More great skiing and student papers ARE good so far this semester.

I got up early this morning and headed to Smuggler's Notch Ski Resort for a few runs down the mountain before returning to campus to grade more papers. The skiing was great, as usual and we are so lucky to have Smuggs as part of SMC. Since I had graded most of the newly submitted papers Saturday, I only had a few more to do. I have been impressed with the quality of my students' writing so far and if this is any indication of the rest of the semester, it is going to be an excellent one. Sports Psychology and Men & Masculinities are both writing intensive courses and I have high expectations for student writing and hold my students accountable for such things as spelling, grammar and punctuation. Since society holds them accountable once they leave our campuses, I think it is part of our responsibility to make sure that they DO learn now so that they don't make common mistakes later on.

This past Thursday my friend/colleague Pat Standen (adjunct professor of Philosophy) came into my Sports Psychology class to talk with my students. Pat was in an automobile accident when he was just 16 and has been in a wheel chair ever since. I have been inviting him in for some time and when his schedule works with mine, it is an eye-opener for my students. Pat kayaks, sails a sailboat, handcycles, participates in sled hockey, water skis, downhill and XC skis and probably engages in several other athletic endeavors that I don't even know about. He is the founder and President of NDAA - Northeast Disabled Athletes Association and we brought up their website disabledathletes.org in class and my students were amazed at the variety of options open to "differently abled" athletes. Pat and I have a great banter back and forth and students quickly become comfortable with his presence in my class. Many of my students have already had Pat for one of his Philosophy classes so they already know what a great teacher he is. Because we examine the psychological implications of sport injuries, it was really important for my students to see what the newest options are - wheelchair soccer and wheelchair lacrosse and even rugby are just some of the new things that people who have been injured and who may have thought finished with athletic competition can participate in. My gratitude to Pat for his willingness to give of his time to educate my students. Pat also serves at the faculty mentor for our men's ice hockey team and they have come to admire and respect him as much as I do.

Yesterday afternoon we had our final home women's and men's basketball games. Our women won and our men lost a great and close battle. We have been working on getting more and more people to appreciate all of the hard work that our student-athletes put into their sports so it was nice to see a good sized crowd at the women's game and an even larger crowd there for the men's game. President Jack Neuhauser, VP for Enrollment Management Jerry Flanagan, VP for Academics Karen Talentino, VP for Student Affairs Mike Samara, the Superior General of the Society of Saint Edmunds, Fr. Mike Cronogue, Academic Dean Jeff Trumbower, Assistant Academic Dean Joan Wry along with three business/accounting faculty, an Economist, three psychology professors, a science professor, a religion professor (Ray Patterson attends most of our athletic contests and is faculty mentor for two of our teams) and Fr. Brian(Director of Campus Ministry) plus a couple of folks from Institutional Advancement, personal counseling and many alumni all cheered out student-athletes on. It was great to see such a strong showing of support. Each semester I give an update on the academic achievement of our student-athletes to the faculty. A week ago Friday I addressed the Faculty Assembly and provided them with the NCAA Academic Success Rate and announced that SMC was number 1 in the NE-10 (our conference) and number 2 in all of Division II (made up of almost 300 schools and with over 100,000 student-athletes). I also gave them the standings of all of our teams and was happy to share that OUR student-athletes have an overall grade point average of 3.12 which gives them a higher overall grade point average than the rest of the student body. The faculty appreciated this and applauded this information. The collaboration between our student-athletes and the rest of our educational community makes for a very strong bond which is reflected in how well our student-athletes perform in our classrooms. Go KNIGHTS.....

I showed my Men & Masculinities class the Academy Award nominated documentary Restrepo last Monday to accompany their reading of the book War by Sebastian Junger. It was a very powerful class and their response papers after viewing the documentary will be the subject of our class tomorrow evening. Their papers aren't due until tomorrow but several of them have already submitted them to me and their reactions are very powerful. I continue to feel that it is important that those of us who are NOT in the military need to better understand those who ARE and the impact that war can and does have on so many of our men and women. As our soldiers return home and transition from the military to civilian life, it is imperative that we all better understand what they have gone through.

Take care, be well, and, as always, please keep all of the members of our military and their families in your thoughts and prayers.

Dave

Snowshoeing, new classes and a local high school student death.

