Three Things Thursday: Teaching Version

Jan 16, 2025
3 min read

I started this semester with a plan, but not a lot of momentum. I’m blaming some late winter break traveling and too many competing priorities. As a result, some of the things that usually go quite smoothly made my first day of classes a bit of clusterfuck.

Thing the First

Rookie mistake. I need to check and make sure that I know where my room is before I stagger off to teach my first class. I did not do this was as a bit alarmed to find an interpersonal communications class in the room where I usually each History 101. How bizarre!

I have enough experience on college campuses to peek into a room before barreling through the door like I own the place. So, I saved myself that embarrassment. But I did have to race back upstairs (on a gimpy leg that developed a limp because I walked too fast in the cold [?!?!]) to find my room, the dash to another building (the fairly new Education Building! A First!) and show up 5 minutes late.

I then had to log into a new teaching station (that did not remember my credentials) and found that I could not log into my google account to download my “Powerpointer” (because it was sending its two factor authentication request to my iPad which I left at home). Since I was signing onto this teaching station of the first time, it also took about 5 minutes to start up. There was discombobulation and, unfortunately, profanity.

This was a rough first day.

Thing the Second

I survived my second class with only a minor hiccup (I noticed that I had not uploaded my syllabus to the our course management software until the very last minute). Confusion averted. The class has too much graded work, but I assured the students that this would change.

I then had to bolt across campus (on my gimpy leg in the cold) to the newly renovated Merrifield Hall, where despite receiving an email telling me that I needed to bring my ID to access the classroom, I forgot. I was then reduced to knocking on the door of my classroom which did nothing for my already sense of confidence teaching a class in the English department.

Thing the Third

Despite the bumpy start to my first day of teaching, it was an absolutely joy to get back into Merrifield Hall. As many of you know, despite the shaky reputation of the architect (and the possible circumstances surrounding the commission), Merrifield Hall is one of the most identifiable buildings on our campus. Over the past few years, it underwent a massive facelift.

Merrifield Hall used to house the Department of History, the North Dakota Quarterly office, and various classrooms. I spent the better part of two decades hanging around in its long, dark hallways. In fact, when the Department of History departed Merrifield in 2009, I spent time documenting our spaces in Merrifield Hall under a series of posts that I titled “Under Libby’s Gaze.” Prior to the renovations, my colleague Mike Wittgraf and I with the help of some English graduate students recorded the sounds of the old the building. The two graduate students—Grant McMillan and Samuel Amendolar along with Shilo Viginia Previti—then edited a spectacular book called Campus Building which explores the history, atmosphere, and general vibe of old Merrifield Hall.

Tuesday was my first day in the renovated building. It was SPECTACULAR. As I quipped once (with apologies to A. T. Olmstead) when I arrived at UND in 2004, campus was old. Walking through Merrifield on Tuesday, felt both familiar and refreshed. The new opening on the east side of the building creates a grand entrance which extends two stories through the building.

It creates light-filled study spaces for students. The basement level, remains familiar as they have preserved the terrazzo floors and the iconic symmetry of the building’s double-loaded corridor: