What attracts professors to Washington College? It's not Chestertown's night life or public transportation, and it's sure not the easy commute to New York.
A small school-fewer than 1400 students-in a rural setting may not be the first choice of every college professor in America, but new instructors continue to find a home in Chestertown.
According to Dean Joachim Scholz, WC has hired 15 full-time, tenure-track professors in the last three years, and the Philosophy and English Departments are now in the process of hiring still more faculty members.
Scholz said that two main reasons for so many new professors are faculty retirements and the "growth of the student body from approximately 850 in 1994 to 1350 in 2006 and the College's decision to stay with a student/faculty ratio of 12:1."
So WC needs them. But why do they keep coming?
For some, there was never any doubt. "I myself have a bias for small liberal arts colleges," said English Professor Corey Olsen. "It's what I always envisioned for myself, to teach in a small college town in a rural setting."
Other new professors feel the same way. Professor James Martin of the German Department related his experiences at Allegheny College, Pa., where he taught previously. "[Allegheny] is also a small liberal arts school. That experience made me search for a school like it, where there is lots of teacher-student contact," he said. "There is a smaller, more friendly dynamic."
WC's very smallness, in fact, may leave that much more room grow. "Smallness is the goal," said English Department Chair Richard Gillin. "At a larger university, you're the low man on the totem pole. Here, our courses [even for junior professors] are exciting. As a faculty member, you can grow, and there is a great deal of encouragement to do so."
For any given faculty position that opens up, there can be hundreds of applications, which means the interviews have to be tough.
"The one day that you spend on campus [interviewing] is exhausting," said Drama Professor Michelle Volansky. "You kind of grow tired of your own voice."
Candidates for all disciplines must give a scholarly lecture, a system that is somewhat unique to WC because it is neither a real class nor a real lecture.
"You're told to gear [the lecture] towards students," said Olsen. "I found it so hard to plan-there's a level of fiction about it" since it is not a real class. "But I do approve of it. It makes a good test, because it's so hard. If a candidate succeeds, you know they can really succeed," he said.
Volansky agreed. "The job talk was artificial for me. I'd put [interviewees] in the environment [with students]-it's important to see how they deal in the context," she said.
But the interviewing process is not all about stressing out prospective faculty members. "We want them to be emotionally and personally invested" in teaching at WC, said Gillin. That involves making the school as attractive as possible. For some, it works.
"When I visited, I felt a lot of energy on campus," said English Professor Alisha Knight.
The responsibility also falls on the school to appeal to applicants. First, there is the disadvantage, to some, of being in a rural area. "Some of our selling points are the worst things to other people," said Olsen. "I know a lot of people that [Chestertown] wouldn't appeal to."
It's about about perspective, though-WC is actually close to big cities, compared to a school in rural Ohio, said Biology Professor Hugh Jarrard.
Also because of the small community, professors have the opportunity to live close to campus. Martin, for example, will soon be buying a house in the area, which he said is "super-cool. I'll be a couple of blocks away. That's harder to do at a bigger school."
"I have a 6-minute commute, walking, and I love that," said Jarrard.
The size of the school also allows for many opportunities that one might miss out on teaching at a larger school. One such opportunity is getting to know faculty in different departments.
"I tell [interviewees] I enjoy my colleagues," said Gillin. "Faculty members' offices are not separated by discipline, and it is interesting to talk to different departments."
"It's very appealing," said Olsen. "I always thought of things in separate departments, but here, the English department hangs out with the Physics department."
The newer professors are already taking advantage of this system. Volansky has set up a partnership with Business Professor Michael Harvey so that business and theatre students can learn from one another. "The world is not divided into specific disciplines," she said. "We are always looking for ways we can work and teach together. That's really encouraged."
Also encouraged is the professors' ability to expand the scope of the current coursework.
"I think that's what I love about teaching here," said Knight. "I can structure classes the way I want to structure them, and everyone has been supportive." For example, last semester she was able to take her Harlem Renaissance students to Harlem.
Jarrard hopes to start a program studying salmon in British Columbia, like other programs in the science departments that take students to Maine and the Bahamas. "That's the neat thing about a small college," he said.
"From the minute I arrived, it was clear it was an active desire on the part of the campus to do my own thing," said Olsen, who was hired to teach medieval literature and has already initiated his own two-part course in Foundations of Western Literature.
But the most important attraction of WC seems to be the close relationship professors develop with students.
"I truthfully tell [prospective faculty] about the enthusiasm of students," said Gillin.
"Everything is so overwhelming at a bigger school, but here, I can get to know the students," said Martin, who holds his small upper-level German course in his office. At WC, most agree that teaching is the primary concern.
"The reason I was excited about this place was that I wanted a small institution where teaching is the primary focus," said Jarrard.
Working at a small school is not without its challenges, though. Olsen mentioned the unexpected amount of "extra" stuff, from advising to sponsoring extracurricular activities, that takes extra time, "but this type of thing, the intimacy, is what attracted me here," he said.
"Don't let the small size and rural location fool you," said Volanksy. "It really is a gem that should be celebrated."
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