New students aren’t the only ones trying to find their way around campus this fall. New faculty members are also getting used to the atmosphere.
The University has welcomed 42 new tenure-related instructional faculty members, who will teach in a variety of departments, from anthropology to dance to women’s studies.
Like students, the new faculty members are just getting settled into new positions, daily routines, and class schedules, and for the most part are excited to be here.
“I have always had a desire to move here and into the University’s geography department,” said geography professor Susan Hardwick.
Hardwick came to the University from Austin, Texas, where she taught at Southwest Texas University for three years.
“The first week of classes went really well,” she said. “I was impressed with the caliber of students, as well as the campus.”
Hardwick also said she has noticed differences in the way research and teaching are integrated at the University.
“It relates to classroom teaching and really makes a difference,” she said. “The other big difference is that it is hot there. I’m looking forward to the rainy weather.”
Of the 42 new instructors, 15 are women and 27 are men. Seven of the new faculty members have been identified as members of minority groups, and 11 are non-US citizens.
As in Hardwick’s case, the weather seemed to play a role in other faculty members’ decisions to make the move as well.
“We’ve been here for three months now, since mid-July,” said Joel Sneed, a new accounting professor who came from Arizona. “We wanted to leave before it got really hot there.”
Besides the difference in weather, Sneed has also noticed the large number of students that come through campus daily.
“It is unbelievably crowded,” he said. “The college of business at Arizona is off to the side and really relaxed. Here, the College of Business is right in the middle of everything.”
Another factor that influenced Sneed’s decision to come here was that he was looking for a “smallish town” to live in.
Sneed and his wife seemed to find what they were looking for in Eugene.
“We just had a child nine months ago and are expecting another one,” he said. “It’s nice to live in a town like Eugene.”
The “excellent” University and faculty, as well as the fact that the University is a Pacific-10 Conference school, were also factors.
For Julie Haack, a new assistant chemistry department head and teaching administrator, being an undergraduate played a significant role in her decision to come back to the University.
“I was working in a bio-tech start-up company in Portland, and the chemistry department here had some programs that really interested me,” she said.
Haack, who had previously done some teaching at the University as a teaching fellow, said that her first week has been fantastic.
“The University faculty is incredible, and the administration has been very helpful,” she said.
The University’s dance department and regional location is what lured new dance professor Walter Kennedy to the University.
“A very nice offer and a very nice dance department in a beautiful part of the country is what made me come to the University,” he said.
Kennedy, who came from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said he enjoys the nature of a smaller, more intimate campus.
“I love it, I am very excited,” he said. “There are going to be new challenges and talented students.”