25th Reunion

20 April 2024: 

[Catch-up post]

Nearly twenty-five years since I graduated from Roanoke and getting close to twenty-nince years since I met this group of women (and Mike!) who have been such blessings in my life. 

Alumni Weekend 2020

18 April 2020: A different kind of Alumni Weekend this year, but I still celebrated with my favorite crew from the Class of 99.

Expired...

20 June 2019: This fell out of one of my books today. The real tragedy is not the expired coupon, but that my first reaction was, “Oh boy—this expired over ten years ago!” Then I remembered how math works…

Posting it on Facebook reminded me an expired gift certificate I posted about last summer. Weirdly, that was exactly one year ago!

Video of the day....

1 December 2016: Well, this video made my day. It stars, among others, two of my most beloved professors. There's Dr. Hanstedt, who guided me through my first major independent research project and helped me get into grad school, and Dr. Miller, who led my study abroad experience at Oxford. So yeah: they changed my life. And you'll also see the guy who taught my first ever college class at Roanoke: Computer Science 101, which met at 8:00 on MWF. It's hilarious. Go Noke!

Alumni Weekend, Part One

11 April 2014: When you have an awesome weekend with some of the best friends you could ask for, you also find yourself with an embarrassment of riches when it comes to "what you are thankful for" posts. So here and now, with a couple of days distance, I'll just pick what comes to my mind first for each day of my visit back to Roanoke College for my 15-year reunion.

For Friday, I'll pick the fun and ridiculous ride Jane and I shared as we drove down. She is my ideal road trip buddy, I think. We can be silly and serious, talk about the mundane and the profound, and there's never a dull moment. And she makes amazing playlists.

Re-reading Emerson

I spent this morning re-reading Emerson's Nature, which I hadn't read since 2007 or so, the last time I taught it. Today, though, I remembered when I first read it--back in my senior year at Roanoke, back when I really fell in love with nineteenth-century American literature. I have this clear memory of walking back to my room one night after getting off work in the spring of 1999. I looked up at the stars and thought of this passage:

"To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society. I am not solitary whilst I read and write, though nobody is with me. But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars. The rays that come from those heavenly worlds, will separate between him and what he touches. One might think the atmosphere was made transparent with this design, to give man, in the heavenly bodies, the perpetual presence of the sublime. Seen in the streets of cities, how great they are! If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile."

It was a scary, kind of uncertain time of my life--finishing college, getting ready to start the next part of my life, leaving my friends, and a place that had become home to me. Those words from Emerson brought me comfort and courage, as so many of these Transcendentalist texts did and still do. And now, nearly 15 years later, I am glad to have that memory.

Campus construction and Walden

Every time I teach Walden and we get to the conclusion, we spend some time talking about this passage:

"I had not lived there a week before my feet wore a path from my door to the pond-side; and though it is five or six years since I trod it, it is still quite distinct. It is true, I fear that others may have fallen into it, and so helped to keep it open. The surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men; and so with the paths which the mind travels. How worn and dusty, then, must be the highways of the world, how deep the ruts of tradition and conformity!" 

I explain to students that when I read this section, I always think of a certain path on Roanoke's campus, back when I was an undergrad. Roanoke has all of these really lovely brick paths, but this particular path wasn't paved--it was a shortcut students made to sort of bisect an angle made by pre-existing paths. Over the years I was there, the landscapers would reseed that section, but soon enough, the grass would get trampled and that brown, worn-down (and sometimes muddy) path would reemerge. By my senior year, they gave up and put down bricks over that path. It certainly looked nicer than dead grass and mud, but it did feel like a defeat of sorts.

You can be pretty sure that if not for the "ruts of conformity," so to speak, the landscapers would have won that battle. But once a path is already there--once the grass is pretty much dead--it's much easier for students in a hurry to take that shortcut. (Yeah, I get that one could also say that getting off the paved path is defying conformity, but in this case, it's really not true. Only the non-conformists (and sometimes people in really nice shoes) stayed on that paved path.)

Well, now I have an even better example for my students (just in time, as my summer class will get to Walden next week): another group of landscapers have surrendered, this time on a path at near Shepherd's library. From my first week on campus, I wondered how long it would take...

Friday afternoon link-dumping...

I am giving myself a ten-minute break to clean up the bookmarks a bit and drop some links, this time all (more or less) related to books, writin', and learnin' in general.

1) What the heck, faculty at the University of Regina? Is this a fight you really want to have? (The short version: sixteen members of the faculty are objecting to scholarships for the children of soldiers killed in action on the grounds that such scholarships glorify war.) In theory, I suppose I can see where they are coming from, but come on...

2) Okay, okay, I still haven't read a single Twilight book (although I did try to make it through the movie...emphasis on "tried"), but this piece from NPR cracked me up. My favorite part (about Bella): "She's like a Smiths song without the humor." Classic. I saw enough of the movie to agree wholeheartedly with these assessments.

