They're Why We're Here

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-1722.2009.01064.x
• Published date: 01 August 2009
• Date: 01 August 2009

They’re Why We’re Here

Nim Razook

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I began teaching at the University of Oklahoma in the late 1970s. I have

somewhat fuzzy memories of those times on campus, but two are quite

vivid. The first was looking out my office window and seeing Iranian stu-

dents marching on campus, shouting, ‘‘The Shah is a Fascist Pig.’’ I won-

dered whether some of their T-shirts said ‘‘Disco Sucks.’’

The second memory provoked this perspective. As I strolled down

the halls of the business building, I heard loud protests coming from one of

the departmental offices. It was Dave (pseudonym), a senior professor,

complaining about students. He was very animated and very angry with his

students, ‘‘I just don’t think I can stand being around them anymore.’’

I was instantly unsympathetic. In fact, I dismissed his comments as those of

one who should hang up the cap and gown and distance himself from this

place. He was professionally over the hill. If he could no longer handle the

students, then he should retire.

Over thirty years in this job have helped me understand Dave’s com-

ments. Rather than targeting endemic student issues, his outburst was

probably just frustration after a tough day in the classroom. We all know

that some students can be difficult and, when added to other professional

problems, make us all, including Dave, want to vent. Dave’s frustrations

were similar to those you and I face routinely. Our best students are a joy.

But there are some students who can wear us pretty thin. This is especially

so now as we face mounting responsibilities to serve our institutions and

academies, produce research, manage our courses, and contend with the

added pressures occasioned by dire economic news.

I would wager that you have heard a colleague joke, ‘‘This would be a

better place without the students.’’ You, Dave, and I would all get the joke.

Yet, at a time when we are so distracted by professional pressures and

r2009, Copyright the Author

Journal compilation rAcademy of Legal Studies in Business 2009

485

Journal of Legal Studies Education

Volume 26, Issue 2, 485–488, Summer/Fall 2009

n

David Ross Boyd Professor of Legal Studies, Price College of Business, University of

Oklahoma.