I've seen dozens of articles and essays talking about how so many first-gen/low income students don't understand faculty office hours, don't partake of them and how this then contributes to their struggles.
I've seen almost nothing about ways to simply explain office hours to students, even though I'd argue that the concept of "office hours" is infinitely easier to grasp than most of the things that students are studying.
And thus, I was delighted to see Professor Jen Jennings of Princeton post on Blue Sky about how she provides students with specific topics and questions for office hours :
Many students hesitate to come to office hours because they don't know what to say. I've started explicitly asking all students to attend at least once and providing sentence starters—it's made a big difference in increasing participation.
— Jen Jennings (@jenjennings.bsky.social) January 26, 2025 at 6:59 AM
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I'm copying and pasting the images from her public post here for those not on Blue Sky who may not be able to click through (click through to the website if these things don't show up in the email). They're straightforward, comprehensive, designed to be inviting, and completely nonjudgemental. And they're not just about seeking "help" but also about conversing with faculty about one's own questions and goals, as office hours often are (though so much of the first-gen literature talks about them primarily as part of help-seeking when you're "struggling"). These prompts are for everyone, not just "struggling" students and they teach all students about how peers coached to understand themselves as equal to faculty do talk with them.
What else could we just explain to poor-and working-class students about how to make it in college?
(and credit Professor Jennings if you adapt these)
