From a nicely written profile of Mitchell Harris, a young English professor at Augustana College. It’s in the Augustana newspaper.
With the build of a linebacker and a hairless head perfectly formed to fit under any helmet, he appears out of place as he strolls down the English department hallway at Augustana.
His green sweater bears the Green Bay Packers logo, and with his arm bent across his large chest, at a quick glance he looks like he’s ready to burst through a defensive line with the football tucked safely away.
… Harris smiles when recalling the events surrounding his Augustana interview.
“Foolish thing I did,” Harris says. “I looked for dates of convenience and decided to interview on Friday so I could drive down Thursday.”
At the time Harris was filling a visiting position at his alma mater, Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minn., and he figured Friday would be the best day to work with his schedule. But he had forgotten the NFL had added Thursday night games that season, and this particular Thursday was the much-anticipated Dallas Cowboys versus Green Bay Packers game.
“I was kicking myself all the way to the interview,” Harris says. “I wanted to watch the game that night, but also prepare for the interview.”
Harris decided to go to a Buffalo Wild Wings to catch part of the game before heading back to his hotel to prepare for the next day’s important meeting. But when he got to the restaurant, the place was packed, so he asked a table of guys if he could join them. The three men obliged, and Harris soon discovered that they were Augustana football players.
The next day at his interview, Harris mentioned that he had met a few of the college’s football players at Buffalo Wild Wings the previous night, and [Jeffrey Miller, department chair] was impressed at how Harris was already able to bond with Augustana’s students, especially ones that didn’t frequent the Humanities building often. [Drop often. Redundant.]
… “Well, he’s motivated me to start doing more push ups to make myself not seem so insignificant when I stand next to his aura of testosterone,” English major Rob Green jokes.
“He makes Uncle Sam look like a communist. What a man.”
Fellow senior male English major Per Nestingen agrees. “Mitch Harris could walk onto any NFL team’s practice and instantly be given a starting job as an o-lineman, tight end, quarterback, or heck, even wide receiver,” he said.
… Already Miller and professor Patrick Hicks, the only other male English professor at Augustana, note Harris’ uniqueness.
“Mitch is definitely different,” Miller says. “Hicks and I like to sit around and drink tea.”
Students also echo Miller’s sentiments.
“From a male and female perspective, his presence is reassuring,” Nestingen says. “He provides a way for us to see how a bear trapped in a man’s body interprets the different gods of English. Who knows, maybe his allure and hip male perspective will help even out the ratio of men to women.” …
February 27th, 2010 at 11:43AM
He’s a PhD? Heartening evidence that massive amounts of testosterone don’t always poison a man’s brain or outlook.
February 27th, 2010 at 12:04PM
I’m afraid I can’t share your admiration for this piece (unless the author intended to do a hatchet job on the English department and its hiring practices, in which case I’d have to say she succeeded, and I admire her restraint in letting the quotations speak for themselves). Frankly, I’m astonished that any chair would go on record with an admission that a candidate was hired partly because he was a football fan.
February 27th, 2010 at 12:32PM
There are two Augustana Colleges-one in Illinois and one in South Dakota. This one is South Dakota.
Studies show that people get jobs through social networks. It’s not through family or close friends, but slightly more distant interactions. My interpretation of “football fan” hiring is that the guy got the job through football fan social networking.
February 27th, 2010 at 7:56PM
Fretful Porpentine — oh really? so other academic hiring decisions are never influenced by candidates’ outside interests? Please.