faculty head, admittedly an unlikely contingency, but I have been the chief executive of a large institution, I would be inclined to say that one of the reasons I pay you so much is that I expect you to sort out such issues without running to me every time you feel scared.

Your choices are to do something or not.  It's possible you could pass the problem off to someone else but from the sound of it, there's no one available who knows the student better.
Personally, I would ask to speak to him privately in your office, ask permission to discuss a personal concern unrelated to his performance.  Make clear that you're worried the topic might seem intrusive, that you care about your students and they problems they may be facing and mean for the conversation to be helpful to his future career success and that you're prepared to apologize if the student feels you've crossed a boundary.  If he agrees to have the conversation, tell him what you've observed then reiterate that you care about your students and that if he feels you've crossed a boundary, that you understand and apologize and will not bring it up again.  It's possible the student is homeless and doing his best.

He's definitely not homeless, but thanks for the advice.

Asking a student with boundary and clinging issues to come for private office hours, then leading with "I want to talk about a private matter..." seems like a very bad strategy.

So what's your answer and why is mine a "very bad strategy"?  You don't think my strategy will solve the problem and help the student?  Instructors have to be able to give useful, at times negative feedback that students may not want to hear.  This isn't the usual topic but I don't see that as a reason to shy from providing information that could benefit the student.

@Nicole I think it's a good strategy but the phrasing of how you'd ask to see the student about a "very private matter" could be misconstrued as being some kind of romantic interest (especially for a student with possibly limited social skills). Maybe it'd be better if lemontwist asked to see the student in a way that made it explicitly clear that it was as a teacher (and nothing more). Maybe even with another teacher.

@Jam I think that any possible misconception of a romantic interest could last for about two seconds once the actual conversation starts and he learns the concern is his poor hygiene.  In any event, I don't believe that's a good reason to avoid having an uncomfortable conversation the student needs to hear.

I think the point is to look for a phrasing that can't get his hopes up, saving him some discomfort, and so he doesn't show up at this meeting with hopes he wouldn't have had before, because the time between invitation and meeting isn't 2 seconds.  e.g. "I want to talk about something kind of awkward".  Avoid the words "personal" or "private" until you're already talking about hygiene

There’s always a risk of a “private” meeting with a student, especially today, when accusations of sexual misconduct are common.  But if counseling is part of the job …

@NicoleHamilton: I believe your approach is nice for the student, by helping him with a non-work related problem which is going to severely impact him in the future. This is a nice thing to do. Now: I also agree with the other comments - telling to someone with poor social skills you need to speak about "private matters" will not be good. He is very likely to expect something around relationships (more or less romantic) as he already acts as a puppy.

@NicoleHamilton ... Again, it is just the initial approach which must be very well weighted in order not to have in first very much surprised and dissapointed, and then in the defensive -- which can just flop the whole counceling thing.

+1 I'm surprised nobody else had considered the possibility that he's homeless. I wouldn't agree that taking the student aside is a bad idea, but I agree with @Jeff's concerns about the wording but only because the OP's description of the person implies that he's perhaps a bit naive (though I also suspect that might be an exaggerated perspective, introverts are often misunderstood). I would hope that most people wouldn't assume that their teacher was making 'an advance' on them, even with a very small age gap, since teachers and students having relationships is widely recognised as taboo.

@lemontwist How exactly are you certain that the student isn't homeless?

@Pharap I overhear his conversations with other students and have heard him talk about how something was recently stolen from his home and his dad is blaming him for it.

@lemontwist That might also be consistent with having been kicked out.

@PeterCordes “I want to talk about something kind of awkward” I would be quite worried if a teacher asked me to talk about “something kind of awkward”.

@Pharap, does your statement in parentheses mean you are assuming the student is introvert? Or did I misunderstand?

@AndreaLazzarotto I am assuming based on the OP's description: "This student has also spoken with a colleague of mine about his low self-esteem. He’s worried that he isn’t making friends, and doesn’t know if the people he hangs out with are hanging out with him because they want something from him (help with classwork) or because they are truly friends." Low self-esteem issues and worrying about not making friends often goes hand in hand with being quiet and/or introverted. (Not that all or even most introverts have those issues, but people who have those issues are often introverts.)

