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A FEW YEARS AGO, a segment of CBS’s “60 Minutes” showed undergraduates at prestigious research universities complaining about large lecture classes where well-known professors made “cameo appearances” while most of the teaching was done by graduate students.
USC’s Catalina Semester is the textbook contradiction of that model.
Last spring, living in the dormitory with the students while teaching a course on “Natural History” was Gerald J. Bakus, a professor of biological sciences and an expert on marine ecology, coral reefs, computer image analysis and pattern recognition in biology.
But on Catalina, Bakus’ biggest claim to fame is the post-final bash he throws each year for the whole Wrigley community. Decked out in “the infamous Bakus party shirt” – a sequined, technicolor fish-festooned affair – the professor disports himself into the wee hours not unlike his Roman deity namesake. Almost as well-known as Bakus is his 5-year-old granddaughter Brittany, who joins the students on a field-trip whenever she visits the island. “I held her hand and skipped the entire day, singing ‘Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah’ until I was exhausted,” says mentor and Catalina Semester alum Sharon Walker ’98, whom Brittany has so honored twice. (“She remembered me from last year,” Walker laughs.)
Students Kanoelani Kane and Jeremiah Villasin, professor Donal Manahan and TA Doug Pace watch as a male sea urchin releases its sperm into a beaker. |
THEN THERE'S Jed A. Fuhrman, who jointly teaches “Biological Oceanography” with Wrigley director Tony Michaels. Fuhrman is holder of the McCulloch-Crosby Chair in Marine Biology and professor of biological sciences. A leading authority on microbiology, he’s an awe-inspiring figure to environmental science students at the University Park Campus: the renowned oceanographer is quoted in almost every text they read. Fuhrman has written more than 70 journal articles in distinguished publications like Nature and Science. He has a stern, professorial demeanor to boot.
But to Catalina Semester students, he’s plain “Jed.”
“Out here on the island, he’s very convivial,” says Walker. “I feel comfortable hanging out with him, having dinner or playing ping-pong with him. It’s just a totally different atmosphere out here.”
Michaels, too, could be intimidating if he cared to try: as director of the USC Wrigley Institute for Environ-mental Studies, the associate professor is definitely Big Fisherman’s Cove’s big fish.
An expert in climate science, environmental science and oceanography, Michaels has published some 60 scientific papers and often consults on prediction of hurricane frequency and intensity. Yet he insists on “first-names only” and has been known to belly up to the bar at Two Harbors alongside Wrigley post-docs and custodians alike.
THERE'S ALSO Donal T. Manahan, associate professor of biological sciences, who teaches “Comparative Animal Physiology.” The affable, Irish-lilting Manahan is also director of the National Science Foundation-sponsored Biology Training Program in Antarctica – the only educational program offered on that continent.
Manahan is usually too busy working to stop to eat, but he makes a point of repairing to Wrigley’s cafeteria at mealtimes to socialize with students.
One of the world’s foremost authorities on the physiology of marine animals, Manahan is swamped in research projects – on aquaculture, marine organisms, biological adaptations of Antarctic marine animals and hybrid vigor in oysters. Still, he finds time to act as a self-appointed advisor to the students, giving pointers on career and education opportunities (encouraging many to consider Antarctica, of course). From time to time, his photographs from the frozen continent show up in seminars, or, as they did one night last term, in an impromptu slide-show and talk for Elderhostel visitors.
LAST BUT NOT least, there’s Linwood Pendleton, an assistant professor of economics whose course in environmental economics usually makes a big splash with students (although for administrative reasons it wasn’t offered this past year).
“He’s been my favorite professor at USC, no question,” says Walker, who credits Pendleton with helping her get into Yale University for graduate work. Though he is “a walking diploma” – Pendleton holds degrees from William and Mary, Princeton, Harvard and Yale, in that order – the 33-year-old academic feels like one of the gang to the undergrads.
“He’s so approachable and friendly,” says Walker, “we all consider him one of our best friends. Many of us have sushi with him whenever we’re on the mainland.”
An expert on natural resource economics, environ-mental valuation and the impact of marine pollution and coastal recreation, Pendleton has an uncanny knack for making his lessons in economic theory relevant to Catalina. And Pendleton’s exam questions are famous for involving local colorful characters whom he names by name.
“We’d spend some of our time laughing at the questions as well as answering them,” says Walker.
– Diane Krieger and
Bob Calverley
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