I just returned to my house after some snowshoeing this morning. It is, as usual in wintertime, beautiful here and all I have to do is strap the snowshoes on and walk around my neighborhood to enjoy all of our new snow. Any of you in NY, CT or MA who don't like YOUR snow can feel free to send it our way as we LOVE it here. Classes began on Monday for the semester and already many of our students have been to the mountains for skiing or snowboarding and I hope to be at Smuggs this week too. I was just in San Antonio, Texas last week for the NCAA National Convention and their temperatures were in the low 40's which dismayed not only the convention organizers but also the residents. As they were all complaining about their weather, I just laughed and many of them asked HOW I can possibly live in Vermont where it REALLY is cold and where we get so much snow - my response was to simply say that I just add another layer on and get outside and enjoy all of the amazing seasons we have here in Vermont. It was a good convention and as always, I enjoy talking with friends and colleagues from across the country about what we are doing at Saint Mike's. Geri Knortz is our Athletic Director and I also enjoy having the chance to talk with her at these conventions as we have an excellent working relationship and enjoy working with our student-athletes. On a very good note, Chris Kenny, Assistant Athletic Director compiles data on the academic performance of our student-athletes and he informed us right before we left for Texas that for the first time, our student-athletes overall grade point average was higher than the non student-athletes grade point average. Fifteen of our twenty one varsity teams had a grade point average for first semester of over a 3.0. Given all that the students have to deal with, between a full load of academic classes and a rigorous athletic schedule, I am very, very proud of not only our athletes, but also our faculty and staff who work so hard to accommodate game schedules, practices and who continue to push our student-athletes to perform at the highest level academically and athletically. It was also good to be able to "brag" about our student-athletes in Texas when others mentioned the ASR (academic success rate) which is such an important component of Division II athletics. Saint Mike's ASR was the highest in our conference (Northeast 10) and the second highest in the nation - not bad when we are talking about approximately 100,000 student athletes in D-II.

My classes so far are great - my first impressions are often pretty accurate and if the first few classes are any indication, it is going to be another great semester. I continue to work with my seniors on their post-graduation plans and will once again be utilizing the fine staff in Career Services to help students update resumes and finalize plans for graduate school or employment. In Sports Psychology yesterday we discussed whether or not Tom Brady's no pass interceptions record being broken early on in their game against the Jets played a role in the Patriots losing the playoff game - we also looked at something called "base jumping with wingsuits" on YouTube - check it out - it is pretty amazing and for me, pretty frightening but for some of my students, it was a rush - I enjoy this particular class the most when students tell me that they have NEVER thought about some of the connections between sports and psychology.

Yesterday morning Mount Mansfield Union High School, located just up Rte. 15 from the College in Jericho, VT had a young man die from what is described as self-inflicted gunshot wounds. What a horrible experience for his family, his friends, everyone in the school and that community. When a 15 year old dies we all want answers to the question WHY? I was interviewed on TV by our local Fox channel and asked what parents and others can do to try to understand and/or prevent something like this and all I could say is that we ALL have to become better LISTENERS to and for our young people - their lives are very difficult today with incredible pressures and we also have to become better OBSERVERS so that we all notice changes in mood, attitude, dress, academic/athletic performance/interest and IF/WHEN we see something that makes us nervous we HAVE to TALK about it with them - we cannot be afraid of the S word which today is not sex, but which is SUICIDE. I suggested that parents and everyone use this tragedy at MMU and the Tucson shootings as what our Dean of Students Mike Samara likes to refer to as "teachable moments" where we ask the young people in our lives how THEY felt when they heard that a 22 year old shoot those people in Arizona and how THEY felt when they heard yesterday during the day that a 15 year old had died at a local high school. Somehow WE have to get the message across that no matter what the problem is today, IT GETS BETTER and that there isn't anything that you can't learn to deal with - young people need to hear that they are loved, that they are valued and that WE are here for them, no matter what they are experiencing. If parents don't know how to help, then ask others who do. At St. Mike's we have four very wonderful counselors who are easy to talk with. We have faculty, staff, nurses, residence life folks, priests, security, administrators, coaches and people who are committed to making this a safe place for students to learn - LISTEN, OBSERVE and TALK with an not AT young people - a good formula.

