Dave

Happy Mardi Gras

It is Saturday morning and while downtown Burlington is getting ready for their annual celebration of Mardi Gras and many of our alums are heading north on 89 to join in that celebration I have been reflecting on the whole college experience for our students - past and present.  This is also Winter Carnival on campus and last night I went over to the 300's field to watch the "Jib Fest" which is this amazing activity where our students snowboard or ski down a man-made hill of snow over rails and moguls carved out of an enormous mound of snow.  The College has been holding these "fests" for several years now and I am fascinated by them.  There were approx. 40 of our students lining up to climb up to the top of this "hill", strap on their skis or snowboard and experience the "rush" of rapidly heading down to the slushy and wet bottom of the "hill."  There were also dozens of other students there cheering their friends on - the MOVE group that is heading to India in May was there grilling food as a fund-raiser and a DJ pumped out music that I couldn't even understand.  What amazes me about this event is that it is ALL student-generated.  The Ski and Snowboard Club, with support from the Student Association and the Office of Student Activities (thanks Grace) arranged for the snow to be brought in, the hill and the rails/moguls to be set up and they completely ran the entire event.  The student fans loved it, the competitors loved it and so on a Friday night, even after an afternoon of temperatures hovering near 50 degrees and with a lot of rain, the event was a success.  The value of working collaboratively together on a positive college-wide function, with support from the Student Association and Student Activities hopefully gave all of those involved a sense of belonging, of being part of this educational experience and of accomplishing something good.  People are often quick to question the motivation of students today and/or to condemn them when something "bad" is reported in the media and we often forget that these are GOOD people who can and do make good decisions and who contribute to the overall experience of this Liberal Arts college. 

My friend and colleague Vince Bolduc emailed the following article from the New York Times to the faculty.  As I read it I thought about the value that THIS college places on the humanities and the value of the education that our students gain IN and OUT of the classroom.  Now, some may question my comparison of the Humanities with a Jib Fest event as part of our Winter Carnival or even the idea of alumni returning here to celebrate Mardi Gras.  However, if you look closely at the article AND the activities this weekend you can see the connection.  Many of our alumni are returning to the Burlington area because this IS still their "home" and they want to re-connect with a place where they experienced their most significant personal growth because of experiences IN and OUT of the classroom.  Here were dozens of students participating in a great outdoor event alongside a group of students who are going to India in May, many of whom have already been part of other "service" trips from the College to make a difference by volunteering to help others.  Friends were gathered around watching and talking and connecting and supporting one another.  I spoke with several of my students and because of the nature of what I teach (psychology) I can and often do connect everything with their learning in the classroom.  Some of our discussion centered around the psychology of this SPORT and others discussed the ABNORMAL behaviors of rushing headfirst down a "mountain" over rails and moguls.  We also all laughed a lot - a good thing.   

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/books/25human.html?em=&pagewanted=print

I continue to hear from former students who are either grateful for still being employed or who are struggling to deal with being UN-employed.  A former student who is applying to graduate schools in Clinical Psychology emailed me lamenting that he was struggling with his essays and he needed help in getting them all put together (he is a veteran who is clearly NOT the same person he was when he was an undergraduate here and he doesn't know how to convey that to a Graduate Admission Office) and it was nice to be able to refer him to the Student Resource Center on campus and to let him know that Chris Clary (Student Resource Center - Director for Career Development)  and David Boynton (psychology professor) had presented very valuable information at a Graduate School workshop this past week and they have just placed their presentations on the department website so he not only could utilize the website but that he could contact Chris (or Ingrid or Donna) directly and get assistance. 

Next week I head to Pittsburgh along with two of my colleagues from the Psychology Department and several students for the Eastern Psychological Association conference.  Carolyn Whitney and I will be presenting a poster session on our work with student-athletes and academic achievement. Carolyn will also be presenting two other poster sessions with her students.  Ari Kirshenbaum will be presenting the research he and several students have been conducting over the past year. I will hopefully update my blog next week from Pittsburgh.

take care, be well and keep our service men and women AND our veterans in your thoughts and prayers and if we were in New Orleans we would say "let the good times roll." 

Dave

Saturday morning grading.......

I gave my first exam in Abnormal Psychology on Thursday and now get to begin that wonderful grading process.  It is often rewarding to look at exams and to see that my students really did understand what I was attempting to get them to understand.  At the same time, I realize that when they get their exams back (hopefully this coming week :)  ) they may challenge every point and question every mark on their exams.  That is just how it is these days.  There was an interesting article in the New York Times on Thursday which talked about how current students across the country seem to think that time spent justifies a good grade.  There is a sense of entitlement that some students have which translates into their thinking that "hey, I came to class every day, read the assignments and therefore should get an A" - as we attempt to explain to students that it really doesn't work that way, some of them seem surprised.  As I graded the papers for both my Men & Masculinities and my Sports Psychology classes the past two weeks I continued to hold students accountable not only for their understanding of the "content" of the class but also for their ability to think critically about that material.  I also hold them accountable for the skill of writing as well and explain to them that writing IS a skill and a craft that they MUST learn if they are truly to call themselves educated.  With the plethora (love that word) of today's high-tech means of communication which do NOT require much skill in writing (text messages, Facebook and Instant Messaging) students are easily seduced into thinking that ALL communication is the same.  Employers are often critical of higher education when college graduates enter the workplace and yet, even armed with a college degree, they are not able to accurately communicate in writing without errors.  None of us are perfect when it comes to writing (myself included here) yet it is important that we hold our students accountable for what and how they write......

