The Collegian

Issue date: 9/10/09 Section: Focus

Media Credit: William Clayton Assistant Professor of Education Daniel Coupland pores over a textbook for his new grammar class.

While students' thoughts dwelt far away from campus this summer, many college faculty and staff were hard at work preparing for the 2009-2010 school year.

Professor of Philosophy James Stephens said the amount of preparation for a given course depends on its subject matter. For some courses, he said, the curriculum changes little year by year.

"For some classes not a great deal of research is needed, particularly in an area like Greek philosophy, where the important topics don't change drastically from year to year," said Stephens in an e-mail to The Collegian.

Other courses, he said, require more professorial preparation than average.

"For other classes, like the Philosophy of Mind seminar I'm teaching this term, one might try to read 20 or 30 books over a summer, because here the important issues do change as more empirical research comes in," Stephens said.

Lecturer in Political Science Geoffrey Lea said his classes all present an overview of basic micro- and macroeconomic principles, thus reducing course research.

"Really the path [for my courses] is already laid out, which cuts down on my own preparation a lot," Lea said. "I left this week open a lot mainly to see what students here at Hillsdale are like."

Lea, a newcomer on campus, recently left his position in the economics department at George Mason University.

Registrar Douglas McArthur noted this year as one of increasing curriculum changes, particularly in the math, physics and classics departments. This last department, he said, has added majors for Latin and Greek.

Such additions generate summer work for Central Hall, where McArthur's office must create new courses in the campus computer system before matching them with majors.

"It all requires quite a bit of maintenance work," McArthur said. "With the implementation of the new computer system campus wide, there have been a lot of changes."

Some courses, such as Assistant Professor of Education Daniel Coupland's elements of English grammar, are entirely new. Coupland said he personally completed every exercise in his inaugural grammar class' 453-page textbook, estimating he spent an average of one or two hours a day preparing for the course.

"I spent a lot of sunny summer days with a No. 2 pencil and an eraser diagramming sentences," he said.

Coupland also said his other courses require routine maintenance. He said he ensures the readings he chooses remain helpful to students. Although professors must submit their textbook selections to the bookstore in the spring for the coming fall, he said, he often reviews his choices carefully each summer to get a sense of what chapters may need additional clarification or supplemental hand-outs.

"The basic framework of the class remains the same, but I think any good teacher tweaks," he said.

Stephens agreed.

"If one's lucky," he said, "each course is different each time and each year, while still remaining essentially the same-just like the truths one's trying to teach."

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