Ask a Professor Program
Photo by William Morrison
On September 21st, RAs McKenzie Olinger and Kiara Liedy held a program in James Lobby called Ask a Professor. The program consisted of a panel of six different professors who were all from different disciplines. The panelist were Dr. Jones-Pierce (English), Dr. Johnson (education), Dr. Friesenhahn (political science), Dr. Alexander (psychology), Dr. Chirhart (biology), and Dr. Reid (mathematics). The program also included Dr. Johnson, the director of the Center for Teaching and Learning.
Ask a Professor was divided into two sections; the first had a questions and answers portion where McKenzie and Kiara had some prepared questions as well as some questions from the audience, and the second had a quiz to see who could guess what about the professor. During the Q&A portion of the program, students got to hear some wonderful advice. For example, Dr. J-P introduced us to “whatamitodowiththismajor.com” which is a website that can help you figure out what you want to do with your major. We also learned that professors love it when students ask for help, especially ahead of time. However, as Dr. Chirhart pointed out, please give professors time to respond to emails/text messages. They live their own lives too, you know. Some other advice included going to the Learning Commons and making an appointment to go over your papers before it is due. If you’re struggling or need some more help with things like research or sources you can also go to Patrick in the library. Dr. Reid told us about how space, repetition, and practice are important. Create the space you need to do your work, and repeatedly practice that work. Practice makes progress after all.
The second portion of Ask a Professor was a quiz given to students to see who could guess the fun fact about each professor. Each quiz was then tallied up and a grand prize of a gift card was given to the person with the most correct answers. The grand prize winner was Emilie Adams although it was a close race. The students did learn some fun facts such as that Dr. Reid ate laundry detergent when he was younger and Dr. J-P had a cat with a thumb.
After the program was over, I got a chance to talk with McKenzie and Kiara. I asked them why they put this program together. They told me that at first they were going to have a program just for pre-med students, but then they decided that they wanted this panel to be more inclusive to all students. Dr. Johnson, the director of the Center for Teaching and Learning, told me that she wanted to help put on the program (and bring a plethora of drinks and snacks) because she wanted to give students the opportunity to see professors as people and be able to ask them questions in a relaxed setting. Bravo to everyone who helped put the program together because I’d say it was a huge success.