After a long day’s work she sits down at her desk, kicks off her shoes and begins to scroll through her infinite list of emails before taking a red pen to homework assignments and preparing tomorrow’s lesson.
California Baptist University provides students with the opportunity to thank their professors for their excellent and tiring work by nominating them for The Faculty and Staff Member of Year Award.
CBU displays its gratitude for the staff and faculty every year. Students are able to place their votes online after receiving an email from ASCBU; however, clicking a button to give a cyber thank-you is just not the same as personal recognition.
CBU providing students with the opportunity to recognize staff and faculty through online votes is a brilliant way to build morale within the university’s community.
While the idea of unifying and recognizing individuals for their work is great, I wonder why students do not do this in person more often.
When I was in elementary school, I would run home to my mom to tell her all of the exciting things my teachers taught and how nice they were to me and other students.
I was encouraged to thank my teachers verbally and in person or even with small gifts on special occasions.
With our technology-crazed generation, in-person appreciation is something people rarely see.
Cell phones, laptops and various other electronic devices are glued to our hands, robbing us of face-to-face conversations.
It is more common for a friend to send us a text to say thank you than to look us in the eyes and verbally announce it.
The online voting takes the sincerity out of faculty and staff appreciation. The online voting is not what makes this dilemma problematic — it is the fact that we need online avenues to encourage us to personally acknowledge our professors — and others outside of CBU.
Most would agree that technology has reshaped how we live our lives, but preventing us from properly recognizing people for their hard work is where we should draw the line. We do not need to dehumanize our daily and essential interactions with one another for the sake of necessity.
I do not believe that CBU should stop the Faculty and Staff Member of Year Award simply because our generation is dependent on their electronic devices to exchange recognition — it is not CBU’s fault that electronics is the main method of communication.
However, I do believe that students should stop hiding behind their cell phones and computers and make an attempt to encourage a staff or faculty member after class or in their office or maybe take it one step further and have a conversation without their phone in their hand.
During this time of voting for some of our favorite faculty and staff members, I encourage all of us to step outside our comfort zones, throw technology aside and personally and genuinely thank the people we
appreciate.
