Holding Office Hours
PWR instructors hold a minimum of three office hours per week
(ordinarily in addition to conferences) on two different days.
Remember to list your office hours (and your office location)
on your syllabus. Here are some issues to consider in setting
up and carrying out your office hours. Hold office hours on separate
days to maximize the likelihood that students wanting to come
to office hours will be able to do so. Most classes at Stanford
are scheduled to meet at the same time on Mondays, Wednesdays,
and Fridays or on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Ideally, you should
set up one of your office hour time slots on a Monday, Wednesday,
or Friday, and another on Tuesday or Thursday. Don’t shy
away from scheduling office hours on Fridays because you assume
students won’t utilize them. Many students welcome Friday
office hours so that they can get started on the right track
on their assignments over the weekend.
You will want to fit the times you hold office hours into your
schedule so that they don’t follow too closely after your
own classes (which might tend to run late), and they coincide
with when you are most energetic and alert. Holding office hours
in the early morning—before 9 a.m.—can be hard on
students who study until very late at night.
If you choose to hold office hours in the evening, please keep
safety—yours and your students’—in mind. Stanford
has a good safety record for university campuses in part because
its students, faculty, and staff are aware of and use appropriate
safety procedures. Two especially important resources for you
to remember (for your students’ evening walks back to the
dorm or for your own walk back to your car) are:
- “Pedestrian Safety Zone,” a pamphlet issued by
the Stanford Department of Public Safety (3-9633) that contains
a map displaying the locations of the well-lighted paths and
the blue emergency call boxes on campus.
- The SURE Escort Service (5-SURE, http://www.stanford.edu/group/SURE/).
Call SURE to schedule an escort to meet you at a designated
time and location.
PWR provides all instructors with office space. Consult with
your office-mate so that you can schedule office hours that don’t
coincide. Some instructors hold office hours at other locations.
Instructors with offices in Sweet Hall will have several options
for conferences and office hours: the patio and hallway outside
the PWR office suite and a meeting area adjacent to the offices.
Green and Meyer Libraries have some public spaces that instructors
can use to meet with students. The benefits are that you get
the students into the library more and you have computers available
to you to help students with online searches. Others go the much
less formal route of the Stanford Bookstore or the Coffee House
(CoHo) at Tresidder Student Union. Do keep in mind, however,
that office hours are occasions for learning: noise, passing
friends, and the like can be very distracting.
