Feast or Famine

To continue for at least a bit more on the topic of Department Seminars..

Some places provide refreshments before a department seminar, some places provide refreshments after, some provide refreshments during a seminar, and some provide no refreshments whatsoever.

Are refreshments important: for seminar attendance? for impressing the visiting speaker? for enhancing general socializing in the department? for sustaining a building's non-captive rodent population?

Yes.
It depends on the refreshments.
Yes.
Yes.

Most indications are that refreshments help attract attendees, particularly of the student species and perhaps also others. I think it is also a nice social thing to do.

Does it matter when the refreshments are served or what they are?

Maybe.
For some people yes, for others no.

My personal preference is for refreshments after a talk, as this encourages discussion and socializing of department members with each other and with the speaker. If the socializing is after the talk (and the seminar is scheduled for a time that allows most people to stay for 15-30 minutes afterward), this is a good opportunity to chat with the speaker about what he/she just presented.

If talks are scheduled for rather late in the afternoon and many people have to leave immediately after the seminar, then it is best to have a brief social interval before the talk, ideally accompanied by some refreshments that don't have too dramatic an effect on the biochemistry of the audience.

As a speaker, I try not to take advantage of pre-talk refreshments if these items consist of cookies, doughnuts, and coffee. Even if I found the prospect of getting hyped up on sugar and caffeine just before a talk appealing, I think it would be a very bad idea for me to do so.

Apres-seminar refreshments encourage people to linger a bit and chat. I like this informal chatting time, as a speaker and an audience member. It's a nice way to unwind and talk to a variety of academic creatures, whether or not they are munching on tortilla chips at the time.

#1 Absolute Best Time (for a seminar)

From my travels around the US and other countries giving invited talks at universities, I know that seminar series can be scheduled for any weekday and are held at an impressive range of possible times of the day or evening.

I suppose a case can be made for why any particular day of the week is better for a particular department based on class schedules and other academic activities specific to that place, but in general:

Some places favor Monday because it is close to the weekend, making travel for visitors somewhat easier, but the week is still young and everyone is feeling energetic and ready to start off the work week by being invigorated by a stimulating talk on cutting-edge research.

Some places favor Tuesday because it isn't Monday, when people might not be quite ready to dive into the work week, but Tuesdays aren't too deep into the week that people have lost energy and focus.

Some places favor Wednesday, though it is hard to think of a good reason. Perhaps it is good to have a day in the middle to pause and do something different.

Some places favor Thursday because it is getting close to the weekend, perhaps facilitating travel for visitors who will have a 2-day visit, but it is not Friday.

Some places favor Friday because it makes travel easier for visitors and people are ready to wrap up the week by being invigorated by a stimulating talk on cutting-edge research.

In terms of time of day, mornings are probably the least likely time for a seminar series, but any time after (and including) noon seems to be fair game, up until about 6 pm (+/-).

Giving talks at noon is always a bit weird for the speaker because of all the food smells and food eating sounds that permeate the seminar room. In terms of attending seminar talks, however, I don't have a strong personal preference as long as a seminar is likely to be over in time for me to pick up my daughter from school at 5:30.

The poll below asks about what day of the week your department holds its most general seminar series involving outside speakers, whether or not this is your favorite/preferred day of the week.

On what day of the week does your department have its seminar series?
	Monday
	Tuesday
	Wednesday
	Thursday
	Friday
pollcode.com free polls

What is the best time of day for a seminar talk to start?
	Before noon
	Noon
	Early afternoon
	Mid-afternoon (3-3:30ish)
	Late afternoon (4 pm or later)
	Evening (5 pm or later)
pollcode.com free polls

Credit Where Credit Is Due

Is it useful if students read a paper or two written by a department seminar speaker prior to the speaker's talk? Are seminar-focused classes successful in their goal of getting students more involved and interested in seminar talks?

I have never taken or taught a course that was focused on getting students more involved in a speaker series, but I have given talks at many places that do this. My view of this topic is therefore an indirect one.

In cases where I have the opportunity to interact with some of the students who have read a few of my papers in advance of a seminar, I have asked the students whether they thought such paper-reading and accompanying discussion was overall useful. I make it clear that I am not asking them if they liked my specific papers and talk but am asking whether they find that the seminar-focused class is successful in its intended general goal.

