tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post4624991307266124051..comments2024-03-25T02:33:41.590-05:00Comments on FemaleScienceProfessor: Where You SitFemale Science Professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15288567883197987690noreply@blogger.comBlogger56125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-83446174715461821002011-04-06T13:17:13.756-05:002011-04-06T13:17:13.756-05:00In my department, there's kind of a gradient. ...In my department, there's kind of a gradient. It's pretty much all professors at the very front, and the student-to-professor ratio increases as you move toward the back of the hall. It's mixed but there's definitely a trend that students sit farther back and professors sit farther forward.<br /><br />For a while, our department chair was having people rope off the back rows of seats so people would sit farther forward. It was pretty unpopular, because it forced the late-arriving to fill in the very front few rows, and those rows are so close to the giant presentation screen that you spend the entire presentation craning your neck trying to see the screen. The chair is forever annoyed that no one sits in those frontmost rows, but they're so uncomfortable.Amandahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02995501660275425349noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-32362931497928883312011-04-05T16:52:49.741-05:002011-04-05T16:52:49.741-05:00Some professors sit in the very back so they can h...Some professors sit in the very back so they can have their laptops open and check email.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-60661901396051056402011-04-05T02:32:02.518-05:002011-04-05T02:32:02.518-05:00In grad school (Ivy League), everyone was mixed. ...In grad school (Ivy League), everyone was mixed. As a postdoc in Europe, professors in the front, postdocs in the middle, students in the back. Students never never ask questions and professors ask dumb questions right from the start. I miss grad school!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-65839443236545933532011-03-30T21:53:26.067-05:002011-03-30T21:53:26.067-05:00In my department, there is mixed seating at resear...In my department, there is mixed seating at research seminars. But in thesis defenses, the faculty sit in the front, the other students sit in the back, and any supporting family or friends sit in the middle.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-27489511372815021842011-03-30T11:27:02.039-05:002011-03-30T11:27:02.039-05:00At our department the students always prefer to si...At our department the students always prefer to sit in the back even when there are no faculty (e.g. at lectures). <br /><br />When my eyes got bad I moved to the front and realized that I learned more since the professors started addressing me and I couldn't conveniently fall asleep. Perhaps bad eyesight is correlated with grades.A CS grad student.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-69622114979227100132011-03-30T11:21:37.149-05:002011-03-30T11:21:37.149-05:00For me it's a function of how on top of things...For me it's a function of how on top of things/insecure/etc I'm feeling that day. If I'm confident, know the material, and don't need to work through it, I sit in th efront proudly. If not, I slink in the back and hope noone notices me.<br /><br />First year grad student with terrible coping strategies.Alexnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-12911148375434713232011-03-30T09:38:05.363-05:002011-03-30T09:38:05.363-05:00We have research talks in three different rooms. T...We have research talks in three different rooms. Two have only two rows of seats around U-shaped tables and are generally standing-room only: there it is common for students to start filling the back row and faculty to start filling the front row, but people get mixed fast. One room is borrowed from another department and has several rows. Some students fill from the back (where the food is), and faculty usually are scattered along the center aisle. I sit near the front, because way too many presenters use tiny fonts and have weak voices that don't carry even in small classrooms (I've no idea how they manage to teach—perhaps they don't).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-40515694191283063332011-03-30T01:31:32.883-05:002011-03-30T01:31:32.883-05:00Nice blog to address this very true observation. I...Nice blog to address this very true observation. I have been an academic in Germany, Belgium, the U.K. and Spain and have seen this situation everywhere. Actually, as a student I sat myself in the back and as a professor now mostly in the front. I see two reasons for it. Firstly, as a student it was seen as a sign of respect to leave the front seats to the professors which I accepted when it was voluntarily and couldn't stand it when it was reinforced. Secondly, sitting in the back has always been a sign for the wish of anonymity. You can sneak out, sleep, or, as some mention, respectlessly browse on your computer. As a student I had that urge being able to back out. Being in the front is a sign of commitment to the speaker. Where I am now, occasionally students mix in the front rows, but in my impression a bit with the feeling of doing something wrong.