Going dorm: ‘A whole different light’
Editor’s note: The following is the final piece in a three-part series
For nearly two decades, USU department of journalism and communication chair Ted Pease has seen his students mainly in the classroom and in his office.
Now, as resident of the Davis Hall residence hall – a living arrangement he fell into when his wife took an early retirement and moved to California – he’s witnessing those students in a very different setting.
“It’s actually kind of fun – I see students in a whole different light,” Pease said. “I mean, the faculty-student relationship is one thing, but now I see them in their natural habitat doing all the things they do.”
Being the observant journalist that he is, he’s noticed the somewhat strange behaviors of 18 and 19-year-old women.
“There’s something about freshmen women, especially in the fall term,” he said. “They have to go everywhere in a herd. What’s that about? They look like herds of horses. They look like colts, really long legs and lots of hair.”
Although he is nearly 40 years their senior, Pease is expected to abide by the same rules as the students: No alcohol. No smoking. Observe quiet hours.
He can’t come home and crack a beer. He’s not allowed to serve wine if he has guests.
But it doesn’t seem to bother him too much.
“I don’t cook meth or anything,” Pease said. “I don’t play music loud. I observe ‘quiet hours,’ whenever that’s suppose to be – as far as I can tell, there aren’t any.”
But that isn’t the hard part.
The hardest part about his new living arrangement is the fact that his wife is living nearly 900 miles away.
“It’s just me,” Pease said. “I’m a bachelor. I haven’t been a bachelor for 30 years.”
Just not the same
Pease said living apart from his wife, JCOM professor Brenda Cooper, is like being on a really long business trip. He stays busy with his work and has his JCOM “children” to distract him.
Cooper doesn’t have these distractions. She not only misses her husband, but her students as well.
“The hardest part is hands down being away from Ted, but second is not having that daily interaction with the students,” she said.
She’s been teaching online, including a class she co-taught with Pease last semester, she said it’s just not the same.
“Brenda and I miss each other,” Pease said. “We’re on the phone and Skyping a lot, and I try to visit her every few weeks.”
After a short pause, his sarcasm returned.
“I mean, she has the dog and the beach,” he said. “I don’t know what she’s complaining about.”
Pease will step down at the end of the semester as head of the department. On April 3, the fledgling Northern Utah chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists honored him as the inaugural recipient of the Ted Pease Award, which they plan to present annually to those whose careers exemplify service to journalism.
Unofficially, the chapter is calling the award “The Pease Award for Curmudgeonly Service to Journalism.”
“Pease is a bit rough around the edges, but he is that type of person because he knows the world is hard on journalists,” said Paul Christiansen, a member of the SPJ board of directors. “How better to prepare the students than by not cutting us any slack?”
Fellow board member Danielle Manley said the award wasn’t presented because Pease was leaving, but because Pease is an outstanding journalist and an exceptional professor.
“It will be weird to have him gone next semester, but I feel blessed to have been in the department for at least his last couple years at USU,” Manley said.
Pease plans to join his wife in California for the summer and next fall, but will be back to teach full-time in the spring of 2014 – part of a phased retirement that will allow him to continue to participate in the departmental transition he began several years ago.
Whether or not he’ll be living in the dorms again is yet to be decided.
“I’ll always remember hearing those people walking by saying, ‘Who’s that weird old guy?'” Pease said. “It’s not like my 5,000-square-foot home on 13 acres, but it’s been a good experience.”
– sarah.menlove@gmail.com
Editor’s note: Sarah Menlove, Paul Christiansen and Danielle Manley are all students in the JCOM department and staff writers for The Utah Statesman.