Proffesors On Film: Students Investigate Distinguished Professors

Casey Crough
Staff Reporter

Students in a class taught by Dr. Robert Lemieux are documenting the distinguished work of eleven college professors.

The photos of 18 college professors deck the halls outside the Registrar’s Office ? each professor’s work in the classroom and beyond earned him or her the Distinguished Professor Award, one of the most prestigious awards a college professor may receive for their contribution to academics and student life.
Eleven of these professors will be featured in a video documentary linked to Lemieux’s class, which was inspired by Bravo network’s show, “Inside the Actors Studio.”

“This course is documenting social, cultural, and institutional history,” said Lemieux. Lemieux also added that, “the class is creating an artifact created in the 21st century.”

Although Lemieux leads the students in class, Professor Jonathon Slade also collaborates on this documentary project.

Slade assists the students in the production of the documentary by offering advice for different camera angles and sound techniques.

“This class has been beneficial since I’ve learned a lot of interviewing skills. It’s intimidating at first, but you build a friendship with the professor,” explained senior Rob Silva, who conducted his interview with Rick Smith in the chemistry department.

The 11 professors that will be featured include: Skip Fennell, Deb Lemke, Julia Orza, LeRoy Panek, Mohamed Esa, Christianna Leahy, Margie Boudreaux, Rick Smith, Jeff Marx, Michael Losch, and Lauren Dundes.

Professors not featured, Slade noted with regret, have retired or on sabbatical. Slade hopes that additional interviews can be conducted in a follow up course.

Through the Distinguished Professors course, students have perfected the art of the interview, and although there have been some challenges, the students have been doing very well, according to Lemieux.

“Meeting all of the teachers has been by favorite part of the class,” said Ellen Tuesday Shank, a freshman. The only challenge Shank has come across has been stage fright in front of the camera.

“My favorite part of the course is dealing with Slade’s antics,” joked junior Greg Boyd, who is another student in the class.
“Editing for a job and the behind the scenes work are good skills to learn,” said Tim Sieger, class of 2009.

Each of the interviews will be part of what students and professors hope will be a polished 45-minute video, which will debut Thursday, May 7. Exact time and place of that screening will be announced at a later date.

Ultimately, the video may be used by Admissions and then placed in the college archives.

“It’ll be an honor to be in the archives if they use the final product,” said Boyd.