Prospective college faculty visit UW-Richland

A group of 10 graduate and postdoctoral students from UW–Madison visited the UW-Richland campus on July 3. The students, on a field trip for their UW–Madison course “The College Classroom: Teaching in the Liberal Arts,” visited the Richland Center campus to learn about the culture, mission and opportunities for teaching on a smaller campus.

UW-Richland biologist Darby (Brown) Oldenburg, organizer of the visit, says, “They wanted to see what’s going on in the UW Colleges, to see the learning environment for themselves. I’m pleased to be able to show these prospective future university faculty what an amazing campus UW-Richland is, to introduce them to our dynamic environment and show them that great learning takes place in environments that look quite different from UW–Madison.”

Oldenburg put together a panel of UW-Richland faculty and staff to meet with the group, discuss the campus mission, culture and to answer questions. UW-Richland assistant dean for administrative services Barbara Wentz led the group on a campus tour. They visited the summer session class taught by UW-Richland assistant professor of mathematics Cetin Urtis.

Don Gillian-Daniel, associate director of the UW–Madison Delta Program in Research, Teaching and Learning and one of the teachers of the course, accompanied the group.

He explained that this professional development course focuses on how to teach well and how teaching works on different types of campuses — small, large, public and private. He said the group had previously visited UW-Milwaukee, they have plans to visit MATC and Carroll College, and that they’ve heard from a representative of Edgewood College.

What impressions of UW-Richland did the prospective future college faculty form?

Andrea Lang came to UW–Madison from Virginia, where the university system is quite different than in Wisconsin. “It really opened my eyes to the range of learning environments,” she says.

Peter Meulenbroek says, “I was impressed with the unity of the UW-Richland faculty. The focus on students is refreshing.”

Another of the visitors, Seth Magle, says, “I had no previous experience with the campus. It’s new to me. Faculty and staff seem committed and happy. It’s the kind of place that fosters a close relationship between students and faculty … and it’s a beautiful campus.”