I think there's a kind of adorable naivety to equating planting a tree with administering a lab at an American college.
If you yourself are conceding a professor "doesn't even necessarily involve being in the same room at the same time", then A.) Why does the professor even have to do it at all, as opposed to say, a young, not at risk grad student?, and B.) Does it really "need to be done" ?
My professors were totally uninvolved from my labs. They would define them in advance, but each lab was administered by a grad student. Professors being uninvolved with labs isn't new or exciting.
If you yourself are conceding a professor "doesn't even necessarily involve being in the same room at the same time", then A.) Why does the professor even have to do it at all, as opposed to say, a young, not at risk grad student?, and B.) Does it really "need to be done" ?
My professors were totally uninvolved from my labs. They would define them in advance, but each lab was administered by a grad student. Professors being uninvolved with labs isn't new or exciting.