3) Literature scholars descend on Research Triangle Park and discuss the future of the profession. Sound thrilling, right?

4) American Book Review's piece about 40 bad books is fun to read through, even as you find yourself arguing back to the various contributors.

5) The University of Wisconsin at Green Bay has decided that switching their default font from Arial to Century Gothic will help them use 30% less ink. I love this story, but only because, cheapskate that I am, I have obsessed a bit over which fonts use more ink and thought I was strange for doing so. Now I know I am not strange (for that reason, anyway)...either that or I am just a Wisconsinite*-in-training. For the record, the best way I've found to save ink? Change your printer setting to "draft." Works just fine.

6) My alma mater, Dear Ole Roanoke, has made it to the Sweet 16 of Tough Graders. That is something to be proud of.

7) A story that just can't be true: according to a study by the fine folks at Boston University, binge-drinking the night before your GREs won't necessarily bring your score down.

*I wanted to type "Wisconsonian," but spell-check tells me that's wrong. Too bad. Wisconsonian sounds cooler than Wisconsinite.

"The Talk. Or Not."

If you've got some time, check out this piece by one of my favorite professors from Dear Old Roanoke, my former adviser and the guy who helped me get into grad school. It's pretty amazing.

Two quick (completely unrelated) links...

1) Remember this post about Tamara, who graduated from Roanoke with me? Short recap: she wrote a blog about 31 dates in 31 days. Well, how about an ending straight out of a movie? Love it!

2) Via Andrew Sullivan, a really cool chart that helps you understand cell size.

Alumni Weekend

I am still trying to process the fact that my ten-year college reunion was last week. Shannon has already posted a ton of great photos, but here are some of my contributions. I really thought I took more pictures than this (and Shannon has already called me out on the fact that I don't have any of her), but what can you do?


Caitlyn, my road-trip companion for the weekend. She and I rode in the back of her parents' new car. We enjoyed a selection of wonderful DVDs, including "Elmocize!" and, my personal favorite, a compilation that included "Harry the Dirty Dog" and this great little story about a Scotty dog and some ducks.


Holding baby Morgan, the daughter of my freshman-year roommate. I am just going to lay it out there: Morgan was the first of several babies I contemplated stealing that weekend.


Beth holding Morgan. I think Beth thought about stealing her, too--or at least getting started on Baby #2.


Two of my favorite people: Mike and Mary.


The always-adorable Allison and her fiance, Greg.


Caitlyn enjoying her burger from Five Guys. This was a compromise dinner: our favorite pizza place in town closed down (sad!), but none of us had tried Five Guys before, so we gave it a shot. Verdict: delicious! (And messy--especially if you are two years old.)


What would a trip back to Salem be without a drive up to the Homeplace? Here are Beth and Caitlyn sitting outside before the restaurant opened.


Caitlyn and her daddy swinging.


Sharon, Chris, and their kids joined us at the Homeplace. Here's a cute shot of Abby and Sharon.


This was the first time I met Colin, Sharon and Chris's new baby. How cute is he?


I did not want to put him down!


Abby and Caitlyn playing after lunch. Cute, right?

Anyway, those are all the pictures I have--until next year! And next year will be even better because Jane will be back, Amber, Mike and Baby Tran will be there, and Heather, Burt and the boys will be there, too. (That's right--you all have no choice in the matter.)

Missing Greensboro...

Believe it or not, this cool new commercial for UNCG has made me feel a bit homesick and nostalgic. (I like the video, although I think they should slow it down a bit.)



Two of the most important decisions I ever made in my life--where to go to college and where to go to grad school--were made for entirely economic reasons (I went where I got the most money) because I wasn't willing or able to do any deep thinking about what the "right" choice should be. I just stumbled into both choices.

I don't consider myself an extraordinarily lucky person, but in both cases, I lucked out beyond measure. I couldn't have made better choices if I tried.

31 Dates in 31 Days

Some of you who are Roanoke grads and Facebook users are probably already aware of a blog that ought to be required reading: Tamara Duricka's 31 Dates in 31 Days. Tamara was one of my coolest classmates at Roanoke and it's been so much fun reading about her adventures on the dating scene in New York. And she was even on Good Morning America today! I wouldn't be surprised if this idea turns into a movie script.

Salem Red Sox?

Have any of my fellow Roanoke alums seen what has become of our beloved Avalanche? Now they are the Salem Red Sox. Eww. For the record, I don't hate the Red Sox the way a lot Yankee fans do, but they certainly aren't a team I like a lot.

How many students is too many students?

An interesting article from the Daytona Beach News Journal online tackles the question of how many students is too many in an English Composition class. The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) recommends no more than 20 students per class--and that no teacher has more than 60 writing students per teacher per term. As this article explains, though, with so many schools encouraged to increase enrollment (without increasing the number of faculty), the stress on these general education courses is growing.

