6 October 12

Kathryn Barrett-Gaines, Ph.D.

UMES Director of African American Studies

 

6 October 12

On the Saturday evening train to Charlottesville, I read student work and plan next week’s classes.  I trade live emails with students.  I work on next semester’s syllabi.  I dream about my next book.  I read Stanford and UMBC alumni magazines for inspiration to enhance student experience at UMES.  I am actively a professor, while rolling gently across the farms of central Virginia.

This is 2012.  Office hours are a nineteenth century innovation, when a professor’s student found him, and they were all him, only in his office.  In the 1800s, a student did not phone, email, text, facebook, or tweet a professor.  There in his office he sat, and all of them were he, and waited for him to come to him. 

In the 1800s, a student had little else to keep him, and they were all him, from that professor’s office.  He, and they were all he, had no children, no part time job, no second part time job, no car payment, no unemployed father, no chronically ill mother, no imprisoned uncle.

In the 1800s, a young person with such worries was not a college student.  A college student was upper middle class, male, and leisurely.  He had nothing but time to wait for the professor to open his office door and usher him in.

Not one of my students is an upper middle class male, leisurely waiting for the trust fund to come due.

Our world here at UMES differs from the world of the college student of the 1800s.  The UMES student moves quickly between classes, jobs, homes, and cyberspaces.

I roll quietly along the train tracks to Charlottesville, professor-ing along the way.  Next week I’ll travel north to Vermont, to run a marathon.  In chilly New England, I’ll read the student work stacked in my inbox, I’ll email chat with students, I’ll calculate and post midterm grades to Hawkweb, I’ll read for class, and plan our next class meetings.  In November, I’ll fly to Uganda, to see how my book is being received under African sun.  From the equator, I’ll reply to student inquiries, I’ll read their writing, I’ll send encouragement and criticism, I’ll comment on their growth and improvement.  I’ll disseminate opportunities and deadlines.

And I’ll keep rolling, flying, hiking, and running.  I have a world to see, and so do you.  In 2012 my office hours are everywhere that I am.  Meet me in Bowie, Vermont, Virginia, Uganda, high in the sky.  I’ll see you there.

UMES Family!

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