@Pharap ah alright, it makes sense. I initially though you associated an introvert hypothesis with the smell part. Now I understand what you meant.

@lemontwist - clearly something messed up family wise is going on with him - dad accuses him of stealing?? Doesnt the university have some type of support, counselling etc? I get the feeling the body odour is simply one of probably many symptoms... this seems like there are issues there for a professional. I think you should speak with the college counsellor/pastoral care/support about how to handle this, and ensure the student ends up with them and gets professional help.

@S.Diaxo agreed. I will have a talk with our counseling center when the semester commences in January.

We had a student like this who turned out to be homeless and living out of his car. We managed to convince the recreation department to give him a gym pass so that he could use their showers.
Broaching this subject is extremely difficult, however, especially to protect his dignity and human rights.

In the case that it is that the student does not have access to a shower, actually everything becomes a lot easier, particularly if the uni has many showers e.g. for bike commuters.
One just finds some excuse to include a slide at the start of a lecture talking about campus facilities that students might not realize exist.
There are always lots of facilities most people don't know about (at least that is my experience).
And just so happen to include a list of locations where there are showers on campus.

This answer was written assuming that the student is not a fringe case, i.e. in need of medical help, and that he trusts you in a mentor capacity as seems to be the case from your description.
You've got to be brave enough to tell him. In a class, tell him in a discreet way, so as not to embarrass him, that you would like to have a serious conversation about his student duties (or something similar, but don't forget to put the tonic/stress on the formal content of the conversation) after class ends. If possible, I would have that conversation right there in that empty room, which is somewhere rather impersonal, so that he has less chance to think otherwise.
I would start the conversation by saying that what I'm about to tell him I think it's due to my role as a teacher and a fellow human being. Because I'm worried about the fulfilment of his potential as a student and a social being, and in no way you mean any disrespect. Use formal expressions, the more formal the better, but balance that formality by expressing your concern for his well-being and success as a student, and be gentle/calm.
Start by saying that the dignity of human life is not measured by how productive one is, how many things/friends we have, or by how talented someone is. Regardless of how we look, perform, or own, each human person has to be respected and respect others. Despite any flaws that we may have our dignity does not suffer with that.
[Side note: your expression «follows me around like a puppy» may indicate of how far and foreign you see him. For a truly compassionate approach to work, you must also work on yourself to see your student not as simply a flawed individual, but as someone equal to you. He's your fellow. He's a human being, just like you, someone's son. Overcome that feeling of repulsiveness you most likely have not by denying it, but by understanding in that person's background there might be some traumatic episodes that resulted in the person he now is. 'Embrace' the person, not the flaw.]
Now tell him, what you're about to say should not be interpreted as something mean, or intended to be harmful, but that it will certainly feel like it, and nevertheless he should be ready to hear it. Wait a moment for this to sink in his mind. Let a few seconds pass. His facial expression should have changed by now... If his standing, ask him to seat down (shows concern), and reiterate that what you'll say is only due to concern as a teacher, nothing more or less. Ask him if he trusts you in this regard? He mostly likely say yes. (if he says no, see the 1st line of this whole text)
Now for the hard part.
Tell him that in your professional interactions with him, his smell has been an issue. Don't say that he smells bad. Let him make that inference... if he's not capable, then say it. Ask him if he is having some financial problems. Do it, even if you think he hasn't any. The purpose of this is to ease him a bit, since he will most likely take this personally... by opening the chance of the cause of this hygiene problem to not be him, you're giving him an escape route to save his face...
If he cries, give him some tissue paper (bring some in advance).
On the not so off chance that he gets angry at you (most likely because he's angry at himself and the world), don't lose composure or calmness. Don't overreact. Try to be understanding and gentle, and still be formal. It could be expected of him to say some hurtful things, but don't take them seriously. You need to be stronger than that.

