The Marlowsphere Blog #62
This week I celebrate 25 years of serving as a professor at Baruch College, a senior college, part of the City University of New York. In this blog I’d like to point to some of the lessons I have learned about teaching at the college level and working in an academic environment.
First, a little background: For all of my tenure at Baruch I have served in the journalism program which, when I arrived there in September 1988, was part of the Department of English. A few years ago it became a separate department. Prior to my connection to Baruch I spent almost a quarter of a century in the television and radio production business, as well as short stints teaching at Fordham University in New York and Merced College in California.
During my first 25 years at Baruch I have taught a myriad of courses in English, journalism, media studies, communications and business. I have been able to apply my five degrees (in English, business, music (2), and media studies) to undergraduate and graduate courses in two of Baruch’s three schools—the Weissman School of Arts & Sciences and the Zicklin School of Business. I have also had the opportunity to create over two dozen courses and serve as the senior curator of the Milt Hinton Jazz Perspectives Concert Series (now looking forward to its 22nd season in the next academic year).
It has been a highly productive period, personally and professionally. There are a few things I have learned from standing in front of classrooms the last 25 years I would like to share.
1. At the undergraduate level, character is just as important, if not more important, than course content. I have blogged about this previously (see blog #16 & blog #17). In a nutshell, while content is certainly important, students learn more about thinking, critical analysis, effective and efficient written and oral communications from the character of the professor than any textbook. Undergraduate students want authenticity first, content second.
2. Textbooks: For some courses a textbook is essential—the sciences, law, and mathematics, for example. For other courses, particularly upper level undergraduate courses, textbooks are a waste of money. For most of my years at Baruch I have not used any textbooks, making it less expensive for my students and less restricting for me. I have observed that some professors “lean” on the textbook to teach. This is particularly true when the professor is young and has a limited amount of “life” experience to profess.
3. Keeping course content fresh is paramount. Many have heard of and perhaps experienced the professor who has taught the same course content for decades. This might have been appropriate when knowledge remained static. In the 21st century, however, the pace of knowledge change has accelerated. Long-term life experience notwithstanding, when new facts come to light it is incumbent on the professor to communicate this information to students. Moreover, blending events in the outside world with course content inside the classroom keeps the course relevant and students engaged.
4. College work is about discipline, timeliness, professionalism. Not all students come into the classroom with a level playing field background. Presuming students have been admitted to the college within a certain range of pre-determined academic credentials, the concepts of discipline, timeliness and professional approach to academic work varies from student to student. My experience is in any given class the student population will resemble the traditional bell curve in terms of grades by the end of the semester. Some students are very disciplined and understand the need for timeliness and a professional approach. It’s probable that in their background these values were inculcated prior to coming to the college 
level. The majority of students are in the middle of the curve—they have enough of these aforementioned values to get decent passing grades. And then there are the students who were good enough to get admitted but hit the wall when they realize they’re not in Kansas anymore. It’s part background, part personal temperament. Some pull themselves up; the others fall by the wayside.
5. Standards, challenges, and respect. Professors are not there to make sure students get passing grades. Or to make students feel comfortable. On the contrary, professors are there to raise the bar, to challenge students, to question students’ precepts, to raise questions, and to introduce content that might oppose students’ beliefs. While it is certainly not necessary for professors to be harsh or demeaning towards students, professors are also not there to come down to the students’ level.
6. Students need access to professors outside the classroom. Professors can be mentors to students; in certain instances, advisors on a professional, even a personal level. Some of my best “teaching” moments has been outside the classroom, in my office, even just outside the classroom. Professors are role models. Undergraduate students, especially, are looking for guidance. Some can be given inside the classroom to the entire class. At other times, outside the classroom the “life teaching” occurs on an individual basis.
7. Students want and need direction, especially during the transition from the sophomore to the junior year. Over 25 years I’ve noticed a marked change with students between the end of the sophomore year and the beginning of the junior year. It’s as if each student has gone to a maturation camp over the summer. Often, I’ve had students wanting to speak with me about decisions they need to make at this time as they look down the road at an impending graduation. It’s as if they suddenly wake up to the realization the classroom environment will come to an end and the real world will have to be dealt with.
8. Collegiality intra-department and inter-department. Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is quoted as saying (and I paraphrase a bit) “The battles in the academic world are so fierce because there’s so little to fight for.” The battles in academia may seem petty and small to an outsider. But to those involved in the battle directly or indirectly, the battle is all-encompassing. Fortunately, I have had a breadth of real world experience that includes the military, for-profit and not-for-profit business, free-lance production and consulting, and academia. In my experience, organizational battles are all the same. Get two or more people in a room and the potential for battle is always there. The difference between academia and, let’s say, the military, is that life and death struggles have very different outcomes.
9. The value of an undergraduate degree. It used to be a high school diploma was all you needed to get a job and have enough of an income to start a family, buy a house (perhaps), 
have a car, go on vacation. You know: the American dream. Today, the undergraduate degree, in my view, has replaced the high school diploma. If you want more, you need a graduate degree, at least a master’s. Of course, there are a handful of people who never completed college and have gone on to establish very successful lives. But for the other 99% a college degree is a must. While some undergraduate degree majors are a must for certain professions—medicine, law, physics, for example (there are others for sure)—a student’s major for an undergraduate degree is almost irrelevant. What matters at the undergraduate level is learning how to learn. Yes, students will also learn some facts, but the focal point these days is learning where to find information, knowing how to abstract it, having the skills to analyze it, and communicating what has been gleaned from the research either orally or in writing, or both, in an effective and efficient manner.
10. Humor and engagement in the classroom. No student wants to sit in a boring class—unless of course that class serves the purpose of providing an opportunity for a nap. Catching up on sleep aside, humor is must in the classroom. Sometimes, the humor is self-effacing. Sometimes the humor is a play on words or a reference to an outside event. Humor is a way of engaging students. And engagement is one of the keys to successful teaching, in my opinion. When a teacher can fully engage a class, students become more focused on the task at hand. When this happens, learning occurs.
11. Guest speakers—bringing the outside world into the classroom and vice versa. The professor is the not the end-all, be-all fountain of knowledge. In my experience, and in the experience of many of my colleagues, bringing in a guest speaker with specialized knowledge or unique experience is an invaluable occasion for students. Often, too, the guest speaker will corroborate something the professor has said previously or expands on something the professor has pointed out previously. It is also important for students to touch the outside world as much as possible in another way. Internships notwithstanding, assignments that require students to speak to and interview subject experts outside the classroom is likewise a valuable teaching exercise.
12. Grading. Grades are a teaching tool. Students should not be rewarded for just doing the work. They should be rewarded for the quality of their work, never mind the timeliness of their work. As anyone of any longevity knows, you learn more from your failures that your successes. Too many students look for the good grade to re-affirm their own opinion of themselves and are in shock when their self-perception doesn’t square with the professor’s. It is also unfortunate that students resort to cheating and/or plagiarism in the attempt to get good grades or to get coursework done because of other economic or personal pressures. This is the reality: some students will get A’s (and they will probably show themselves early in the semester), some will get grades in the middle range, and a smaller student population will not make it. This does not mean these students will always be failures. Often enough, at any given time, those who have failed in the past manage to pull themselves up and vindicate their past lack of success. A grade is a moment in time, not a life sentence.
Please write to me at meiienterprises@aol.com if you have any comments on this or any other of my blogs.
Eugene Marlow, Ph.D.
May 13, 2013
© Eugene Marlow 2013