The Role of Professors

[GAA_Admin]

Did a great professor have a big effect on your college experience? One of the chief worries about the budget cuts to the University — and one of the motivations for tuition increases — is whether it will be able to keep professors who are leaders in their fields and who might be lured away with raises and other incentives. Did you take several classes with a professor because he or she was such a good teacher? Were you inspired to achieve more in your studies because of their enthusiasm for the material? Tell us about the role you think individual professors play in the quality of higher education.

[Rich_McManus]

I am told, by my ex-professor brother, that college faculty these days are there to please the customer and that standards have gone to hell. That wasn't how I remember it in '74-'77. Memorable faculty (I was an English-American Studies major) included Weldon Thornton, who launched the Great Books curriculum while I was at UNC and pretty much re-taught me how to read; the iconic Doris Betts; Prof. Kirkpatrick, who warned me against using "elephantine, Teutonic prose"; Louis Rubin, who called embarrassing attention to a tawdry streak in my writing; Lewis Leary, who once let me teach "The Ponder Heart" to one of his classes; exemplary scholar John Kasson; art critic Donald Kuspit, who memorably described some forgotten painter as "the Jerry Lee Lewis of art"; and the late Jeff Obler in poli sci, who once heartened me mid-exam by complimenting my call for clarity in one of his essay questions.

I thought so well of the education at UNC that I'm hoping my teenage daughter gets in next fall--it's her first choice!

[AngeCS29]

Although I remember most of my class choices revolving around (1) the time of day and (2) the day of week the class was scheduled, I can say that there were a number of professors in the Philosophy department that I found myself seeking out. One professor in particular, Geoffrey Sayre-McCord, is still someone I remember as being a great speaker and is still part of the Phil Dept staff. Wonderful department overall.

Andre S. Cole, '05
Comm Studies/ Philosophy Major
Analyst at Bassett Furniture Stores