admin Higher Education, Sport, Teaching

Title IX at Wake Forest University

I find Title IX endlessly complex and fascinating. I am teaching the Sociology of Sport this fall and the more I dig into the issue, the less I feel like I know and the more I want to know. In response to a class discussion, a student forwarded me the following email from our university president. I know I got this email also, but can’t find it.

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Nathan O. Hatch <>
Date: Fri, Feb 24, 2012 at 1:16 PM
Subject: Action required on Title IX training
To: broadcast-all@xxxxxx

Dear Students, Faculty and Staff:
On April 4, 2011, the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights issued a “Dear Colleague” Letter (DCL) addressing issues of sexual violence and misconduct on college campuses. The DCL gave colleges and universities guidance on how they should address these issues on their campuses. One of the DCL recommendations is that schools implement preventive education programs regarding sexual violence and misconduct, including information about available resources and the school’s policies and procedures for responding to complaints. We have created a website that includes educational materials for faculty, staff and students that can be found at http://go.wfu.edu/sexualassault.
The Wake Forest Sexual Misconduct Policy includes information about how to report incidents of sexual misconduct, resources available to students and information about sexual misconduct hearings that occur on campus. We take these matters very seriously, and there are a number of programs and resources in place to support our entire campus community.
We have also recently named a new Title IX Coordinator, Angela Culler, Assistant Vice President for Employee Relations and Compliance, who is available to speak to victims of sexual misconduct. There are also several Title IX Deputy Coordinators available to assist in these matters, including Charlene Buckley (Office of Dean of Student Services), Betsy Hoppe (Schools of Business), Barbara Walker (Athletics), Shonda Jones (Divinity School), Ann Gibbs (Law School), Brad Jones (Graduate School of Arts and Sciences) and Doris McLaughlin (Human Resources).
Wake Forest believes in the importance of making all employees and students aware of this information and the University’s Sexual Misconduct Policy. We ask that you make time in the next two weeks to visit the following website, review the information and complete a short test to certify that you have read and understood this important information.

Please provide your Wake Forest network username and password when prompted. (For assistance with your user name and password, please visit the Information Systems Service Desk located at The Bridge in the Z Smith Reynolds Library.) Every employee and student must complete this training as promptly as possible, and no later than March 9, 2012.

Wake Forest University is firmly committed to providing all individuals with an environment that is free of sexual harassment and sexual violence. Thank you so much for your assistance in achieving this important goal.
Sincerely,
Nathan O. Hatch
President
admin Higher Education, Students, Teaching

Work Hard, Play Hard?

Many students at elite colleges and universities in the United States adhere to the motto, “Work Hard, Play Hard.” I tell my students applying this motto to higher education creates a false dichotomy between work and play. I insist that my courses will require them to work, to be sure, but that we will have fun at the same time. So, in my version of the motto – which I give it to them in Latin, Laborate valde, ludite valde – I unify what they dichotomize by insisting that learning itself is fun.

Whether I’m successful or not, that’s a good question. I like to think so.

admin Higher Education, Students, Teaching

What We’re Selling, What They’re Buying

Had a conversation with a good colleague the other day who marveled at the fact that the knowledge we are trying to “sell” students in class is the only commodity that people willingly shortchange themselves on. That is, most students pay full price for their courses but want to do as little as possible in them. Have fewer assignments? Fine by them. Less reading? Even better. Cancel class? Fine by them. My colleague said it’s like paying full price for a Coke and getting only a half full cup — and being happy about it.

It’s easy for professors to get upset about how students devalue the educational commodity we think we are providing. I get upset about it myself. But the reality is this: the commodity that college students are buying for their tuition money is not an EDUCATION (knowledge, understanding, insight, or anything like that). The commodity the students are buying in each class is a grade and a certain number of credits, and over the course of their undergraduate careers, a degree.

Herein lies a good deal of the misunderstanding between professors and students: what we think we’re selling and what they think they’re buying are two different things.

admin Students, Teaching

What the teacher learned

I was reminded the other day at a teaching seminar of this truism: Students may not remember the substance of what you teach, but they will remember how you made them feel.

Now, I’m no proponent of “emotivism” as a moral philosophy, but I do know that the professors who took the time to make me feel like I was someone worth talking to made all the difference in my own occupational choice.