The paragraph containing "He's a human being, just like you" is a lovely and empathetic reminder of shared humanity, and the open-hearted approach you suggest could be a wonderful approach provided that the other person can be relied upon to return the favor and respect one's boundaries. Unfortunately, this is not always the case (for example,  situations like this can escalate to stalking or worse). In such a situation it is quite reasonable for the poster to set boundaries to protect her personal safety and her professional time.

@TomChurch I may be wrong, but I find that nowadays, in most cases, people tend to undeservedly judge them harshly as if we were in an already seen film/movie, where we had all the useful information, and justice could be exacted in merciless manner. In real life the situation does not escalates that easily and there are usually important signs of that behaviour. It just doesn't comes out of nowhere. I'm not saying it's not a possibility, just that is not as probable as our current fiction intoxicated society thinks... Less fiction, more reality.

+1: "If possible, I would have that conversation right there in that empty room, which is somewhere rather impersonal" is an excellent idea - the middle ground between 1:1 private meetings and public ones.

Ouch. I am especially surprised that your college does not offer adequate resources to deal with such a problem.
Based on your description, I strongly recommend against arranging a private meeting with this student, especially in what might be perceived as an "intimate" setting (such as your office) by someone who obviously has a bit of an oddball personality.
On the other hand, you mentioned that he spoke with some of your colleagues as well. This leads me to recommend talking to those colleagues and soliciting their help. In particular, if a male colleague is able and willing to step in, it might be beneficial for him to breach the subject with a male student of low self-esteem. Don't gang up on him of course... the goal is not to bully or intimidate him, only to remove any impression that you or your colleagues are talking to him in a personal, as opposed to a professional, capacity.
When talking to the student, I'd recommend a constructive strategy: instead of placing the emphasis on criticizing his present personal hygiene, offer recommendations. Again, the goal would be to help him, not hurt him. You may also learn that he may be facing issues you did not anticipate, e.g., he may be living in poverty, be homeless, etc. Try to be understanding... who knows, he may be struggling to escape from a difficult life situation and your words may make the difference between a broken life vs. a successful one. (Then again, you may know more about the student's background than your question reveals, which would render my point moot.)

Yes. Also, one might suggest/speculate that the very existence of the issue is a sign of some problem in understanding social relationships, etc., so that to appeal to sense about such things is immediately doomed. No, I do not advocate presuming anything about people, but if one intends to help them then various inferences (if not deductions) can serve the greater good, insofar as they suggest preparations and qualifications about communication, etc.

Some things are just best said straight out. Oddly enough, people don't always recognize their own body odor. But calling the student aside, or to your office and just saying that it is common practice to bathe/shower daily and use some sort of deodorant will be an advantage for them in all social situations. Again, they may not recognize the problem and will, perhaps, thank you for your honesty.
Polite sometimes means being direct.

I'm just hoping I'm not overstepping my bounds as an instructor. I don't want to email my department head as I don't want to seem like a busybody, and more importantly don't want to waste their time if this is trivial

Just talk to the student. Friendly like.

Just as a complement to "oddly enough, people don't always recognize their own body odor": there is a phenomenon called adaptation (not to be confused with evolutionary adaptation) which partially explains this. When a given stimulus becomes ordinary the sensory organ stops responding to it. It also explain the opposite scenario: when we apply a perfume, after some minutes, we don't smell the perfume anymore, and then we apply it again... result: a person with a very strong perfume odour.

I think these days, one must also consider the possibility that the student might be homeless, and lacks facilities for hygiene.

In which case "is there anything you need?" might be a good conversation starter.

@ScottSeidman, I think that is an important point that I neglected to make. In such a case, a university may have athletic facilities with showers that might be made available. There might even be an office that could provide other assistance win some cases.

@ScottSeidman, and your comment is probably worthy as an answer.

I would have, but the question is closed.  I might go to the duplicate and do it there.

(1) The bad smell.
You said he follows you around like a puppy.  I think this might mean he comes to your office hours on at least some occasions.  Or if not, he talks to you after class and walks with you as you're leaving the classroom and the building.  Well, either of those situations gives you an opportunity to ask him some questions without others overhearing.

John, do you have a place where you can take a shower?
Do you have easy access to a washing machine where you're living?

