On Office Hours and Student Contact at the Small Liberal Arts College

I don’t expect students to be constantly after me—and I wouldn’t want them to be. I also know that what looms large for them are their friends, families, and personal lives. But I’m beginning to learn that if students at large universities are starved for personal attention and connection, students at small colleges have so many opportunities to interact with faculty members that they may not feel the need for more. I could even see how some students might feel a little suffocated by running into a professor everywhere they turn on the campus, especially on those occasions in which they skip your class and you later greet them as they frolic with their friends. —Teaching on the Tenure Track – Do Your Job Better – The Chronicle of Higher Education.