I haven't kept track of the responses in any systematic way but my impression is that these seminar-focused classes do help some students be more interested in and get more out of the seminars, but that, at the graduate level, many students don't like these classes and don't think they are a good use of their time.

At the undergraduate level, students tend to be more positive. In that case, discussing a speaker's research before the talk might be the difference between understanding something and understanding nothing. At the graduate level, however, students tend to feel that their time might be better spent on other activities.

I think it must be difficult for one faculty member to handle such a course, but a team-taught course in which various faculty cycle in to help discuss papers/seminars in their field of expertise could easily end up being disorganized. From my limited database of anecdotal experiences, I tentatively conclude that these courses are well-intentioned but are difficult to implement in an effective way.

In some cases when I visit a university with a seminar-focused class, I am asked to recommend the paper(s) the students will read in advance of my visit. I always have a hard time with this because if I have published something, it is by definition old research already, and mostly I want to talk about my new work. I do try to mix old and new in my talks, using published work as a basis to discuss more recent and ongoing work, so in some cases it is possible to recommend a paper that is somewhat relevant.

In other cases it is more difficult. I have had students say to me after a talk "I wish you had talked more about what was in the paper we read." I can see their point, but why would I want to give a talk that was entirely composed of work that is already published? I might as well just stand there and read one of my papers to the audience. I like it better when the students or faculty choose which paper(s) to read because then I don't feel quite so responsible for disappointing them by not focusing specifically on that/those papers.

An even better situation (from my perspective anyway) is when students who are doing research in a field similar to mine read one or more of my papers, either in a class or in a research group meeting. These students don't tend to want or expect me to repeat whatever was in the paper(s) they read, and so are interested in new material. I've had some great discussions with students who have done this type of pre-talk paper reading.

For students not in my field of research, I hope that I give enough of a general introduction and conclusion, with various mid-talks attempts at highlighting the main points, so that even someone unfamiliar with my research topics will still get something out of the talk. If I succeed at that (and I'm not sure I do in every case), then the talk will have accomplished something whether or not students have read any of my papers.

Credit Worthy

Continuation of yesterday's discussion of Department Seminar Attendance

If attendance at department seminars is required, should students get academic credit or should they get cosmic credit and a warm/fuzzy feeling of intellectual stimulation even if of the coerced sort?

Students should get academic credit for seminar attendance if it benefits their academic program to do so. In some cases, adding an extra credit or two can be can be helpful, but in other cases it is a problem. Attending seminars takes time, and if the intention of requiring mandatory attendance is to provide an educational experience, students should get some credit for that time if possible. The action of sitting in a chair in a room while a seminar is occurring is probably worth about 1 credit at a typical American university. [Some programs require more than just attendance; I will discuss this tomorrow]

In systems in which awarding academic credit is either not done or is not feasible, it may well be that mandatory seminar attendance cannot be enforced in any sane way. Even so, a department's philosophy and/or regulations regarding seminar attendance should be clearly stated to new students so that everyone knows what the expectations are and how these are to be met.

Department seminars -- whether mandatory or not -- should be during typical daytime/weekday hours. [I feel another poll coming on... but not today .. about what is the best day/time for seminars]

When I have been in departments in which seminar attendance is not required or is only required of first/second year grad students, most of my students attend regularly anyway, as do I. If attendance at seminars is recognized as important by faculty advisors, their students are probably more likely to attend as well.

The department chair can also send a strong message that seminars are important educational experiences (for everyone) and are a way that a department demonstrates that it is an interesting, interactive place. If budgets permit (and they may soon not permit), bringing in outside speakers is a way to advertise what is going on in a department. This can be very important for the general reputation of the department, and can therefore benefit all department members.

If I show up to give an invited talk at a university and the seminar room is filled with people asking questions, I will have a positive impression of that place as an intellectually stimulating place filled with energetic and curious people. If there are only a few sleepy people in the room, it will certainly not occur to me that I am boring or that my research topic is unappealing. Well, it might occur to me briefly, but I will then nevertheless conclude that the place is an intellectual desert and I will wonder why I was even invited if only one person wanted to hear my talk.

Summary: Attend as many seminars as you can. If students can get academic credit, that's good, but whether or not academic credit is bestowed, in the long run the cosmic credit may well be worth much much more.

Compulsory Education

An interesting comment on yesterday's post made me decide to take a detour from my semi-planned blog route this week.

