Hamilton College - Alumni Review - Spring 2008

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Felton warns, though, that fun doesn't equal ease. An exceptional professor, she says, sets high expectations—and then helps students rise to meet them.When she studied abroad as part of Hamilton's Associated Colleges in China program, she found her teachers "expected you to be on your game at all times. "Teachers demanded not only that students keep up with the syllabus, but that they even work ahead of assigned passages.The teachers, though, reviewed the material so thoroughly and showed such joy when students excelled that Felton felt compelled to meet the challenges.

And, students say, that intensive classroom exchange works both ways; an effective professor does not regard questions or comments as interruptions but "likes to be challenged," Kula says. A good course is, among other things, an ongoing conversation within an intellectual community, and part of the art of teaching is giving students the confidence to join that conversation. Roe calls it "the ability to be open to questions," to go beyond routine responses to students' inquiries and to welcome debate, even skepticism.

While course content is important, students say that the heart of most courses is developing the critical-thinking and research skills that define the discipline. History major Rachel McReynolds '09 looks for the professor who "teaches me…how to be a historian rather than just teaches me about history." She wants to learn how to write like a historian, "think like a historian, approach historical ideas and thought like a historian."

Once class is over, students enjoy bumping into their professors around campus and in town, and they regard invitations to dinner and other glimpses into teachers' personal lives as a part of the educational experience. As Ballout puts it,"If you run into [professors] outside the office, then you can have organic conversations with them that involve topics that might not be addressed in the classroom, and you find out more about them as
human beings." Another of Polonski's professors, Margaret Thickstun, the Elizabeth J.McCormack Professor of English, has held some of her office hours at Café Opus. Polonski says her presence
there, in the midst of the social life of the College, merges the personal and the instructional in a welcoming way.

Faculty members, in fact, touch students' lives in a variety of ways beyond the confines of the classroom and the laboratory.Mallory Reed '10, a news editor for The Spectator, likes it when a professor mentions having read one of her articles—even if the professor expresses disagreement with it.Michael Hayes '08 has been able to form close relationships with two professors on the golf course—Robert Simon, the Marjorie and Robert W. McEwen Professor of Philosophy, and Paul Hagstrom, associate professor of economics—while they coach him and the other members of the golf team. Roe recalls that Professor of Chemistry Karen Brewer spent time with her during both spring break and summer vacation in 2006 to complete a course so that Roe could join a spring research expedition to Antarctica led by Eugene Domack, the Joel W. Johnson Family Professor of Geosciences.

Such gestures, students say, not only demonstrate professors' commitment, but also represent a sense of engagement in campus life that transforms a college into a community. Says Tamim Akiki '08,"A great professor in class, no matter how successful, remains a memory of a great professor, but a mentoring and caring professor becomes a lifelong friend."

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