That’s What She Said

Few independent movies become smash hits, but every once in awhile a few break free from mediocrity and achieve recognition.

“Napoleon Dynamite” was huge. So huge in fact, that the movie’s stars Jon Heder and Aaron Ruell came to speak at OWU my freshman year. This year “Juno” is following in Napoleon’s dancing footsteps.

I remember reading about this movie long before the trailers were playing. As a regular reader of most entertainment magazines, I heard of this former stripper named Diablo Cody, who had penned a screenplay that was supposed to be fantastic.

It was about 16-year-old Juno MacGuff (played by Ellen Page) who had been impregnated by her geeky best friend (portrayed by the always delightful Michael Cera). Instead of keeping the baby or getting an abortion, she does the responsible thing and carries it to term and gives it up for adoption. It seemed like a bad episode of “7th Heaven.”

So when I started seeing previews and watching interviews with Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman, the married couple who are to adopt the child, I realized this movie had serious potential.

I was right. This movie is fantastic. “Juno” is witty and sarcastic but not too over the top like it is struggling for laughs. As a character Juno has a charm about her that I have not seen in any other recent movies about teenage girls. She had a good sense of the real world, at least for a 16-year-old, and she was more level-headed than any of the girls I went to high school with.

I knew when I walked out of the theatre this would be one of my favorite movies. And, O.K., that’s not saying much because as I write this I can look over at my shelf and see my movie collection and see about 100 movies and about 50 television DVD sets. But I digress. I knew this movie was special.

I do not like to toot my own horn but I was right. “Juno” has been nominated for multiple Academy Awards, including a best actress nomination for Ellen Page. She might not win because she is up against veteran actors like Cate Blanchett and Laura Linney, but at least she beat out Keira Knightley for her work in “Atonement.”

All together the movie is nominated for four awards. Diablo Cody is nominated for Best Original Screenplay and Jason Reitman is nominated for his work as director. And to top that off, the movie is up for the Best Picture award.

If you have not seen the movie yet, I suggest you head down to The Strand because it will be playing through the end of the week. Plus I can almost guarantee you will laugh throughout the movie. You might even cry. But that would only be because you were laughing too hard and you could not breathe. Juno is a winner even if it does not take home any awards, so go see it.

Ohio Wesleyan hired 12 new faculty members for the 2007-2008 academic year. As the fall semester is now over, the professors are no longer the new kids. They came from various backgrounds and various areas of the country, but they are all enjoying teaching here at OWU.

Before joining OWU as a professor in the neuroscience program, Jennifer Yates held visiting positions at various schools in the northeast. She is now an assistant professor of psychology.

Yates said she prefers OWU to her other schools and that the university is what she would have expected from a private liberal arts institution. She was hoping for smart and friendly students and for a school with interests in research.

“All those things I was hoping for and got,” she said.

Entering a new environment can be difficult as a student or a professor. As for adjusting to the OWU community, Yates said she is hitting her stride.

“People in the college have been super supportive making sure I get on my feet,” she said. The usual problems of knowing where to be and where to get copies of tests were all that Yates had to deal with.

“Nothing that held me back for too long,” she said.

This was the trend across campus among the new faculty. Assistant Professor of English Mark Allison said that it took him awhile to learn how to get certain things done.

“At any institution there’s always a learning curve,” Allison said. “But everyone was extremely helpful so the problems never became big problems.”

Allison earned his undergraduate degree from Kenyon College, a small liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio.

From his own experiences, he said he had some idea of what to expect at OWU.

“I enjoy how friendly and supportive the environment is here,” he said. “I was pleased to see OWU lived up to my expectations.”

Allison Baird Lovell, assistant professor of humanities and classics, recently left Stanford University in Stanford, Calif. She said at Stanford students had been more aggressive. The relationship between student and professor from the students’ perspective was one of customer service with a “you’re here to serve me” mentality.

“Here I find it a little more traditional,” she said. “People have more respect for the faculty.”

But that is not the only reason Lovell prefers OWU to larger learning institutions. For starters her position is tenure track meaning a long-term commitment and a future. At Stanford
she said it was a revolving door position or a stepping stone.

At Stanford Lovell taught as a Postdoctoral Humanities Fellow. Each quarter she was responsible for three classes of mandatory humanities courses. She described the environment as a “transient situation.”

“I prefer the environment of a small liberal arts college,” Lovell said. “I can cultivate connection ties with students and develop mentoring relationships with students over a period of time as opposed to the one course.”

Lovell also said she liked that she has more of a say in what she is to teach here at OWU.

“[At Stanford] there were drawbacks. I did not have autonomy over my courses. We were assigned courses to teach. We did not choose the readings or the pace of the course. Here I can design my courses. There are a lot more possibilities.”

Overall Lovell agreed she had a good first semester at OWU. Next semester she will be teaching some of her own courses in the humanities and classics. She said the only thing she had trouble with in the transition from California was getting used to the colder weather.

Other faculty members who were new to OWU last fall were David Alexander, Kristina Bogdanov, Christopher Fink, Frank Hobbs, Zackariah Long, Lisa Patrick, Melinda Rhodes
and David Walker.

FROM: Volume 146, Issue 15: February 14, 2008