New general topic : Department Seminars: Should attendance be required of graduate students?(note: I am in the mood to use colons today) (another note: I realize that some departments have more than one seminar series, but for the purposes of today's discussion, I will refer to the seminar series in the singular)

Related topic : If attendance is required, should students get academic credit or should they get cosmic credit and a warm/fuzzy feeling of intellectual stimulation even if of the coerced sort?

Other related topic: If students get academic credit, should the students be required to do something other than just be physically present in the seminar room during the talk? For example, should students participate in a pre- or post-seminar discussion of the talk? Read some of the speaker's papers? Write a summary of something (the paper(s), the talk)?

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Today's topic: Department seminars: Should attendance be required of graduate students?


I have been in departments in which grad attendance was optional and in departments in which grad attendance was required and in departments that switched from optional to required systems. Attendance is definitely higher when it is required, and this is of course one of the motivations of the requirement.

It is a fact that, when attendance is not required, some students will attend anyway, some will never attend, and some will have intermittent attendance. (just like faculty)

It is too easy to convince yourself that you don't have time to attend a seminar, that you have other priorities, that your desk chair is much more comfortable than the chairs in the seminar room, that you don't want to disconnect from your iPod for even an hour, and that the title of the talk sounds boring and isn't even in a field you care about.

Being required to attend the departmental seminar eliminates that pesky decision-making process about whether to go to seminar or not. But then, if required to attend, you might sit there in the seminar, seething with resentment about being forced to attend rather than being trusted to make the decision to attend, and your anger at the controlling professors who are oppressing you leaves you unable to appreciate the seminars, even the ones that aren't horrific examples of PowerPoint abuse. You are further unhinged by bitterness when you look around the room and note that quite a few faculty are missing. What is their excuse? Shouldn't they be required to attend seminar as well? Hypocrites.

Faculty should attend seminar if they aren't traveling or on leave or otherwise unable to attend, but faculty are no longer students subject to requirements intended to round out their education. Faculty typically decide to require students to attend department seminars because attending such seminars is viewed as an important educational experience.

I wish that seminars need not be required and that attendance would be high without the requirement. Decades of experience, however, tell me that this is never the case, so I think it is fine to require at least the 1st-2nd year grad students to attend a certain (high) % of each term's seminars.

If you attend seminars regularly, you will realize that although many are in fact not so exciting, over time you learn some useful and possibly important things you wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity to learn, you meet (or at least see) new people, you get ideas (about research, about how to give/not give a talk), and you are occasionally surprised by something extraordinarily interesting.

.. to be continued ..

Who Organizes Seminars in Your Department?

In some departments that invite visitors to give seminars on a routine basis, the seminars are organized by students, in some cases by faculty, and in some cases by staff. I have been a member of departments with all of these types of organizational possibilities, and I have been in departments that changed from one to the other (e.g. faculty used to organize the seminars, now students do; and vice versa).

In departments with student organizers, the philosophy behind this organizational scheme is that students will feel more involved in the seminars/visits and therefore will perhaps attend more of the seminars (without being coerced), and that this is a good thing because going to these talks is an important component of graduate education.

In departments with faculty or staff organizers, the philosophy is typically that this is a service activity and students shouldn't spend their time on this type of thing. I suppose there might be departments that don't trust their students with seminar-organizing, but I haven't encountered this myself.

I have heard both versions of "visitors are more like to accept invitations from students" and "visitors are more likely to accept invitations from faculty". I haven't seen that it makes that much of a difference, but it wouldn't surprise me if some people are more inclined to accept an invitation in one situation or the other. When I get an invitation, my main criterion for whether I accept or decline is "Do I have time for this?".

From my experience of having given > 60 invited talks at other universities and colleges in the past ~ 10 years, I can say that I see no difference in the quality of organization of the visit as a function of what type of academic creature does the organizing: students, faculty, or staff. There may be considerable variation depending on the individual's organizational skills, but this does not correlate with age or academic status.

The answer to the question about seminar organization will vary in part depending on the type and size of institution, but I decided to keep the poll simple. In places with regular seminar series:

Who organizes visitor seminars in your department?
	Faculty
	Graduate students
	Undergraduate students
	Staff (incl postdocs)
pollcode.com free polls

Need to Know Basis

To: seminarspeaker1@otherU.edu
From: gradstudentorganizer@FSPU.edu
Subject: your visit
Cc: FSP

Dear [First Name of Professor @ Another U],

Thank you for agreeing to give a department seminar on DATE at FSPU. Your host will be FSP, and she will be arranging the schedule during your visit. We look forward to your talk and your visit.