These questions will sort out for you whether it's a poverty/access problem, or something else.  My hunch is it's something else.  Here's my suggestion for that case:

Okay, John, I want to ask you a favor.  Could you come to class with clean hair, clean body, and clean clothes on Wednesday?  [Assuming today is Monday.]
(After he says okay --) Thanks, I'm looking forward to that.  See you Wednesday!  (Now duck into the bathroom to end the encounter.)

I carpooled for a period of time with someone who I suspect had high-functioning autism.  We had a mutually satisfying relationship of sorts.  But I had to spell some things out for him that I wouldn't normally.  It was fine.  Just tell him what you need to tell him, don't make a big deal about it.
On Wednesday, if there's ANY improvement, give positive feedback.  There's no need to put any emotion into it.  Example:

John, I see you washed your hair.  I'm glad.  Thank you!
(after letting that sink in briefly --) How did it go with the laundry assignment?

Provide simple, practical guidance as necessary.  He might not know about using detergent in the washing machine, for example.  He might not know that the winter coat needs to be cleaned, too.  (This is an extremely common male failing....)  Since washing and drying a winter coat can be tricky, you might want to suggest he take it to a dry cleaner.
(2) The boring you with too many details, for example about some mistake he made with an assignment.
Change the subject.  If necessary, ask him to wait a moment with his topic, for example:

Wait, John, before you tell me more about that, I wanted to ask you, have you thought about what you'd like to choose for your final project?

If he has trouble picking up on subtle cues, then just don't expect him to pick up on subtle cues.  Meaning, be very straight with him.  Example:

John, I have to walk across campus now to get to an appointment, and I want to walk alone.  I want to use that time to daydream on my own and think my own thoughts.  I will see you Wednesday.  Bye, now!

I like this approach. It's very straightforward, honest, and non-judgemental.

Talking to the student is the first step.  I realise I'm duplicating other answers with this.
What isn't duplicating other answers is to say that when you do, make sure you have another person present.  This is potentially something which the student could get highly offended over.  A shouting match would be embarrassing but not ultimately too harmful.  Some people might even resort to violence.  More of a worry for you should be the threat of the student starting formal disciplinary proceedings against you.  All these are prevented by having an independent witness.

If you have councelling support and professional standards folks, then take an opposite track of planning a direct meeting that would simply provide the person with the (percieved) current facts.
With the plan in hand, talk to the councilling service to see if the proposed approach would hit the nail on the head (remember this is an engineering student where quiet facts are suitably stubborn), and then check with the professional standards as to any parts that are not acceptable (e.g. the need to have a councillor/witness in attendance).
Then simply have the meeting, present the quiet facts, and have options for help (the most important bit) with location of laundromats, typical hygene regimes (pragmatic, not pampered), where the showers are that the cyclists use, or the sports facility changing rooms, etc. At least you will have tried.
A colleague would cycle 10 miles to the local university in all weathers, then shower, stay late, then cycle back to his rented flat that had no hot water and no cooker, in a rough area. He was a character!

Unfortunately, these days one must consider the possibility that the student is homeless, and doesn't have access to good facilities for hygiene.  There is evidence that more than 10% of students are impacted in some way by homelessness.
 In such a case, even if they can clean up a bit in a restroom, they might not have access to laundry facilities.
I've never had to have such a conversation with a student.  I hope such issues can be caught and addressed before they get to me, not because I don't want to deal with them, just because I'd like such issues rectified as early as possible.
I suppose I'd address it by asking "Are there resources you need that I can help you find?"  and if a situation such as homelessness comes up, I'd be as supportive as I could be, stressing how proud of them I would be for pursuing an education in that position.

Can you elaborate a bit on the first sentence? In particular: Are there many homeless students? And what led to this (seemingly recent) change?

@user114084, done, to a certain extent.  I documented the problem, but this probably isn't the right question for addressing the trends and reasons, and I wouldn't be the right person to do that.  In the context of this question, though, I think making mentors aware of the issue is important.

Thank you. I asked precisely because I was totally not aware of this issue.

@user114084  I knew in the background that it was a problem, but you prompted me to learn a bit more.  The article is illuminating.  I never suspected that there were schools required by law to provide safe parking at night for people living in their cars.

