The Death of Teaching

We have the same push at our university, and it’s a very bad idea:

The University System of Georgia (USG) implemented a policy in 2025 that requires syllabi to be publicly posted onto university websites before registration…

USG says the change “aims to ensure that all students have access to the critical information necessary for informed course selection and successful academic planning.” … UGA professors are required to have their syllabi available before registration opens for fall courses, a change from the past two semesters in which they were allowed to wait until one week before courses began.

We are told the exact same thing in a way that is so identical, it’s weird. “Students need it! It’s critical information! Successful planning!”

I’m opposed but almost nobody else is so the measure will be introduced.

Here’s why I am opposed.

There are two types of professors. There are those who teach the exact same course for decades, recycling it endlessly and repeating the exact same thing over and over again. For these professors it will be extremely easy to provide their syllabi 6 months before classes start, which is what “before registration” means.

There are also professors who come up with new material, new course structure, new readings, and new lectures all the time. Professors like me. I’ve never taught the same course in an identical way. This measure exists for one reason: to get rid of innovative, interesting teaching. It exists to shut up people like me. We will be locked into one standard syllabus that will be vetted and posted and it will reappear automatically on the website every semester. If you want to do something new or innovative, you’ll open yourself up to complaints for not following the pre-approved, pre-posted class program.

What I really despise is how it’s justified by supposedly being in the interests of students.