Modernizing Office Hours to Better Serve Our Students

In last week’s Daily Flyer, Dr. Kress informed the college community about a new VCCS policy that replaced office hours with student engagement hours. Since then, faculty members have raised a few questions, and the background and rationale for this policy should help answer them.

Nearly 60 years ago, the old office hours policy was instituted when Virginia established a community college system. And in 1965, NOVA opened its doors to 571 students in a converted warehouse at Bailey’s Crossroads. In that bygone age, cell phones, text messaging, twitter, emails and Zoom meetings were well into the future, and professors assumed that most students would visit their offices for advice and counseling.

The Chancellor’s Faculty Advisory Committee (CFAC), with representatives from each of the 23 VCCS colleges, felt that it was time to modernize this policy. Starting this fall, teaching faculty will work with their supervisors to determine better ways they can reach their students instead of waiting for their students to come to them. Some remote hours might work best for those faculty who have a schedule consisting of virtual classes. Student engagement hours in writing, math and computer labs, or even in the college library, might reach more students in face-to-face courses. For those faculty members who truly feel that their students are comfortable coming to their offices, then there is no need to change from the policy of the past. Many faculty will establish hours with a mix of the above strategies. The goal is to devise ten hours that provide the best opportunities for students to reach and seek assistance from their teaching faculty.

Like parental leave and phased retirement, student engagement hours represent a CFAC recommendation that became VCCS policy. Please contact Dr. Charles Errico, NOVA’s representative and CFAC chair, if you have any questions about this policy or have suggestions on how CFAC can better serve our faculty in the future.

Submitted by:
Dr. Charles Errico, CFAC Representative/Chair; WO-History, CErrico@nvcc.edu