I think he steps over the border from the point that he stinks. Bad clothing is not very bad, but stinking is always unacceptable.
People are often over-sensitive in clothing things, I think it is a bug in the collective mentality of our society.
During my studies, also I wasn't a very well-clothed man. I was never stinking, but I simply ignored this expectation of the society, to have always well-ironed shirts and well-brushed shoes. I simply used all my clothes while they were usable. After I've entered the job market, I've got my very clear feedback to improve on the spot. And I did.
The improvement in the treatment on the job market was more significant after I've got my degree (MSc). This is obviously psychotic, however clothing well is much easier as to get a diplom. :-)
Now the problem is that the academian world simply doesn't have this clear feedback.
Nothing, nobody warns him. Everybody silently ignores him. (And "votes him down" ;-) )
Probably not too many people talks with him, because it is a taboo. But you can. Talk with him in private. Be friendly with him, and explain: in the academian world, everything is okay until he doesn't stink. Explain him, that not clothing well is worser on the job market as if he doesn't have a degree.
Do this in a friendly tone. He will surely understand. From the point that he understands: you, as a teacher, are violating the taboos of the society in order to help him, he will tolerate everything from you.

“this expectation of the society, to have always well-ironed shirts and well-brushed shoes” In an Engineering department?

@AndreaLazzarotto Sometimes yes. In my experience, it highly depends on the local customs.

I am from Italy (which is considered to be relatively more "elegant" in terms of clothing than northern Europe) but I have spent a couple of semesters in engineering and scientific departments in other EU countries. I can assure you even here a low percentage of students wear a shirt. Let alone an ironed one... and sports shoes don't get brushed anyways. The only places where you see students even wearing blazers is in economics or law schools.

@AndreaLazzarotto Students are typically lesser well-clothed as the teachers. Inside the students, typically the higher ones are better clothed. It's cause may be that they have a closer contact also with the job market, and they are thinking more about, what will they do after graduation. This is the effect what motivates them to improve (although it is not very rational, in my opinion). But this question is more about a student, whose main problem is not his clothes, but that he stinks.

Oh yes, I agree. Indeed I was wondering why you were giving emphasis on the (unreferenced) assumption that society espects well-ironed shirts for people in their twenties. This question is even tagged United States, one of the countries that gives the least judgment on people based on how they dress. :)

If this would have been an employee at company it would have been an issue for the management/HR-department to handle. You should do the same: talk the professor that is also your manager or someone in a similar position (preferably someone who does not have a personal relationship with this student, if necessary the issue should be escalated to avoid such relationship). That person should then book an appointment with the student and very bluntly tell him "we have received several complaints about your personal hygiene" combined with an offer to connect him with a student counsellor or similar (someone in that position might as well attend this meeting).
Again, compare your situation with how a company would handle someone that has a problem with alcohol: typically a HR-manager and someone with some type of medical competence would have a meeting with the employee and explain the problem as well as offering help.

"talk the professor that is also your manager". For a teaching assistant, this would be excellent advice. But the poster IS the professor, so no such person exists.

@TomChurch Should be a dean or something like that that could do this.

@TomChurch - I'm sure this scene has played out many, many times, at many, many colleges.  It's quite likely that the administration has longstanding policies about how to deal with stinky and/or clingy students.  The OP obviously doesn't operate in a vacuum, so there's going to be someone above her in the administrative hierarchy who either knows these policies or can get the ball rolling with someone who does.  There's no need for her to try to solve this on her own.

Ask someone else to bring it up with them.
Who? This depends on who there is and who you know, but I could imagine any of

other teaching staff (as already suggested by some)
administrative or counseling staff of your college
just anyone around the college who you know to have great social skills. E.g. if something similar were to happen at my current place of work, one of the secretaries of my department is extremely apt in talking to people.

If nobody else tell him that his got a big hygiene problem, you should probably tell him when you have the occasion - and alone -.
This could at least help him.
When something is wrong (or good), people should know it to improve and know their defaults and qualities.
But don't be gentle.
He has to understand it the hard way.
Moreover you don't want any futher relation with him, so make him feel that you are not his friend nor friendable.
You are his teacher and nothing else.
You could also clearly tell him that you are not comfortable with him and you don't want him to follow you.
That it is not appropriate.

