More Male-Student Badgering and Indications of Further Declines in Student Evaluations

Yesterday during office hours, a student from my intermediate microeconomics course came in to "discuss a few things with me". I usually take this to mean: not the course material but something exogenous to problems, lectures, the text, etc.

He beat around the bush for a while. Called my office "homely" when he meant "home-y" and finally said:

You're office hours suck.

Really? Did you ever email me to tell me that?

No.

Well, I made it clear at the start of the class that I would be willing to come in at different times to accomodate your busy schedules.

Oh.

Did you ever email me with any questions on the material? I nearly always respond to students within a couple of hours. . . Even on weekends.

Um. No. . .

Don't you think that was your responsibility?

Sometimes I would have questions on the problems but then I would just put my book away and move on to another subject.

Oh. . . You could write down your questions and then bring them to class. Without asking questions during class, I have no idea what parts of the material you are misunderstanding.

Really? Well, that would be great! Maybe you should have told us at the beginning of the class that we could do that.

Me: Mouth agape. Speechless.