“I am very very excited.”
Throughout our interview Shanny Luft, general education director, mentioned that he was very excited, too excited, in fact.
He worried that he sounded like a seventeen-year-old boy, and not a professor. But his passion for learning is what makes Shanny Luft the perfect person to take over the position of general education director.
Luft enjoys learning so much he said that, “One of the frustrating things about being a professor is that I never have time to take other people’s classes. I would love to sit in on more people’s classes.”
Luft’s passion for education reaches back to his time as an undergraduate at Towson University, where he took so many introductory courses that it took him 6 years to graduate. “I got enough credits for two and a half degrees. I only got one, but I just loved being in school,” Luft said.
Luft explained that he chose to pursue his masters and Ph.D. in religious studies largely because of his experience as an undergraduate, “Those general education courses, I think are why I am a college professor. They’re the thing that got me curious and excited about education and about how the world works.”
Luft has been teaching at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point since 2009 and has chaired the philosophy department for the past two years.
“I love being chair of the philosophy department,” Luft said. “It’s a really wonderful department. They’re so bright and so talented and so good at what they do. Chairing this department is a pleasure.”
Luft said leaving his position is even more difficult given the uncertain status of the philosophy department.
“When I read the Point Forward document, like a lot of faculty on that list, I was heartbroken that we might not be able to do the things we’re doing that I think are really special.”
Luft noted that the philosophy department has the second highest enrollment numbers in the University of Wisconsin-System coming in approximately four students behind the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with a lot of UWSP students adding a philosophy degree to compliment their first degree.
Luft is encouraged by the fact that so many students have found philosophy to be so applicable to their other areas of interest and hopes to help promote that kind of interdisciplinary knowledge as the director of general education.
“I would like students to take gen-ed courses and feel like they were being exposed to things that they were not aware of or that they didn’t truly understand.”
To understand how to improve the general education program, Luft wants to speak with students to learn what makes them excited about a general education program and also what frustrates them.
He even put our interview on pause to interview me about my experience with the general education program.
Luft hopes he can bring his passion for general education to future students of UWSP, and with his excitement for learning, we are confident he will succeed.
Olivia De Valk
News Editor
odeva199@uwsp.edu
One comment
Pingback: Mini-Heap - Daily Nous