email:

Go ahead and send me an email. I am generally available, and usually respond in a day or so. Sometimes I take three or four days, however, so don’t email me about a paper or exam the night before or the morning of, asking for vital information that will change what you will write or study—the chances of me being able to respond in a time frame that would be useful to you are low. This happens to me dozens of times in a typical semester. Generally speaking, if I don't get back to you after 3 or 4 days, send me another email; I forget, emails get dropped into the Junk mail folder, other stuff goes wrong. I won't get angry if you repeat your question (I'll probably be grateful you reminded me).

Do you want college to prepare you for the work world? Our students say they want this, and yet they often don't treat college like what it is—practice at a profession. Please write to me the same way you would your team manager or boss at work. “Dear Rob” is fine, especially once the semester is underway, as is “Dear Professor” or “Dear Professor Rushing.” (There is a complicated debate about being called "Doctor Rushing," but to me, "Doctor" as a title is best reserved for those with a medical degree, which I don't have — ironically, medical doctors historically had to insist on being addressed with the prestigious title of "doctor," which used to only mean people with a Ph.D. Times change.) Everyone who grew up with paper mail (i.e., many of your future employers) will find the lack of an opening greeting weird and offputting, and an abrupt "Hey" will sound rude. (In all seriousness, I don't much care, but I hear my colleagues complain about this more than any other thing that students do.)

phone:

I don't have a phone in my office anymore, which is true of basically all profs at the U of I.

office hours:

Like most professors, I will not be in my office (2122 FLB, on the second floor of FLB, on the north side of the building) this semester, but I will be available every Tuesday from 11-12 on Zoom, and you should always feel free to request an appointment at some other time. This is an "open door" meeting, so you can drop in at any point without asking me for permission or telling me in advance (you certainly can, however, tell me in advance), but I may not be able to admit you immediately if I'm with another student—generally, you should not have to wait for more than 15 minutes, Come prepared with specific questions or ideas—it’s a generally unproductive session when a student arrives and says “I have no ideas for the paper, and I don’t know what movie I want to write about.” It’s okay to stop in just to chat, but don’t ‘occupy’ my office hours—other students need to talk, too. (This rarely happens, but I have had students who have tried to spend the full hour in my office, every week, all semester long—I'm not even that interesting to myself!)