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Roger Casey, Rollins College
August 23, 2002
I'm Roger Casey, Dean of the Faculty, and I'm your host for the ultimate
reality show, Survivor: The Rollins Years. Outwit. Outlast. Outplay. Here
we are, seated in our first tribal council. The President is wearing the
immunity idol. You can't vote her off. You can't vote off the faculty.
They have tenure. So each week, after a series of challenges, we will
meet here to vote one of you off, until there is only one person left,
who will graduate and win an ugly car and one million dollars. But you
won't get to keep your money because the President will solicit you for
a gift to the alumni fund to create another endowed chair. And now, for
your first challenge, a true/false question: True or false? The faculty
seated behind me are responsible for your education. Raise your hand if
you think the answer is true. WRONG! You are responsible for your education.
Our first day and already half the island is voted off. Not good.
No, it's not really like that. Rollins is not Survivor, nor Big Brother,
nor Fear Factor. College is not about placing difficult trivia in your
path or watching your every move. It's about learning to be an independent,
responsible citizen in a global society. Our job as a faculty is to create
the right conditions necessary to facilitate the process of transforming
you into informed, responsible members of society, not the kind of idiots
who voted Tamira off of American Idol.
One of my generation's greatest bands, a group called Nirvana, burst
on the music scene with a little song called "Smells Like Teen Spirit."
Any of you know the chorus? In the words of Kurt Cobain: "Bleah,
aargh, bluh, eoow . . ." To translate: "Here we are now--entertain
us." I'm here to tell you that learning is not the same thing as
entertainment. Do not confuse it with spectatorship. Sometimes learning
is painful. It's like the adage about working out: "No Pain. No gain."
These three stripes on the sleeves of all these academics on the stage
with me represent blood, sweat, and tears.
A few years ago, I visited another college's London Studies program as
an accreditor. I sat in a class on European Politics taught by a German
named Jurgen. The class had gone on a field trip to Paris the previous
weekend and were back together for the first time on Tuesday. Jurgen entered
the class, pile of books in hand. "So Jennifer, what did you think
of the trip?" Jennifer replied, "It was fun!" Jurgen throws
his books onto the desk, and with some hint of playfulness decries, "With
you Americans, it's all about the fun. Well, sometimes, learning is not
about the fun. It's about pain. It's like walking on the broken glass."
I'm sure you've all seen video of people who place mind over matter and
walk across broken glass without a single cut? Let me take a few moments
to introduce you to the people who will help you learn to do it, metaphorically
speaking, of course.
Madam President: I am pleased to rise to present the Faculty of the College.
These stripes and hoods indicate to you that nearly all our faculty hold
the highest degree attainable in their field. But beyond that, many of
them have attained the highest honor for any professor, that of endowed
chair. One in every eight of Rollins' professors holds an endowed chair.
Let me ask them to stand for a moment. I can't introduce all of them by
name, but I'll tell you about two. Lately, Kenneth Curry Professor of
Literature Socky O'Sullivan has been publishing a book a year, the latest
on Southwest Noir. And in 2001-2002, Archibald Granville Bush Professor
of Physics Don Griffin has authored not 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, but over a dozen
articles, including my personal favorite, "measurement of the field-induced
dielectronic-recombination-rate enhancement of Oxygen-Five cat-ions differential
in the rydberg quantum number n." The video is available in the bookstore.
It's not only the endowed chairs who are great scholars: as an example,
Biology professor, Dr. Judy Schmalstig, just won the award for the outstanding
published article of the year from the American Society of Horticultural
Sciences for her work on zucchini with silverleaf disorder. Think of her
when you're eating your veggies in the Cornell Campus Center. Assistant
Professor of Education, Dr. Gio Valiante, has been traveling on the PGA
Golf tour coaching top players based on his research in sports psychology.
His work has been featured in golf journals and television spots. Our
scholarship in the arts is equally outstanding. Take for example Assistant
Professor of Music Dr. Dan Crozier’s most recent composition, “Toccata
for Soprano Saxophone and String Trio.” It was played by a little-known
guy called Branford Marsalis.
The scholarship of the faculty does not take place in the absence of
students. Associate Professor of Physics, Dr. Thom Moore (how are you
doing Dr. Moore?) (He always says that) heads up our summer research program
in which students in all disciplines, not just the sciences, work side
by side with a faculty member engaged in original research. Some, like
Psychology faculty members, Drs. John Houston and Sandy McIntyre, publish
their work in conjunction with their students. Would all the faculty who
have worked in summer research with students over the past three years
please stand up?
As believers in global citizenship, our research and teaching frequently
take us far from the United States. Will everyone who left the country
for professional reasons over the past year please stand? Cite some examples:
Uganda, Bali, the Dominican Republic, Spain.
But most of all, we are teachers. Will all winners of teaching awards
of any kind please stand? Over 60% of our faculty have won a teaching
award of some type. At colleges nationally, the average is less than 40%.
Alumni research conducted (and published in the nation’s leading
higher education periodical, I might add) by one of our own endowed chairs,
Alfond Professor of English Barbara Carson, shows that perhaps the biggest
thing you will remember about your experience at Rollins is your relationship
with one of our professors.
Get to know them. Harvard Professor Richard Light's research on why students
succeed in college points to several factors. Probably the most important
is this: students who succeed in college develop a relationship with professors
that extends outside of the classroom. Introduce yourself. Visit them
during their office hours. Come armed with questions. They're lonely without
you. You're the reason they're here. It's not because we pay them $6.74
an hour.
In conclusion: Make the most of the reality show called Rollins. In the
words of Henry James: Be someone on whom nothing is lost. I wish you great
success.
Madam President: The faculty are assembled.
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