As Fr. Mike and Mike Samara are fond of saying "God Bless" and as I say, please take good care and as always, please keep all of the members of our military and our veterans and their families in your thoughts and prayers - I do.....

Dave

The end of the semester and looking forward to a new year.

The semester ended well and everyone headed home for the break before beginning a new year. I went up to Smuggs this afternoon to join old friend and former students Deanne and Jamie Taylor and their son CJ who has certainly grown a LOT since I last saw him. As you can see, the scenery at Smuggs was great and it was packed. Nice to walk into the lodge and see an SMC banner hanging over the balcony. It was great to see Deanne and Jamie again and we laughed a lot over lunch as they both tried to NOT have me share any of the stories of their time at SMC with their 15 year old son - he has certainly grown up well and he has a great personality - I, of course, encouraged him to look at SMC next year when he begins the hunt for a college - fortunately his folks have had a condo at Smuggs for a long time so he is familiar with the area and I think he even might be interested in going to the college his folks attended...

As the semester came to an end a couple of weeks ago, final exams and papers and final projects took up most everyone's time. I have been on campus a lot since the semester did end doing letters of recommendation for graduate school for a lot of my current and former students. I do enjoy writing the letters and even more, hearing when they get accepted - another step in the careers of so many students. I am looking forward to a new semester and have most of the work done on updating all of my syllabi so things will begin smoothly once students return on the 17th of January. Before that I head to San Antonio, Texas for the NCAA National Convention along with our AD Geri Knortz - this is always a good time to learn more, to see what others are doing and to share ideas with other Faculty Athletic Representatives from across the country. I will most likely update this blog from there as I will be in Texas from the 11th - 15th of January.

On a personal note - a week ago my "big" brother Jack passed away after a battle with lung cancer. He did battle for almost 9 months and it was a difficult time for all of us, and especially for him. I want to thank all of my friends and colleagues and especially my current and former students for their kind words of compassion and support. I appreciate it more than you know and once again was reminded of the very special nature of this amazing community we have established up here in the wonderful State of Vermont. Such good people - thank you all so much. I also posted a message to everyone that if you smoke - please STOP and if you never started - please DON'T..... He was a good man, gone too soon.

Take care, be well and, as always, please keep all of the members of our military and their families in your thoughts and prayers. I watched the documentary RESTREPO yesterday - based on the book WAR by Sebastian Junger; this is a powerful documentation of the daily life of a group of OUR young men fighting in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan - very powerful and I will be showing this to my Men & Masculinities class in a few weeks - we all need to better understand what the members of our military are actually experiencing and this documentary helps.

Dave

Getting ready for the end of the semester.

The snow is beginning to cover the ground outside of my office window here on second floor St. Ed's and that is fine with me. I pick up my skiis this afternoon after getting them tuned at my favorite local "outdoors" place, the Alpine Shop on Williston Road. While I won't have time to head to the slopes just yet, it is always nice to be prepared. I am not sure that any of us were "prepared" for the wicked wind a couple of days ago which ripped the copper covering off one section of Ross Sports Center and that still has some of my friends/colleagues without electricity - that wind was wicked..... Wicked is also one of the words that some of my students in Theories of Counseling class use about my exams. I just completed the creation of their final and posted a review sheet for them on eCollege. We will complete two more chapters in our textbook this week and then they take their final on the 16th. I expect that they will do well but they always complain (they ARE students after all...) that their hands hurt after writing so much on my exams - ah, music to my ears :)

As we do prepare for the end of another semester I have been reflecting on what a great semester it has been - Students are all registered for their second semester courses and seniors are completing their graduate school applications and so I have a LOT of recommendations to complete - while some find this a chore, I enjoy it. I enjoy being able to put into writing (or as is the case today, online) just how I have been able to watch my students grow and mature over their years here - I get to see progress in their maturity, their writing (most of the time) and their ability to think critically and analyze effectively. Putting all of that into a recommendation is something that I do enjoy and as many of them are getting accepted into graduate schools and they let me know that they have either received an acceptance OR they have been able to obtain employment after commencement the reality that they ARE leaving here hits home. I fully understand that this is the cycle we are all a part of but they sometimes don't understand that we will miss them. One student in particular, has been an effective leader on campus, has impacted all of us who have come to know him and who will be missed sorely by all of us is Dave Vorozilchak. Dave is from Pennsylvania and leaves here in two weeks to return home to a job and a "life after SMC" but he certainly has left his mark not only on our athletic program (he was captain of our men's hockey team last year - and a student member of the Athletic Advisory Council which I chair) but also on his professors in the math/science department as he is an Engineering major. I know that we will stay in touch but I wish him well as he leaves this place he has called home for 4.5 years.