My composition classes here at Shepherd are capped at 25. At UNCG, we were capped at 22. At Richmond it was 15 (what a treat that was!). Fifteen was awesome--as a teacher, I could give each student and each paper lots of time and attention. We could have meaningful discussions about writing and revisions. Twenty-two worked just fine, though, too. And even 25 isn't too bad--but it's clearly not ideal. (I can't remember how many students were in GST 101/102 classes at Roanoke--do any of my fellow alums remember?) Here's an excerpt from the article explaining why--and why there aren't any short-term solutions to this growing problem:

"Here is how it works: La'Shonda Broxton, an 18-year-old DBCC student, wrote a process essay on what it takes to be a successful high school freshman, and she was proud of her work.

Her professor, Carolyn West, wanted her to do better.

"She said I wasn't specific enough," Broxton said. "I wrote that it takes a good attitude and self-esteem. And she asked, 'How are you going to get attitude and self-esteem?' I wasn't specific enough."

That kind of individualized attention takes time, which is why the English teachers' council guidelines for a professor in one semester is three courses of no more than 20 students per class.

Evan Rivers, chairman of DBCC's English Department, said comp classes' enrollment was capped at 22 when he took over last year. This year, the cap was raised to 25 (and in one case 26) mostly because of the enrollment surge and the fact that English composition is a requirement for so many other classes.

"There's nothing I would like better than to follow National Council of Teachers of English guidelines. Nothing would make me happier . . . but there's nothing we can do," he said.

As I said above, 25 students is manageable, though not ideal. I am just worried that soon it will be 26, or 27, 0r 28--you get my point. As my previous posts about weekends spent grading indicate, the work load for these classes can be quite daunting. I hate to complain about my job because, as I've also written about before, I feel pretty darn lucky to get to do this for a living. But I do think there is a point where the quality of instruction will suffer too much to justify increasing enrollments. On the simplest level, as a teacher, I am a lot happier having to read 20 papers than having to read 25. That really isn't fair to the "extra" five students in my class.

Brave new world

Back when I was in college (a phrase that makes me sound old!), the only campus-wide alerts we ever listened for concerned the weather. Would class be canceled because of that half-inch of snow? But my, how the world has changed. In the aftermath of the shooting at Virginia Tech, schools all over are implementing text-message alert systems. They are really publicizing it here at Shepherd, and you can read about it here. I just noticed that they are instituting a similar plan at Roanoke, which you can read about here.

This topic brings up so many interesting sub-topics. Notice the language used to talk about these programs, especially in the Shepherd announcement. Talk about dancing around the real impetus behind the program. (I can't say I blame them, though). Roanoke's is a bit more straightforward, even going as far as to discuss an "Active Shooter Protocol."

Beyond the rhetoric of it all, though, it's strange (and sad) to think that such programs are necessary. Of course, I can remember when Columbine happened. I was a senior in college and my house-mates and I sat around the table talking about how we couldn't have imagined something like that happening in our high schools. (And it was even that long ago that we had been in high school). It's amazing how quickly "normal" changes after something horrific happens. I also remember us talking about how sooner or later, we would have the same worries at colleges and universities. I wish we had been wrong about that.

RCs Class of '99 catches the blogging bug

As I mentioned below, my good friends Heather and Burt have a blog for their son, Will, who at this point is playing coy. (His due date was June 14 and they are still waiting for him to show up). But although they are the first, they aren't my only college friends who have recently jumped onto the blogging bandwagon.

Jane, one of my best friends in the world, has just started AzerbaiJane, a blog all about her experience in the Peace Corps. She leaves on the 24th to start her training before flying to Azerbaijan on June 26th. What she writes will definitely be worth checking out--she's an awesome, interesting, and fun person and I sure she'll be able to capture that all in her writing as she does this very important work. By the way, isn't her blog's name awesome? I wonder what amazingly clever and witty person came up with it.

Then there's my good friend, Shannon, who keeps a blog about her cats, especially an epileptic stray she recently took in (you can't make this stuff up!). She hasn't updated it in awhile, but it's a good read, especially if you are a cat fan.

Here we go...

I've been thinking about this blogging thing for a long time now. So why start? Well, here's a simple reason: my friends Heather and Burt started a blog for their baby (due any day now), and in order to post a comment, I had to sign up for my own blog.

But the other reason is entirely self-serving: I think I am at a place of transition in my life. Big changes and all that. And it feels right to document it (for me more than anyone else--believe me, I know I am not all that interesting to others) in order to better understand it all--in order to be a better person. Yes, the writing teacher in me really does believe that good reading and careful writing can make you a better person. So here we go. I want to start kind of small, though, with a bit of "Where I've Been" and "Where I'm Going."

Where I came from:
Rocky Point, NY (birth to age 17, 1977-1995)
Roanoke College (undergrad, 1995-1999)
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (MA and PhD and a lectureship, 1999-2006)
The University of Richmond (a one-year visiting position, 2006-2007)

Where I am going:
Shepherd University (a tenure-track position in the Department of English and Modern Languages)