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-14699062849687460352011-03-29T15:01:01.170-05:002011-03-29T15:01:01.170-05:00Community College (small, rural, poor) point of vi...Community College (small, rural, poor) point of view: Except for commencement (candidates for graduation up front, faculty and staff behind them) we all sit intermixed. I try to scoot up towards the front (near-sighted, hard of hearing) so no one but the speaker can hear my (c)rude but insightful comments.Walt Lessunhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06543175448330140638noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-72362635312940590752011-03-29T14:26:13.561-05:002011-03-29T14:26:13.561-05:00We have a very large and disparate department with...We have a very large and disparate department with seminars on a wide range of topics. There is only one lecture hall that could possibly accommodate all grads and faculty, but seminars are held in one about a quarter that size, which is rarely filled unless we have a nationally known speaker. Higher-ranking faculty (and those who so aspire) tend to cluster toward one front corner, nearest the speaker's podium. Beyond that, there are subdiscipline-oriented clusters of grads and faculty. A few very busy junior faculty tend to sit toward the back near the aisles to facilitate escape from talks that are either indecipherable or hopelessly awful in some other sense.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-73038566936001609822011-03-29T10:55:12.825-05:002011-03-29T10:55:12.825-05:00In our weekly colloquium, my university has bubble...In our weekly colloquium, my university has bubbles of professors surrounded by a sea of students. Our room is large, but we pretty much fill it for talks. The dynamics of the coffee hour is also quite interesting: while there are only a few people there, professors and students chat with each other. But after a critical number has been reached, a phase transition occurs: profs and students separate like oil and water.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-9647652819254154952011-03-29T10:36:29.771-05:002011-03-29T10:36:29.771-05:00I work in particle physics, where essentially no o...I work in particle physics, where essentially no one seems to want to sit in the front (there is a strong culture to use laptops during talks as well, which is less intrusive in the back, those two might be correlated)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-39335937828415240822011-03-29T00:30:20.320-05:002011-03-29T00:30:20.320-05:00I'm a prof. I usually sit in the back, so tha...I'm a prof. I usually sit in the back, so that if the talk is sucking or turns out to be not of interest to me, I can escape gracefully, or at least with a minimum of gracelessness and disruption.<br /><br />My impression is that, at our seminars, the majority faculty tend to sit in the front few rows or near the back. The ones near the front are excited to see the talk. The few at the back are probably, like me, preparing themselves so they can escape if necessary. Students tend to sit all over, with no common pattern.EngineeringProfnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-9431760484759665092011-03-28T23:13:46.453-05:002011-03-28T23:13:46.453-05:00We have a gradient effect going on, but pretty wel...We have a gradient effect going on, but pretty well mixed. I used to sit at the back because I thought it would be less noticeable/rude when I fell asleep most weeks, but I guess now I've been around long enough that I don't care anymore.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-43173397586860122982011-03-28T21:18:56.397-05:002011-03-28T21:18:56.397-05:00In my department, grad students and faculty both c...In my department, grad students and faculty both compete for the back. It depends on who gets there first....Psycgirlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13476028853857792495noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-72315223097802680392011-03-28T20:58:09.559-05:002011-03-28T20:58:09.559-05:00In my engineering department, faculty usually sit ...In my engineering department, faculty usually sit at the back of the room and students scatter throughout. I think this happens because we (faculty) tend to show up just in time for the seminar to begin while the students show up early for the free coffee and cookies (located at the front of the room). Come to think of it, when we use a different room for the seminar, more of us sit near the front. I think maybe the faculty members are just lazy and aim for a seat near the point of entry whether this be at the front or the back of the room.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-66237058416148250682011-03-28T20:43:22.406-05:002011-03-28T20:43:22.406-05:00Grad school and two post docs at institutions with...Grad school and two post docs at institutions with 15-35 professors and about twice as many grad students, has shown this pattern (profs to the front, students to the rear) consistently, but not to an extreme (both groups spread out enough that the meet in the middle). In all three cases the room was a good size: seats were always available but the place never felt empty. Post-docs always seem to feel comfortable anywhere in the room.<br /><br />Two of these school had to take positive measures (at least for a short while) to keep the students from coming for snacks but abandoning the talks. <br /><br />During my time at a national lab, I attended many talks of different sizes in rooms of many sizes (including those much to large or much too small for the audience that actually showed). The tendency to self-segregate was much less pronounced. And if the topic was an on-site project, the segregation was on the basis of relationship to the project: the front row was mostly grad students and post-docs on the job, and the back of the room was people who were vaguely interested.