Women's basketball plays at home this afternoon so I had better get back to work before heading over there - Caitlin Quinn is in my Sports Psychology class (she hit 5 - 3 pointers the other day) and Mandy Scott is in Practicum and they are both strong members of our women's basketball team which is headed by the "fabulous" Jen Niebling - Jen is such a positive role model for not only all of the women on her team, but for all of us - good luck ladies....

Once again, and especially as this holiday season comes upon us, I wish you well, please take good care and be good to each other AND please, as always, remember all of the members of our military and their families - those who are NOT home and who are serving all of us in Iraq or Afghanistan need our thoughts and prayers - be safe.....

Dave

Almost break time - LOTS of sports

This is the final weekend before Thanksgiving break begins - students (and faculty) are really looking forward to this time with their families, home cooked meals and a rest before the final push to the end of the semester. First year students and their families are astounded that it has gone by so quickly, while seniors are bemoaning the reality that this means that Commencement is only a semester away. I have been grading papers all weekend and hope to get all of them done before students head out on Wednesday. They seem to appreciate that I get papers back fairly quickly and I continue to appreciate that my utilization of a "tablet laptop" means that I now can have a "paperless" classroom. Students simply upload their papers to eCollege, I grade them and return them in emails - I get to make my comments (and there are ALWAYS a lot of those) with a stylus and also get to save them to a file on my computer for future reference. Sports Psychology has a presentation on the psychological implications of spirituality/religiosity and sports on Tuesday and then we are almost done with the student presentations. It has been a good semester with a very high level of interaction and a LOT of energy in class - THAT I love......

Last Wednesday evening the women's volleyball team hosted a fund raiser over in the Ross Sports Center. Samantha Clairemont is a member of the team and a friend from her hometown was involved in a horrific accident which left her in a wheelchair. Samantha approached her coach Chris Kilmer (a VERY good guy) and asked if there was something that could be done to help her friend and family. Chris worked with the women on his team and they created "bumpin for Brenna" which was open to the whole campus and which was a huge success. They were able to raise over $1,500. The gym was packed with students as teams made up of members of our men's/women's soccer teams and the women's volleyball team competed against each other AND a team of faculty/staff. YES, I did play volleyball, alongside many of my friends/colleagues from campus in front of a LOT of our students. There were too many of us to list all but Karen Talentino, VP for Academic Affairs did an admirable job given that she has a "bad" shoulder and I even managed a couple of nice hits. It was a great time and many thanks to everyone who participated and especially to Coach Kilmer for not only organizing this with/for Samantha but also for his very eloquent words when he spoke about the meaning of COMMUNITY at SMC.

This weekend was full of athletic competitions and fun. Friday afternoon I went to our women's ice hockey game which was followed by our men's ice hockey game. I left the men's game after two periods and headed back to campus for the annual Jibfest which is skiing and snowboarding on the 300's field on a structure that was constructed and "snowed" by our students from the Ski/Snowboard Club. Matt Stillman is President of the Club and is one of my students and a very enthusiastic supporter of all things skiing/snowboarding. When I got back to campus from the rink I found approx. 250 of our students having a fantastic time - there were burgers and hot dogs - cans of Red Bull (????) and lots of bananas (????) and it was great to watch so many of our students having such a great time on a Friday night - the hard work of these students, along with Grace Kelly (Director of Student Activities) and her crew from the SA and Residence Life paid off - AND, at least as far as I know, there were no broken bones :)

Yesterday, after grading more papers, I headed back to the rink for the women's ice hockey game and another men's game - while our women lost both games over the weekend, they played well and were never "out" of the competition. Our men started their season off well with two impressive wins. At the same time that I was spending more hours (it amazes me that I spent 5 hours there on Friday and another 5 on Saturday and I don't even know how to skate) at the rink, our men's basketball program kicked off their home season under new head coach Michael Harding and gained a win - so a very busy weekend of activities.

