History 214 student Paula Rollins claims that after waiting three weeks for her essay on Bulgarian nuns to be graded, her professor’s only written comment was “good work.”
“What the fuck,” Rollins was overheard saying to a classmate. “How the hell did it take Professor Miller three weeks to grade these? They were only three pages.”
“What really grinds my gears,” Rollins continued, “is that he says I did a ‘great job,’ gave me a B, and doesn’t bother to give a single piece of constructive criticism.”
Similar dissatisfaction was expressed by the other twelve students in the course, who felt that their professor had “blown them off” with his sparse comments.
In addition to the rare “nice” or “needs improvement,” some students found squiggly lines under sentences or stars in the margins. However, the students were unable to interpret these symbols, as no feedback was attached to them and Miller had not provided any explanations for his markings. In some cases, students were not sure if Miller’s scrawls were words or symbols.
Sophomore Jamal Cook suggested that “Maybe Professor Miller is busy with research,” but Rollins refuted this hypothesis after covertly speaking to a few of his graduate student advisees.
Intending to clarify what the comments meant, Rollins attempted to attend Miller’s office hours. However, each time Rollins stopped by his office in Haven Hall, a “cryptic note” was allegedly affixed to his door that read, “be back soon.” According to Rollins, Miller never came back.
When reached for comment, Miller took several weeks before responding, “that’s interesting.”
