That’s What She Said

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