This past Tuesday, President Obama awarded the Medal of Honor to Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta for his heroic actions in Afghanistan. Last Sunday evening on 60 Minutes there was an interview with this young man (he is now 25 but was only 22 when the incident took place) - if you didn't see it, I would suggest that you Google it and watch it - a very powerful and emotional coverage of someone who self-identifies as a "mediocre" soldier. We talked about this in Theories class on Tuesday and in Practicum on Monday as students who are working in the field of counseling and social services MUST learn as much as they can about the very complicated issues which are facing not only our returning soldiers, but also their families. The presentation by President Obama was very moving and Sgt. Giunta's story is very powerful. He is the first living recipient of this honor since the Vietnam War - others have been awarded this since then but those have all gone to soldiers who gave their lives for all of us. While this is a tremendous honor for Sgt. Giunta, it is also a burden and he very modestly and very honestly spoke of how THIS medal is for EVERYONE who is fighting for our freedom - he is only the person who gets to wear it.....

As we all give thanks this coming Thursday, please remember to keep all of the members of our military - our veterans too, and their families in your thoughts and prayers.

As always, please take good care, be well and have a Happy and Safe Thanksgiving

Dave

More rewards from teaching.....

I just returned back to campus from a three day conference in Baltimore - the national Faculty Athletics Representatives Association held its annual meeting at the Hyatt and FARs from across the country and across the three NCAA Divisions gathered for some professional development and sharing of new ideas. We received updates from the NCAA on all aspects of college sports and it was a very worthwhile time - I did "skip" one 45 minute session so I could "explore" the waterfront in Baltimore but other than that one quick trip, I really didn't get to see much of the city. We did have the best crab cakes I have ever had for dinner the first night so I did learn something about Baltimore - they DO know how to make crab cakes..... It was good to spend time with the other FARs from the NE-10 (SMC's athletic conference) and with the FARs I had recently met in Indianapolis at the leadership institute. Sharing ideas with colleagues is something that definitely is a plus these days as academics and athletics sometimes can compete against each other rather than working/collaborating WITH each other. Many of us will be getting together again in January at the NCAA National Convention in San Antonio, Texas. This is where the legislation that we discussed this past weekend will be voted on by all of the members of the NCAA. D-II is the only Division that has recently cut back on the number of competitions and the only one that has worked to ensure that there IS a BALANCE between academics and athletics - this is one of the priorities of D-II and we take that very seriously....

While I was gone, I only missed one day of classes. Fortunately, Chris Clary who is the Director of Career Services for the College agreed to come to my Theories of Counseling class to assist my students in developing an accurate, appropriate and "reviewed" resume. Chris had been with this class earlier this semester when she interpreted the MBTI (personality inventory) for my students - I was pleasantly surprised at how eager my students were to have Chris back in the class - they ARE learning that they will all soon have to have that great resume ready as they graduate. My Sports Psychology class had their third paper due on Thursday and since I utilize eCollege - an online classroom management tool - I was able to see when papers were turned in. I was on campus this morning grading some of those 3rd papers and again, a pleasant surprise that the level of writing has clearly improved over the course of the semester. It is rewarding to see that my students actually DO learn that spelling, grammar and punctuation ARE important and what pleased me more was the very high level of critical thought and analysis that I have seen in the papers I have just graded. They ARE challenging themselves to "think out of the box" more and they ARE taking risks in expressing their own critical thinking as they combine that with their knowledge of psychology. Nothing pleases me more than to have someone tell me that they "have never thought about that before." - I will work on the rest of the papers this week but so far I am very pleased with their progress.

We had another panel on campus last Tuesday evening as two of the officers of Common Ground, their advisor, an Ally who is also a RA and I spoke to almost 200 students for about an hour. We were invited to participate in this panel by the Student Association and Shiobhan Lavery did a great job of being the MC for the panel - we discussed ways to help ensure that Saint Michael's College IS a safe place for all of our students and that THIS community values everyone and that we celebrate our differences rather than to shun those who are different, for whatever reason. Yes, another reward that we all get from teaching at, working at or attending classes as part of this community - thank you to the other panelists and to all of the students who were willing to challenge themselves and some of their ideas..... Well done.

