Page 4 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."
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers