Houston McLaury-
Well Gusties, welcome back to Gustavus! It’s been too long, about a month and two weeks since we’ve all been on campus together, and boy is it interesting! We’ve come through the new year, a snowless one, into a mostly snow-free January. This weather continues to bleed into February. We’ve continued to be snow-free, with temperatures so warm I haven’t had to wear a jacket all week, and rain fell on Thursday morning of this past week. And, while we have been losing the winter weather many of us Minnesotans have grown accustomed to, many students at Gustavus have lost something else over their break. J-term.
J-term was a three-and-a-half-week-long venture into any class of your choosing. Sure, one could have spent their time in classes that fulfilled requirements for their majors, and many students did use J-term to fulfill their general education requirements. But, recently J-term has been cut moving forward, making our school years more akin to almost all other colleges that have run without a third term between Fall and Spring. Since coming to Gustavus, I have been a part of three J-terms, and in remembrance of the experiences I had in those classes, I hope to write about these classes. This is my way of reminiscing on the memories and experiences that were offered to us; some opportunities I wish I had taken greater hold of.
My first J-Term class that I took was with Professor Darsa Donelan, entitled “Race, Gender, and Science.” Over the entire period of this class, we would go over three books discussing how science in the past was used to push away and push against minority groups. This course was not only my first j-term course but also my first experience within Olin Hall and my first experience with a course experience that Darsa offered. The push to let students lead discussions by having daily group discussion leaders, a celebration of knowledge, and the search for knowledge through regular blog posts pushed us further along our path to knowledge. It also exposed the truth about the experiences and unethical treatments many people suffered in the pursuit of science and certain things propped up ideas of racism and sexism.
Darsa encouraged us heartily and the experiences offered outside of class made this course all the more special. Specifically, nights where the entire class got together to play board games, watch some movies, and just enjoy each other’s company stuck out to me during this entire experience. Not only because it was fun, of course, but because it was the first time where I felt class could be like that. Where it didn’t just have to be people you met with for one semester and never see again. It could be friends that share your interests, nights of laughter, of joy as we took the time to relax, all while studying a subject with such intensity to learn such a great deal in just a month. Is it stressful? Of course. Yet, every single day spent reading, working on assignments, and with my peers was a day well spent.
So, that’s how most people experience a J-term: studying a specific subject with such intensity that they become versed in that subject. But, this is not the only way in which I’ve experienced J-term. Over my Sophomore and Junior years, I was a part of the J-term stage productions. The entire purpose of these J-term shows is to give students an accurate experience of what working for a theater company may look like. This doesn’t just apply to the actors in the rehearsal process, but the carpenters working on the physical set and the electricians working on the lights and sounds for the production as well.
Again, this is what most theater productions do: they have a time restraint of about a month to learn the material or build the material to get it stage-ready by a specific date. It is an intensive course because it prepares these students for what jobs in this field will look like, should they pursue these fields. And it truly is a wonderful experience. This year alone I was able to make some wonderful friends in the scene shop. All the while our Professor, Matthew Rightmire, aided us in all this knowledge of theater history, drafting techniques, and woodworking techniques to ensure we could do our work well throughout the course. This is all compacted with the subjects I learned: being more affluent in carpentry language, what supports are necessary for specific designs and builds out of wood, and the material that can be used to support said projects.
Going forward, it makes me sad to know that future Gustavus students won’t be able to enjoy the intensity of a J-term course. The utter absorption into a particular subject was always wonderful, and the people I met along the way made each experience even more impactful. So, as we face the future, I will always take happy glances to the past, remembering the J-terms that I got, all the while mourning the ones I and future Gustavus students will miss out on.