Saint Michael's College

Title: Professor of Sociology

Education: B.A. University of Notre Dame; M.A., Ph.D. University of Connecticut

Areas of Expertise/Research Interests: Population studies, peace and justice issues, methods of survey research, poverty, quality of life issues, student religiousness

Testimonial: Anytime I succeed at getting a class to understand a complicated and important concept, it can be life-changing.

What do you like most about teaching/working at Saint Michael's College? The sense of community. We genuinely care about each other here - care about our intellectual and moral development. We trust and have genuine respect for other. Our commitments to each other are actually quite deep.

What do you like about Saint Michael's students? Students are incredibly friendly and open here. They are always respectful of the faculty and each other. I have my classes over for dinner a few times a year and my wife is always amazed at how nice and helpful everyone is. They are hardworking and open to changing their thinking. What more could I ask for?

What is your favorite class to teach, and why? Work, Education and Vocation. This course helps the student see the connections between their educations, their eventual jobs, and how the two might be pulled together to create a cohesive and meaningful life.

What kinds of unique opportunities are available to students in your classes or department? In some of my classes, we do a lot of survey research and students get good feedback from the community for that. In another class, all students do service work in the community, such as working with refugees from Africa or doing a project at the homeless shelter. In yet another course, all students who have gone on extended service trips for a week or more come together to process all they have experienced and learned. It's quite powerful to see how experience and academic work build to a fuller understanding than either one alone. I have travelled with students to work on service projects four or five times.

Favorite quote:"It's easier to get what we want than to know what we should want." - Robert Bellah