I did manage to go kayaking again this past Wednesday - it WAS cold (34 degrees outside) but it was probably the last day of kayaking for me this year - I find kayaking to be so relaxing and peaceful and have been able to convince a number of my students about this so they too have begun to follow a new interest in kayaking. The snow on the mountains in the afternoon sun looks like gold on Mt.Mansfield as I look across from behind the chapel - always a beautiful sight. I also got my snow tires on the day before the rain, ice, sleet and snow hit here for a few hours - it is ALL in the timing.

While in a couple of airports the past couple of days I saw a number of soldiers in uniform - since it was Veteran's Day last week, it is always good to thank them for their service - they sometimes seem a bit embarrassed but it just feels good to let them know that we DO appreciate their service to all of us. So, please take care, be well and keep all of the members of our military and our veterans and their families in your thoughts and prayers.

Dave

Sometimes being "clueless" isn't a bad thing.

This past Friday morning I flew from Burlington to Philadelphia on my way to Indianapolis, Indiana and an NCAA Leadership Fellows Institute for 18 FAR's from across the country. Faculty Athletic Representatives are referred to by the NCAA as being the "conscience of athletics" on college campuses and the 18 of us all serve in that capacity at our respective institutions. This picture was taken of the group in the lobby of the Hall of Champions at NCAA Headquarters where we worked for the three days we were there. In Philadelphia, as we were about to board the plane three TSA screeners came up to our gate area and one of them signaled me to place my briefcase on their cart and then asked me for my ID - while I had already had everything checked once before I complied and then they asked a woman and then another man to do the same thing. I have never seen this happen before but it really didn't bother me to work with TSA as they have a job to do. As we taxied across the runway I noticed that the UPS hanger we passed had a LOT of flashing lights, emergency vehicles and police cars surrounding it - I wondered if there was a fire or something. As we took off I had a better view and sure enough, it WAS surrounded by all types of emergency vehicles. I didn't think anything more about it and when we landed in Indianapolis and I checked into my hotel, I turned on the television set in my room. I WAS surprised to see that there was a worldwide terrorism alert and that a "suspicious" package had, in fact, been discovered at the Philadelphia Airport at the UPS hanger - sometimes being "clueless" isn't a bad thing.........

The workshops were excellent and it was good to listen to what others are doing on their campuses to comply with the NCAA D-II Platform of LIFE IN BALANCE for our athletes. I was proud to share the many efforts that our Athletic Department and our Faculty are doing to make every student-athlete's experience here a balance between academics and athletics. The NCAA released its latest data this past week and we are very happy that Saint Michael's College has one of the HIGHEST ASR's in the country - ASR is the academic success rate and we had 18 of our 21 varsity teams that had a 100% graduation rate - the data refers to the cohort that graduated in 2009 and Seth Cole, our Sports Information Director provided local media with the data and the report from the NCAA. I made sure that our faculty were thanked because without the successful collaboration between academics and athletics, there is no balance. My colleagues at the conference were full of questions about how WE were able to be so successful and this is just an observation, but I sometimes find that at some other institutions there is a competition between academics and athletics and here we have COLLABORATION. When I get asked "how do you get your faculty to work so well with student-athletes?" I simply reply, to quote Prof. Mary Beth Doyle from our Education Department when I asked her the same question on an evaluation form a couple of years ago - "because we are asked to." - well put.....

In two weeks I travel to Baltimore to the Faculty Athletic Representative Association national convention - this will be my first visit to this conference and I look forward to learning more about how we can all work together with faculty, staff AND, especially our student-athletes to continue making this balance a successful one.

Classes are continuing to go well. My Theories of Counseling class was exceptional last week as we utilized our Development Laboratory with the one-way mirror and my students were able to do some amazing role playing (counselor/counselee) and learn how they are perceived by others and how fast they ARE learning the skills necessary to become successful counselors. This experience continues to provide them with a rich experience that has proven in the past to be most helpful as they interview for and get accepted to graduate schools. This afternoon Heather Strassel, who graduated last year and who is now working in MA with people with borderline personality disorders, will be coming to class to talk about the use of DBT (a specific therapy for BPD) and how she was able to use the skills she learned in all of her classes here to successfully transition to an excellent job.

Take care, be well, VOTE and please remember to keep all of the members of our active and retired military AND their families in your thoughts and prayers.

Dave