Lots of activity on campus these days with both men's and women's hockey having their final home games this weekend (women won last night - men have their final home game this afternoon), our women swimmers/divers compete this weekend and basketball continues towards the end of their season.  At the hockey games last night it was great to see so many faculty/staff in attendance to support our student-athletes.  I did a presentation yesterday for our Student Services group on campus in which I explained how the academic achievement of our student-athletes has improved so much over the past few years thanks to the combined efforts of so many people.  The Athletics Department has academic achievement of our athletes as a priority and the collaboration between faculty, staff, Residence Life folks AND students has had a positive impact.  Ray Patterson (Religious Studies), Dave Kells (counselor in the Student Resource Center), Chris Kenny, Zaf Bludevich, Geri Knortz, James Franklin (Soccer coach), Stacey Peet, Mary Moreau, Seth Cole (athletic department staff/administrators), Josh Van Houten (chemistry), Lloyd Simmons (mathematics), Mike New (VP for Human Resources) Jacki Murphy (admissions), Brian Lee (Student Life) - were all shuffling between the two rinks as our women played on the main ice and our men played on the second sheet.  Both venues were packed with students (the Student Association and Student Activities Office provided buses from campus to the rink), friends and PARENTS and while the men lost, it was nice to see so much positive activity on a Friday night....

There was a great deal of talk at the rink last night about the cuts at the University of Vermont.  News had spread quickly that UVM, as part of their budget cutting, had made the difficult decision to cut both baseball and softball as of the end of this season.  Fortunately for us, at this point, we do NOT have to make such cuts.  The local newspaper this morning is full of information about these cuts and the very emotional toll that it will take on their student-athletes and members of their coaching staff.  These are difficult times for everyone and once again, I commend OUR President for his transparency in keeping all of us informed of his priorities of maintaining our academic excellence, keeping everyone employed and providing financial aid to our students.  Monday morning there will be an Open House for accepted students - these are students who have been accepted but who perhaps have NOT made up their minds yet.  I will be meeting with those students/families who are interested in psychology and I know that Ray Patterson (Religious Studies) and Will Marquess (English) will be meeting with folks who are looking at those majors.  Hopefully we will be able to answer any questions that these folks have and they WILL decide on SMC.  We continue to provide an excellent liberal arts education in a very community centered environment.

Time to begin grading those exams :(

take care and as always, please keep our veterans and the members of our military in your thoughts and prayers.

Dave

Classes are going very well ! ! ! ! !

Now that we are in our fourth week of the semester it is always a good thing to pause to evaluate how things are going so far.  With my being absent for several days due to attending the NCAA National Convention in Washington, D.C. the week before the Inauguration I had some catching up to do with my classes.  This week my Men & Masculinities class discussed the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan after they all read The War I Always Wanted by Brandon Friedman.  Since we had my doctor (Frank Landry - an alum of SMC and a local physician who has graciously volunteered to come to my M&M class for the past 7 years to address issues of men's health) come in the week before, this week's class began with a review of last week and my asking how many of the students had actually asked their parents about cholesterol levels, colonoscopies, and for their fathers, their PSA numbers.  What an amazing group of seniors in this class.  There are 16 men and 13 women, all second semester seniors and we have two and a half hours every Monday night to discuss an amazing variety of topics.  The discussion on War brought out a lot of emotions and after a quick PowerPoint presentation showing some of the statistics on the Wars, an acknowledgement that they really don't know as much about these issues as they should.

Sports Psychology is always an energetic class as we get to cover the psychological implications of many issues surrounding sports, athletes and athletics.  This week we covered superstitions and attempted to determine whether certain behaviors are rituals, superstitions, or  OCD.There is always a high level of participation as this course is primarily for majors.  We also discussed everything from Michael Phelps' smoking pot, the Kentucky coach charged with reckless homicide in the death of one of his 15 year old players, the girls' coach who ran the score up to 100 - 0 and how the NFL players are NOT actively providing financial support for their now retired "bretheren" who played many years ago and who are now paying the price for that active engagement so many years ago. This is the class in small groups ACTIVELY engaging each other in discussion, sometimes heated - that is a good thing.... 

Abnormal Psychology is always a fun class as they are all trying to understand the content of the class while being reminded by me NOT to diagnose themselves, ME, their parents, their other professors or their friends.  I split the class up on Tuesday and while half of them went with senior Seth Brown (he was just accepted at the University of Pennsylvania for a Master's Program in Criminology) to look at the Krikstone Laboratory for Experimental Psychology, I took the others to the Developmental Laboratory which Professors Carrico, Millwood and VanderKaay, along with many students, use for their research.  I use this lab for my Theories of Counseling class.  Many of the students were not aware that we had these labs and they were full of questions about research and what they may be able to do if they either continue as psychology majors OR decide that now they WANT to become majors.    I enjoy being able to challenge them to think critically and after a few "gotcha" moments, they are catching on that merely "parroting" back information will not help them in this class. 

As always, take care, be well and please keep our servicemen/women in your thoughts and prayers.

Dave