<br /><br />I personally prefer the back-of-the-front or the front-of-the-middle. Close enough to see and hear well (and be seen and heard if I ask a question), but not at the center of attention.EscapedWestOfTheBigMuddynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-1101516538619089562011-03-28T19:50:29.644-05:002011-03-28T19:50:29.644-05:00I'm in a biochem department that also uses an ...I'm in a biochem department that also uses an overly large room for our seminars. Faculty density is highest in the very front (people who share research interests with the speaker, emeritus profs who go to every talk) and the very back (overscheduled people late to everything). Students and postdocs sit together, usually with their labmates, in the middle to mid-back, leaving a thinly populated mid-front region. Everyone is usually to the speaker's right, because that's where the coffee is. <br /><br />Annoyingly, the department host usually calls on people for questions, rather than letting the speaker do it herself. This means the local political bigwigs dominate Q&A. Students and postdocs can ask questions, but have to wait till the bigwigs have spoken. In practice, students don't ask many questions, and aren't encouraged to.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-76597492936101320692011-03-28T18:38:02.353-05:002011-03-28T18:38:02.353-05:00Our weekely departmental grad seminars bring toget...Our weekely departmental grad seminars bring together a few dozen grad students and faculty, and the seat selections are always the same: no one in the first few rows (except for the presenters themselves and those who are introducing them), then the students, then the profs. Most of the profs always sit at the very back row, with one or two exceptions who stick to the middle-to-rear positions. It's a small enough space that everyone can easily hear everybody else.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-7991406562905587872011-03-28T16:39:19.305-05:002011-03-28T16:39:19.305-05:00I am in 2 depts and in neither do students tend to...I am in 2 depts and in neither do students tend to sit in the front. I don't think it is because they are saving good seats for the profs though, I have the impression they would sit in the back even if there were no profs there.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-27039213407267949382011-03-28T16:23:54.022-05:002011-03-28T16:23:54.022-05:00MyU is the opposite of zed's school--the profs...MyU is the opposite of zed's school--the profs all sit to the left, and the students to the right.<br /><br />I am one of those people who loves to sit in the front row, but I can't do it for seminar, otherwise I end up too close to the screen. In the good ol' days (when I was younger), my eyes could focus better at different distances, but that is sadly no longer the case. (If we ever had a PowerPoint-less seminar, I wouldn't mind sitting up front.) I can't read all the print from the back, either, so I sit just right of the middle of the room.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-15806526990686162002011-03-28T16:23:27.206-05:002011-03-28T16:23:27.206-05:00My grad school tended to be very mixed. As a postd...My grad school tended to be very mixed. As a postdoc, it depended mostly on the topic of the talk. If it was something I really cared about, I'd sit in the very front. <br /><br />Otherwise, I tended to sit near the front so the faculty would see me and I could ask questions, and I only sat in the back if the front was full or if I might want to sneak out early (due to benchwork timing or potentially poor quality of the talk). <br /><br />Obviously, none of my sitting the front just to rub elbows with faculty and be seen asking questions helped my career *one bit*, or I'd have a job now, so I don't think it matters at all. <br /><br />The guys I knew who got jobs in my field had no problem sitting in the back and yelling out their questions across the entire room. I never felt comfortable doing that.Ms.PhDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06542602867472447035noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-37244170219556040402011-03-28T15:36:15.017-05:002011-03-28T15:36:15.017-05:00Scratch the first comment - the phenomenon of mixi...Scratch the first comment - the phenomenon of mixing grad students and faculty must be confined to our department. Just went to a seminar in another department, and I was the only non-faculty sitting anywhere near the front of the room.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-86411152020366055962011-03-28T15:28:29.460-05:002011-03-28T15:28:29.460-05:00faculty tend more to sit in the front, grads in th...faculty tend more to sit in the front, grads in the back. but for certain talks (i.e. ones pertinent to special subject area) grads will sit up closer. personally i got the most out of seminars when i sat next to faculty & could ask them questions & hear their commentsAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-72355594921449873242011-03-28T14:06:06.135-05:002011-03-28T14:06:06.135-05:00My department does professors in front, students i...My department does professors in front, students in back -- but there's no assigned seating, it just happens that way. I always sort of assumed it was out of respect for the professors -- the front is the "better" seats, and of course the professors should get those. Seniors sit in front of juniors too, usually, although that's more mixed.<br /><br />-a physics undergradAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com