Are you feeling me?

admin Higher Education, Sociology, Teaching

Why Did I Leave OLU?

This weekend, I am going to a meeting at The Louisville Institute for the Study of American Religion to help choose recipients of a book-writing fellowship. The Louisville Institute has been very supportive of my work in the past, giving me both a dissertation fellowship and a large grant to conduct research on conversion. They are my friends. And they will want to know, as do so many people, “Why did you leave OLU?”

As I was reading the fellowship applications tonight, I was thinking about how I was going to respond to that question. For some reason, the answer came to me particularly clearly tonight. No fancy lingo, no dressed up and drawn out explanations.

Quite simply, I left Our Lady’s University because:

(1) I was not rewarded for my teaching and other involvement with undergraduates.
(2) The particular type of research and publication I was doing was not appreciated.

That’s it! Pretty straightforward — although no less upsetting — when I cut to the chase.

admin Higher Education, Students, Teaching

Redemption?

So, after my morning class in which people couldn’t bring themselves to speak, I went to my afternoon class during which we spent the whole hour discussing and debating a single question. One student would make a comment and another five students would raise their hands to weigh in.

Not only that, but the topic was the proper role of religion in public life — with specific reference to President Bush — and the students all handled the issue incredibly well. They expressed their opinions and listened to others’ opinions in a very respectful way. It was one of the best discussions I’ve ever had in class. Go figure!

Now, if only I could figure out the formula for that and bottle it.

admin Higher Education, Sociology, Students, Teaching

Stupefication?

35 students in an introduction to sociology course, in which I’ve tried to cultivate an ethic of participation + a question to which they have prepared a written answer ahead of time = 35 students looking at me as if I am speaking Aramaic when I ask them to discuss their answers to said question in class.

I return to my office after to read the written responses, which are very well-done and thoughtful.

What is the source of the gap between these two things? Is it simply not worth the effort to speak in class if that is not specifically rewarded? Or are students paralyzed by the fear of looking “stupid” or “know-it-all” in class? Or something else I can’t see?

I certainly don’t want to come to the same conclusion that the novelist Vladimir Nabokov came to when he was observing the students he taught at Stanford: “The great fraternity of C-minus, backbone of the nation, steadily scribbling on.”

Can I get a witness?

admin Higher Education, Students, Teaching

“Wasting” Time on Students?

MLK HOLIDAY ’05: THE CAUSE FOR WHICH HE FOUGHT IS STILL A CAUSE, AND THE DREAM FOR WHICH HE DIED IS STILL A DREAM

On the brief, five minute walk from the kids’ bus stop to my office last week, I was bothered by a familiar feeling. The first three days of the week I had “wasted” too much time dealing with students (enrollment in class, getting together course materials, etc.). All I had to look forward to on this day, too, was class related work. As I walked, I racked my brain thinking about my schedule for the day, wondering when I would be able to squeeze in some “real” work.

This uneasy and unwanted feeling is one of the legacies of working at Our Lady’s University for six-plus years. I was socialized at OLU to see students as taking time away from my real work. How ironic, since I became a professor precisely because I wanted to spend time with students.

One of the attractions of Wake Forest University for me, then, is its focus on undergraduate education. So, I’m excited to be at an institution whose educational values are more in line with my own. (Or so it seems. Of course, I have been fooled already by OLU, so I’m more guarded about professed values vs. institutional realities now. I mean, I embarrassed to say now that I bought OLU’s rhetoric hook, line, and sinker.)

My experience last week made me see that this deeply ingrained feeling of alienation from students may take some time to shake. It may take me a while to embrace fully the time I get to spend working with students and working on classes; to see them as my real work rather than a distraction from my real work. Who knew that getting back to my professorial roots would take work?

admin Higher Education, Sociology, Students, Teaching

Questions and Answers

Yesterday was the first day of classes for the semester, and my first day of classes ever, at Wake Forest University. Which raises a number of questions that I’ll try to answer quickly. Further observations will no doubt be posted as I make them.

How’s the weather?

It depends on what you like. You probably wouldn’t like it unless you like 60-70 degrees and sunny during the second week of January. Tennis, anyone?

How was the first day of class?

