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Faculty Profile of the Week
by Hal D. Coffey
News Editor
While most professors teach
subjects from books and articles,
political science professor John
Gamble uses his international
experiences as background.
From working for the United
Nations as an adviser during the
1982 UN Conference on the Law
of the Sea to his present work at
the International Court of Justice
(ICJ), Gamble has a distinguished
background in international law.
That is one reason why he is
teaching two different
international classes: PL SC 3
and POLSC 428.
Gamble received his bachelor's
degree from the College of
Wooster (Ohio) in political
science and mathematics. He
received his Ph.D. from the
University of Washington.
After college, Gamble taught
for five years at the University of
Rhode Island in the political
science department.
He came to Behrend in 1976,
and has taught here ever since.
Gamble believes Behrend is a
good liberal arts-like college, but
he is afraid that it spends too
much time, energy and money on
peripheral things, and not enough
on what really matters.
"We worry more about student
contentment than with student
learning," Gamble said. "They're
not the same. We're more
by
Collegia Paul n
Skiff Lorio
The buildings at Behrend have
been used for many different
purposes throughout the years.
The Turnbull Building was once
the Behrend's barn while Erie
Hall is now used as a
gymnasium and a concert hall.
How do these buildings rate
when they're used for
classrooms?
worried about being sensitive
than being right."
Along the same lines, Gamble
believes the General Education
program is essential, but the
Penn State way of going about
it, "leaves a lot to be desired, but
we must have it."
While teaching at the Academic
Building, Gamble has noticed
some good and bad qualities
about the new facility.
About the faculty offices,
"The new offices are a vast
improvement over the tiny
Carriage House ones."
About the classrooms, "I
would prefer windows in more
classrooms."
Gamble does not like the size
of the clacse.e in the Academic
building either.
"Instead of having so many
classes with 40-50 students, it
would be better to have one
lecture hall, two or three 15
student capacity and several other
40-50 student capacity rooms,"
Gamble said.
"Students would be better
served by having mostly small
classes (15 or less), but we just
can't cap class sizes at such low
levels."
Gamble said his teaching
philosophy is quite simple.
"I try to present information in
a well-organized, efficient way,"
Gamble said. "You realize
you've got something to say, but
Students speak out on building quality
This question was posed to the
student body and here are the
results:
Each building was judged on
three separate criteria which
included their accessibility, how
well the classrooms are set up,
and if they give an ample
learning environment.
Accessibility was described as
to how well the building is set
up and how easy the rooms are
to find. The Otto Behrend
also students are going to have
questions which helps to direct
where the class should go."
His recent work outside of
Behrend includes participating in
and chairing several international
lawmaking conferences as well as
helping to develop a new
computer system to store court
decisions at the ICJ.
Ever since taking a sabbatical
in British Columbia several years
ago, Gamble has been very
interested in Canadian politics.
"I think the U.S. and a lot of
our students and faculty have
deplorably little knowledge of the
country we share an enormous
border with," Gamble said.
"Most people know more about
England and France."
Gamble believes the U.S
perception of Canada is to blame
"We think Canada is like we
are in most every way, but were
not. There are major differences."
He would like to teach a class
about Canada here at Behrend, if
he had the time and financial
support.
One idea Gamble has to better
the way international law is
taught is to set up a system by
which all of the teachers can
compare notes, have discussions,
and compare methods of teaching.
Gamble has been married for
23 years to his wife Claire. The
two have a 7 112 year-old son.
Science Building received the
highest score in this respect.
while the Academic Building
received an extremely low score.
Students said that it took a
while to locate their rooms at
first, then learn the layout of the
building.
Classrooms were scored
almost completely equal for all
the buildings except for Science.
Nial Leech stated that, "The
moms are small for some of the
Craig BrownlColleglan Photographer
Faculty Profile of the Week: Dr. John K. Gamble
class sizes."
The learning environment for
all of the buildings were high,
but many students were upset
with the extreme heat in the
Turnbull Building.
"In the summer it's always
hot in Turnbull," said Jen
Taylor.
"Sometimes the heat is so
intolerable that it's too hot to
concentrate," said April Newell.
The newest building,
Arnol Balclta/Collaillan Photo Coordinator
Looks nice and it's
scenic, but it's no
winner: Ina survey
conducted for this
week's Collegian, the
Turnbull Building/Barn
placed fifth out of six
buildings mentioned.
The Academic Building
took first place. The
Otto Behrend Science
Building placed last.
Thursday, October 7, 1993
Academic, received mixed
reviews from students.
"The Academic Building is a
good addition to the Behrend
College community," said Sarah
Kurtz.
On the contrary, April
Welsbacher said she has a
problem with the building.
"The major problem with the
library is that there isn't enough
seating and no tables."