Dear Millennial Professors, 

As a Gen Z student at Kenyon, I have noticed a pattern from several of my millennial professors: Your niceness prevents me from deeply engaging with class. To be clear, each millennial professor I have had was exceptional at many parts of their job. In fact, as a group, you tend to be the first to provide resources, the easiest to contact with questions and the most energetic as teachers. The only glaring issue is that you, archetypal millennial, are too nice. 

Upon walking into my first class at Kenyon, I was excited. The subject seemed interesting, the professor was inviting and I was ready to jump in. However, in the following weeks, I lost interest and became increasingly bored. Participating was too easy, and I struggled to become invested in discussions due to frequent commentary that consisted of little substance. This disappointing classroom experience fits into a larger pattern in millennial teaching at both the high-school and higher-education level, where professors sacrifice rigor in pursuit of fairness, accessibility and friendly rapport. The prioritization of gentle class norms such as automatic participation credit and open-note tests makes it difficult to become enthusiastic and engaged with the subject matter. 

While it is not acceptable to be unfair or rude to students, there are areas where you could be more direct. For example, it’s okay to let students know when they are wrong. Although comments do not necessarily deserve to be shot down, it becomes inefficient when professors redirect answers with extensive analysis rather than directly correcting the statements made. While this approach encourages comfortability in class, it also can be more confusing to students as it makes correct and incorrect comments harder to distinguish between. Allowing all contributions to hold equal weight effectively bogs down the class rather than highlighting more interesting and engaging points. Directness does not have to be unkind, and it can lead to more exciting conversations and less boredom. 

Millennial professors who are nice because they’re scared of what others will say deserve better. But we deserve better too. I want to let you know that pushing students to do a little better isn’t going to make them hate you. Instead, it’s going to set your students up to be successful, prepared and more “locked in,” as Gen Z likes to put it. Although some students might complain about stricter standards, that should not stop you from using your position as a professor to model strong thinking and learning. College students are ultimately adults, and even though, as a generation, we could stand to contribute more readily in class, we can handle (and maybe need) higher expectations and more direct discourse from our professors.

Zady Hasse ’28 has not yet declared a major, and she is from Philadelphia. She can be contacted at hasse1@kenyon.edu