New Academic Year

Wednesday of this week at 11:30 AM, the returning Graduate Assistants in SIU's English Department return for three days of pre-semester workshop. Many of my colleagues and friends have worked hard putting these events together and, in my judgment, deserve extensive credit for their efforts. Classes begin for the year on Monday next, August 20th, and after a summer of people basically doing their own thing, the routine of regular academic schedules will make its own reappearance. Freshmen will get lost in Faner Hall and 18 year olds will--bravado aside--feel anxious about starting a new part of their lives. New Graduate Assistants across our campus will walk into classrooms and begin teaching, in the process learning more than they realize as the semester develops. I went through that process three years ago and, while being older than perhaps many of my fellow GA's, I had to learn as well, occasionally by "un-learning" from assumptions I had about how students see themselves and what they expect from a Composition class. These next several days, in other words, will be busy and, frankly, I'm grateful.
Within a few weeks as well, SIU's football team will suit up for its first game. One of my former students plays on the team and from what I can tell, has done well throughout his career. The first few games are always in weather too hot for comfort, but I will be always grateful for warmth after going three years ago--with my friends Nathan and Chris--to what we came to call our own version of the "Ice Bowl" when SIU lost to Eastern Washington in Round One of the NCAA Division I-A playoffs. We froze and each got wet in the persistent drizzle; we all escaped pneumonia by probably the skimmest of margins, or so it seemed; and to make matters worse, SIU was ranked Number One in the country, only to lose the game at home. So warm or cold: who knows? I don't know how the Salukis will fare this year, but I imagine I'll take in a game or two after I see my beloved Memphis Tigers twice in early September. I only wish the SIU would sell Coke products rather than Pepsi. I guess the older I get, the more I feel drawn to my original preferences and tend to notice negative taste--personal choice, nothing "scientific" here--that I just can't seem to swallow for the length of a game. Memphis, being a Southern school, sells Coke soft drinks, I believe. Then again, the Dallas Cowboys sell Pepsi at their games and they are somewhat Southern even as my Texas friends will insist on being known as Texans prior to anything else. Maybe the Cowboys' choice of Pepsi is another reason I don't like them. Now if my Minnesota Vikings sell Pepsi, I'm not sure what I'll do.
I'm hoping, in any case, for a productive academic year and that we as students and those students we teach will enrich one another's learning experience.