I'm not sure why you're being downvoted. People are too afraid of conflict.  Boundaries need to be clear. Couching them in overly-diplomatic terms will confuse the listener or let them believe that they aren't entirely at fault. A person who has not taken the abundant clues in society to heart should not be given more of them. They need clear, crisp, loud instructions. Direct, clear communication is key, and preferably by a neutral third party of the student's gender, given that the goal is action, not shame.

On another note, I also agree that it would be best to make the student-teacher relationship as far from friendship as possible. This, to me, sounds like a crush in progress, and that can turn to stalking, especially with students who have boundary issues. If it were me, I would try to take what I know about their background and preferences and casually mention things that would irritate them. If a student loves cats, I'd let them hear me telling pro-dog/anti-cat jokes to other students. Give them a reason to independently decide that, while I may be cute or whatever, I'm not a good companion.

I didn't downvote, but the reason could be that this response simply expresses the desired outcomes (coming close to just repeating the original question) without explaining how to actually achieve that; so it does not really contribute an answer to the question.

I am going to suggest a different approach. You do not seem to want to tell him that, and in fact you seem to be wanting to distance yourself as much as possible from this student. I am assuming there are other students in your class, female students as well, with whom you may feel more comfortable establishing a closer relationship. You could then try to gather from her (or them) if there is an external problem you are unaware of regarding this student (home situation/homeless/etc.) and deal accordingly.
Alternatively, you could find out if other students may have approached him already regarding this issue, or the student you approach may decide to talk to him.
If the problem is as bad as you are describing, you are most likely not the only one who has noticed this problem, and not the only one who might be bothered by it or looking to talk to him.

To me, trying to solicit personal information about one undergraduate student from other students would be wildly inappropriate, both to the student himself and to the others. I have only done this when I feared someone's life was in danger.

OMG, this answer is so inappropriate :D

Make sure you have a really good lawyer if you're even contemplating doing this.  This could result in interaction between the digestive system and the ventilation system.

My students love me. I am always voted as best professor. We talk about all sort of issues. Never had a problem. Clearly, who has a problem are the professors who push the students to the bottom of the class because they can't stand their smell. Or those who are afraid of lawsuits. The only thing inappropriate is the lack of communication between an educator and his/her pupils.

Horrible answer. This is totally inappropriate.

@user114084 that’s just your opinion. Thankfully I do not conform to the general hypocrisy and are consistently considered the best professor by my students.

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/


text:
Professor changed the paper I should present at the last day – how should I react?
In our PhD class, we have to present a paper. However, just 24 hours before the day I present a paper, the professor gave me a new version of the paper.
This new version has a similar motivation but is different in methodology and results – so pretty much they are different things.
He asked me to present the next day.
What can I do in this situation? Should I write an email to the dean? He is not even my advisor.
Update: Thanks everyone for your answers. The presentation went well since I spent a lot of time preparing for it. But before that I sent a super aggressive email to the professor. I think the email somewhat helped. This is a professor who has a reputation of exploiting students (asking them to do stuff for him like checking for typo in his papers/lecture notes).

Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.

I’m surprised to hear that sending a ‘super aggressive’ email helped.

I am trying to look at this from the perspective of your professor.
Here is a benign interpretation of what happened from his side
(I can obviously only guess here, so you have to be the judge to what extent it applies):
Your professor happened to notice a new version of the paper you were going to talk about. He did not have time to check how much was actually changed, but assumed it wasn’t much (which is reasonable for many papers). Knowing that you are about to speak about the paper, he sent the new version to you, so you can update your talk where appropriate, assuming that it wouldn’t be much and you would have the capacity for it.
With that in mind, here is how I suggest you approach the situation:

Finish preparing the talk, as if you never received your professor’s e-mail.

Treat everything involving the new version of the paper as bonus. This is probably how your professor sees it as well. Practically, only consider some small additions to your talk if it’s finished otherwise.

