First-Year Reading Experience

Many institutions across the country hold some kind event for freshmen where the students read a book over the summer and then have a chance to discuss it when they get on campus.  Here at the University of South Carolina we have the First-Year Reading Experience, where students come together--all 4,000 or so of them--to hear a speaker and then break off into small groups to discuss the novel assigned for the summer. The purpose is to kick off the year with an "academic" experience, which sounds odd since it is a university after all but at most schools the first week or so is all about the "fun" aspects of college--and then the academic reality hits you in the face when you start going to class.

This year the book was Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.  It is about an "academy" where students are actually clones that are "cared for" so they can donate their organs, not entirely unlike the movie "The Island."

It's not an easy read, especially at first when you're not really sure what's going on.  In fact, when I received the book clear back in May I made it through about 40 pages before putting it down, saying I would try again later.  Unfortunately I didn't get to "trying again later" until the week before the First-Year Reading Experience event was to take place!  See, even (or should I say especially?) professors procrastinate!

On Monday morning all 4,000 freshmen and 200+ discussion leaders gathered in the Coliseum on campus to hear a talk by Jeffrey Kahn, a bioethicist from the University of Minnesota. (Ishiguro declined an invitation to speak.) Kahn related the novel to current ethical concerns in science, including the use of stem cells.  He used the example of Molly Nash, a girl with a rare disease who could be helped only with the cells of a sibling. So her parents had another baby (but tested the embryonic cells first to make sure they would match) who could help her. 

Kahn's fascinating talk made the discussion with my group of 17 students much easier since many of them admitted to not finishing the book (something I empathized with greatly).  His comments made it clear that some of the issues in the book, while a bit far-fetched (we don't have any organ harvesting academies that I'm aware of), are still not as much "science fiction" as they might seem at first.  I asked them if they had read similar books and we related the book to other novels such as Fahrenheit 451, Anthem, Animal Farm, Brave New World, and some films as well.  There were also some direct relationships of the themes of the book to the freshman experience--the sense of discovery and the nature friendship, to name a couple.

The idea of the First-Year Reading Experience is a good one, I think, and the issues raised in the book are excellent for discussion (especially with the expert insights of someone like Professor Kahn).  However, the book was perhaps a bit too much for unguided summer reading for students with other things on their minds at the time.

Move-in Day

Last weekend students started moving into the dorms.  Does that bring back memories? Faculty and staff had been invited to volunteer to help with move-in day on Saturday, especially for freshmen. So, I showed up for my two-hour shift and helped new college students.  (I even got a nifty yellow "Move In Crew" t-shirt.)

I heard the same two questions with every student I helped move, mostly from the parents:

1. You're a professor and you're helping students move in?  (Getting that question is probably part of why they want faculty to volunteer; it shows how caring we all are!)

2. How is she going to fit all this into this tiny room?  (It is amazing how the magic works on fitting everything under the sun into such a teeny-tiny space!)

A few of the students I helped were the first in the their family to attend college.  You could see the pride/fear/excitement/concern in mom and dad's face.  Or maybe that look of concern on dad's face was just for realizing that he brought a not-so-mini-fridge that he now had to haul to the third floor of a building with no elevator.

And with all of the students you could see, even in the few minutes I was with them, that push and pull as the student tried to exert her independence while mom (mostly mom!) tried to hold on just a little longer--trying to organize where things should go, cleaning out drawers and under the bed.

Helping students move in was also a reminder of what dorm-life is like.  I haven't been inside a traditional college dorm in many years and was instantly reminded of dorm rules (they were posted everywhere), the life of RAs and fun roommate problems.  I remember moving in myself after my dad and I had driven across the country from New Hampshire to Utah, meeting my roommate for the first time, meeting my RA (what's an RA? I asked) and starting to negotiate life on my own.

The experiences of this professor...

I've been in the professor business for a year now.  In fact, it was one year ago today that I officially received my Ph.D. at Penn State, right at the same time that I was starting as a new gig as an assistant professor at the University of South Carolina.  (Actually, I defended my dissertation in June, which signals the end of the Ph.D.-quest; but that's the kind of thing I can talk about here.)

I thought I might use this space to think out loud about what it is I do.  Professors are supposed to teach, do research, and provide service.  What does "Teaching, Research, and Service" really mean? 

I happen to be teaching a course called "University 101" this fall; a course designed to help new students make the transition to university life.  There are, of course, some parallels to becoming a new professor and even though I am in my "sophomore" year as a professor I think teaching this course might spur me to think about some interesting (at least to me) issues to talk about.

Maybe after trying out this blogging approach for a while people can stop asking, "What is it that you do?" (probably to be replaced with, "Seriously, that is what you do?").  

So, let's see how this goes...