Sincerely,

GradStudentOrganizer


To: gradstudentorganizer@FSPU.edu
From: FSP
Subject: Re: your visit

GradStudentOrganizer,

This is the first I've heard of the visit by SeminarSpeaker1. Fortunately I will be here on the date you arranged for me to host him/her, but in the future please check with me first about available dates just to make sure I will be here. I appreciate your efforts organizing the schedule and I know it can be difficult getting every seminar slot filled, but I think it will save time in the end if you first check with faculty hosts about possible dates.

Thanks,

FSP

no reply from GradStudentOrganizer; but then a few days later:

To: seminarspeaker2@otherU2.edu
From: gradstudentorganizer@FSPU.edu
Subject: your visit
Cc: FSP

Dear [First Name of Another Professor @ Another U],

Thank you for agreeing to give a department seminar on ANOTHER DATE at FSPU. Your host will be FSP, and she will be arranging the schedule for your visit. We look forward to your talk and your visit.

Sincerely,

GradStudentOrganizer


To: gradstudentorganizer@FSPU.edu
From: FSP
Subject: Re: your visit

GradStudentOrganizer,

I hope you got my email the other day asking you to consult with me first before finalizing dates for seminar speakers I am hosting. I will be doing some traveling this term, and if you invite someone to visit on a date I will be away, this just complicates your organizational efforts because it may involve rescheduling etc. Please check with me before you arrange a visit for someone I am hosting.

Thanks,

FSP

no reply from GradStudentOrganizer; but then a few weeks later:

To: gradstudentorganizer@FSPU.edu
From: administrative_assistant@FSPU.edu
Subject: schedule change
Cc: FSP

GradStudentOrganizer,

I got an email from one of the seminar speakers being hosted by FSP saying that he had discussed with you changing the date of his visit, but I never heard if you did make this change. The original plan was for DATE, but I am wondering if you changed this to ANOTHER DATE. Has this been finalized? I need to know so I can print the correct schedule.

Thanks,

AdministrativeAssistant


To: gradstudentorganizer@FSPU.edu
From: FSP
Subject: Re: schedule change

GradStudentOrganizer,

According to my calendar, you arranged a visit by VISITOR for DATE, but the recent email from Administrative Assistant suggests that you have been discussing an alternative date. This is the first I've heard about a possible change in the visit date. These are things that the faculty host really needs to know about. We should discuss the schedule to make sure that the visitors I am hosting are visiting when I am actually here on campus.

Thanks,

FSP

To: FSP
From: gradstudentorganizer@FSPU.edu
Subject: seminar schedule

The VISITOR is coming on YET ANOTHER DATE.

GradStudentOrganizer


To: gradstudentorganizer@FSPU.edu
From: FSP
Subject: Re: seminar schedule

GradStudentOrganizer,

At what point are you going to ask me if I am available to host the visitor on that date? I have asked you several times to consult with me about the schedule, but you keep arranging visits without first finding out if I will even be on campus and able to host the visitors on the dates you arrange. I used to be the seminar organizer years ago, so I know it is a complicated job, but you need to find out not only when the visitor can come but when the faculty host is available. You need both pieces of information before finalizing visitor dates.

Thanks,
FSP


To: FSP
From: gradstudentorganizer@FSPU.edu
Subject: Re: Re: seminar schedule

If you do not like any of the date I arranged for your visitor you should email them yourself and suggest other dates. Your visitor emailed me on RECENT DATE about possibly switching dates, which is not enough time to send out another wave of invites with the hope that one person can give a talk on one particular date. Thats not fair to all of those invites, and that's not fair to me. That is why I suggested swapping with A LOCAL SPEAKER, as this is the best I can do. I have done my best to accommodate the speakers, which is first and foremost the top priority.

GradStudentOrganizer

***************************

I seldom see this student -- his office is not in the same building as mine -- so it's not easy to talk to him in person and sort all this out. I have not replied to his last email, as I really don't think it is a good idea for a professor to send flaming angry email to a student, however rude the student has been. But I'm not ready to be nice about this (yet).

I also think it is quite sad that a senior PhD student is unable to handle several pieces of information at once: the dates set aside for seminar speakers, the dates visitors can come, and the dates faculty can host visitors. Maybe I should draw a Venn Diagram for the student to help him visualize this.