President Riggs Returns to the Classroom

By Xavier Harding

The Forum’s Xavier Harding was lucky enough to interview Gettysburg College’s president Janet Morgan Riggs on her return to the classroom.

Xavier Harding: What exactly is the course you’ll be teaching? What parts of psychology will it cover?

Janet Morgan Riggs: I will teach Psych 214, Social Psychology.  The course focuses on the impact of other people on behavior and examines topics such as interpersonal attraction and impression formation, prosocial behavior, aggression, attitude formation and change, conformity, etc.

Xavier: What made you want to go back to teaching?

JMR: I miss it!  Though I’ve visited a few classes, I haven’t taught my own course in 4 years.  I miss being in the classroom and establishing a close relationship with a group of students.  I think being back in the classroom will provide me with a good connection to both the student and faculty experience.  So when the psychology department invited me to teach this course, I decided to take  them up on their invitation!

Xavier: Being President of a college sounds like a full time job in itself. How do you think you’ll handle adding being a professor to your plate?

JMR: I’ve given this a lot of thought.  My biggest concern is my travel schedule.  I spend a lot of time off-campus, and I didn’t want to commit to teaching a class unless I could really give it the appropriate time.  I’ve scheduled this class to meet just one afternoon a week, with a back-up time on another day for those weeks when I can’t be on campus for the regular class time.  I’ll make time for office hours before and after class.  I’m sure I’ll do most of my course preparation and grading outside of the normal work day.  We’ll just have to see how it works out!

Xavier: Why that course in particular?

JMR: Social psychology is my area of specialization, and the psychology department said they would like to offer another section of it next year.

Xavier: What teaching experience do you have prior to President?

JMR: I’ve spent most of my career here at Gettysburg as a full-time faculty member. I began in the psychology department in 1981.    I’ve taught 21 of the 29 years since then.

Xavier: Are you considering teaching more courses in the future?

JMR:I would like to, but I will have to see whether or not this works well enough for me and my students before making a decision for the future.

Xavier: Great, and when does your class start?

JMR: I will be teaching this class in the fall of 2010.