OK, the first day of class was not without its challenges. Monday night, because I was nervous/excited about my first day of classes at Wake Forest, I couldn’t fall asleep right away. So, I turned on the TV and got caught up in a bizarre episode of “The Surreal Life” with Peter Brady and Mini-Me and one of the non-famous women from the Go-Go’s. So, I didn’t log many hours of sleep before my first classes, but the adreneline carried me through.

I am teaching introductory sociology and a sociology of religion course, both of which I’ve taught many times before, so there won’t be too much heavy lifting involved in terms of the course material. Of course, there’s a great expenditure in energy in actually conducting class. I have a 9:30 am class, then two hours of office hours, then a 1:30 pm class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Right after my afternoon class dismisses, I go and meet Chipper and Beth at the bus stop. Which is just as well since I am totally spent after that much time teaching. (How teachers who teach all day, five days a week do it, I am not sure!)

Not surprisingly, I’ve encountered various technical problems related to being a new faculty member starting in January, rather than August like most of the new folks. For example, I was told to save on copying expenses by emailing my syllabi to my class roster, but I couldn’t access my class roster until Tuesday. Students in my intro soc class told me they couldn’t get the textbook at the bookstore, so I called and was told that only 14 of 35 copies had arrived. It apparently didn’t concern anyone at the bookstore until I called. They ordered another 21 copies, to arrive today or tomorrow (hopefully), but because the students have an assignment to do for Thursday, I had to make photocopies of the first chapter. Of course, a student then pointed out that the assignment for Thursday requires them to consult another chapter of the textbook, so I had to find the graphic I refer to and put it up on the course web site. For my religion class, I assigned five books, so I can only imagine what sort of mess awaits me there. A couple of students have already said that two of the books are sold out. With my luck, it will be the book we are using next week!

On the positive side, both of the classrooms I teach in are in the same building as my office, so I just need to walk around the corner to get there. And both have good technology. I can bring my laptop to class and easily project images or videos, and I can play music, which I love. In both classes we listened to Petey Pablo’s “Raise Up” (homage to North Carolina). In my religion class we also listened to Kanye West’s “Jesus Walks” (for obvious reasons), and in intro we listened to Alanis Morissette’s “You Learn” (stresses that learning an active and relational process).

Now, if I could just get a replacement battery for the piece of crap they put in my third generation iPod, I can just leave my computer behind and play music directly from that.

What are the students like?

I haven’t had too much direct interaction with the students yet, but they are similar to students at Our Lady’s University in some ways and different in others.

The biggest similarity I immediately noticed is that the students travel in packs. Almost everyone in class, it seems, is taking the class with a friend, roommate, teammate, or frat/sorority brother/sister. The students also wear “hang dog” faces in class. I mean, the atmosphere just feels so heavy when I walk in the classroom. Maybe I need to play some more raucous music at the start to pep things up. I’ll experiment with Trick Daddy’s “Let’s Go” and Black Eyed Peas “Let’s Get It Started” on Thursday. If you have any suggestions, let me know.

The feeling I get in class raises a question, though, which I also had at OLU : why do people who live such privileged lives seem so somber? Like the weight of the world is on their shoulders, when their biggest concern of the day isn’t how to eat but what to eat. (I should add that I am guilty of this same thing myself.)

Among the differences I’ll be watching are:

(1) Regional differences. The three best represented states so far are Florida, New Jersey, and North Carolina. At OLU, I had the most students from Indiana, Illinois, and New York.

(2) Religious differences. At OLU, I had 80-90% Roman Catholics. Here, the predominant religious group is Baptist, followed Episcopalians. I was surprised by the Episcopalians, but it makes sense if the university draws from rich, Southern families. Here at Wake Forest, I also have a diverse group of other religions represented (Jewish, Christian Science, Presbyterian, Church of Christ, nondenominational, Methodist, Lutheran, and even a couple of stray “Romans”).

(3) Fraternities and sororities. I had pairs of sorority sisters in my classes — evident from their t-shirts — which definitely got my attention. There are no greeks at OLU and greek life was not big at my alma mater, UC-Berkeley. All I really know about them is that two of my friends at Berkeley lived in a sorority because the house had extra rooms. Not exactly a center of campus life, at least not back then. So, we’ll see what effect that has on campus life.

Well, that is all that you need to know about my first day of class at Wake Forest University — and more.