Inform the professor that the differences of the paper are substantial – assuming that this is news to him. You don’t have to do that now, but can do that at the talk.

Also state that you were occupied with other things on the day before your talk and thus did not have much or any time to handle the new version. Being a good student, you worked ahead and had already mostly finished the talk when you got the new version. (This is probably not even a lie. You don’t need to say that it was anxiety due to the e-mail that occupied you.)
When you are given, e.g., two weeks to work on this talk, it is your freedom and responsibility to allocate your work on the talk within these two weeks as you like. You cannot be expected to be fully available in the 24 hours before your talk.

Should this fail and you are still incapacitated by anxiety, try to postpone the talk due to sickness (which is accurate). If an additional selling point is needed, mention that you can use the time to incorporate the new version of the paper. (Details really depend on the context here, e.g., whether you can or need to obtain a sick note, etc.)

You have your old presentation. You can present that with minimal modifcations I will now explain.
In the introductory part, you can say "this is the presentation I prepared in the past months, but we decided to include a comparison with some of the very latest developments" and then you go on presenting the old method and the new method and then the old results and the new results.
Finally, present a qualitative comparison of the old and new method (qualitative: it can be also just switching back and forth the two groups of results slides).
It probably looks bad to your eyes, but all alternatives you presented are worse, so enjoy the stormy sailing in the exam, there will be calm sea afterwards.
Good luck!

Unless you ask for some kinds of extension*, in my opinion, what you should do in this situation is to read the paper as soon as possible.
I don't know why you are so stressed about giving a bad presentation, but (1) it does not have to be perfect. It is not even worth it, in my opinion. Perfection is (my) productivity killer, and (2) maybe you will not even do a perfect presentation, but you can always avoid giving a bad one. Your task is to give a decent (or detailed - take more time) summary of relevant information from the paper. And that is what you should do. You can do it.
Also, please take a rest. Start working when you are ready. Your mental health is important.
*which is also a good decision, but I only do it when I do have no other choice.

Thank you for the answer!  Thing is I am kind of having a panic attack. I cannot even eat or sleep. Maybe I should try to get some sleep and then when I wake up I will be in better condition. Sorry if I am being incomprehensible.

Go to sleep. Don't drink coffee while having panic attack by the way. When you wake up, start working, but please do not worry about it.

I have classes tomorrow. In total I have maybe 2 hours to prepare haha

Don't worry. I used to prepare for a presentation in 30 minutes before my turn. Just do it. When you finish (by finish, i mean your preparation has decent information to be present), move on and don't even look back. Now just go to get some rest


text:
Is it practically possible to conduct examinations without human supervision?
I am contemplating a mechanism where mass entrance examinations will be conducted fully online with zero human supervision. But the main hurdle seems to be mass cheating.
For instance, in countries with large-scale college entrance exams, it is a major problem that people hire other people to take the exam for them.
How can I overcome this problem in case of, say, thousand students sitting for their exam on the same day at the same time? How can I make sure they are not cheating?
The camera can be an option, but, is it possible without the camera? And, how do I know that they are not circumventing the camera? For example, maybe they are copy-pasting from a PDF book.

I suggested a minor edit to sidestep an argument about racism; hopefully this is unobjectionable.

https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/76531/13240

Unfortunately most exams and the questions on them assume that there is a proctor present to verify both identification and the attempts at cheating. If you give one of those kinds of exams, then you can't really prevent cheating.
One option is to give an exam in which cheating is irrelevant or impossible, but this requires both a difficult process of exam creation and evaluation. Open book exams take a step in the right direction, but don't eliminate the issues.
But the other option is to assume that students who have cheated will be admitted. But if you make the first course(s) especially difficult then some of those students will be eliminated quickly.
But processes designed for face-to-face interactions, both in teaching and exams don't work well in the online environment. You need to accept that and work toward the design of more "distance-friendly" processes. It might be a long process and the need might disappear before generally accepted "best practice" emerges.

If cheaters are prepared to go as far as literally hiring others to take the exam for them then it seems it would be extremely difficult to "give an exam in which cheating is irrelevent or impossible".