carolyn yarnall interview

7/24/2019 Carolyn Yarnall Interview

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TWC: So, can you tell us about how you viewed Crawfordsville and Wabash your rst

semester here, or even how you saw it before you got here?

CY: So I thin before when I rst a!!lied for the "ob, to be honest I did so because

it#s a good de!artment, and it#s a good school$ I wasn#t sure how cra%y I was about

&' moving to Crawfordsville, since it#s not the most e(citing !lace, and )' I wasn#t

sure how I felt about only teaching men, it was ind of intimidating to me, being theonly woman in the classroom always$ I felt that my initial im!ression toward the

college was really !ositive, I had a great time for my interview$ Someone did tae

me on a driving tour of the town and I thought, *Well, that#s it$ That#s all there is$+ I

thought that is was more than a little sad$ I felt lie the town would be too small for

me$ )ut when I met with some of the other !rofessors, they have you meet with

!eo!le outside of your de!artment, so you could as them uestions that you might

be uncomfortable asing the de!artment that#s hiring you$ I remember taling with

-r$ Wysoci about what she does for fun$ *I am always busy, I never have a lac of

things to do$ There#s something every night of the wee$+ I still thin it#s not an

e(citing town, but the college more than maes u! for it for me$ .or me, it#s been

about the relationshi!s I#ve formed with other !eo!le at the college that mean a lotmore than where I live$ I don#t s!end much time in my a!artment or gallivanting

around the town$ I s!end more time on cam!us doing things$

TWC: -id they give you a faculty orientation?

CY: Yeah, it was really great for getting to now the !eo!le already on cam!us and

the other !eo!le "ust starting out$

TWC: -id they tell you about what the student body was lie?

CY: Yeah, they go through a number of things$ We were told their e(!erience

teaching you guys$ Things from *What do you do the rst day of class+ to */ow

much time do I s!end taling to students about things that aren#t related to mysub"ect+$ They do tal with us about you$

TWC: We had heard from another !rofessor, who had been here longer, that when

he rst came here, some administrators had told him many things about the

student body$ /e had reali%ed seven or eight years later that it was nonsense$ /ave

you had a similar e(!erience?

CY: that#s a good uestion, actually$ I guess I don#t$ 0o one said anything s!ecic or

!ointed enough to mae it all I remember$ 1ne thing I do remember !eo!le

discussing was about tradition$ There#s a lot of tradition at Wabash$ I#m not telling

you anything new$ The student body is !roud of tradition$ When you#re a new

!erson, you don#t now2 It was the warning that you might be tested a little, interms of *3aybe you#re not aware that you really shouldn#t give homewor during

3onon )ell wee, and that this time is really sacred for us$+ &nd, so I did thin that

was a little true$ I do remember !eo!le taling about the sanctity of Wabash

traditions$ &nd more by the u!!erclassmen than the freshmen$ Teaching this fall

was very di4erent for me than teaching last fall$ 5ast fall, I was new, the freshman

were new, and we were all new together$ &nd so the distinction between the u!!er6

class courses and the freshman courses was di4erent in terms in how we related



and felt each other out$ This semester my u!!er6class course is di4erent$ I now all

of them$ I new almost all of them when it started$ &nd now the freshman are new,

and I#m no longer new$

TWC: What#s your favorite tradition?

CY: I have to say giving a cha!el tal was the most e(hilarating thing I#ve ever done23aybe that is$ The rst one that I though was really striing, when I was doing my

on cam!us interview it was on a Thursday$ So there are all the s!hin( club guys out

there and trying to get !eo!le to come to cha!el$ It was lie a throwbac to old6

timey college days, and I found that really a!!ealing$ The idea of the *historic

college tradition+ still being carried out and guys wearing their little ca!s$ I don#t

mean this in a derogatory way, but I thought it was uaint, and I lied that$

TWC: Was tradition an im!ortant !art of 78& 9 your &lma 3ater?

CY: 78& is actually a lot lie Wabash with tradition$ If you visit the students are all

about Thomas ;e4erson and the honor code and they dress u! for football games$

The theme is girl in !earls and guys in ties$ So actually 7S- <undergrad' wasfounded in =>>, so it#s relatively s!eaing a new institution$ So it didn#t have the

tradition or the camaraderie tradition creates$ )ut 78& and Wabash are really

similar in u!holding ye olden times$ It#s really interesting$ 0ot all schools that are

old have that tradition and history$ I guess I#m sucer for history and tradition$

@rowing u! in southern California, nothing is old$ @oing to 8irginia was really

e(citing for me$ It#s really neat, and I#ve been enamored by it because I didn#t have

that for so long$ I still lie the idea of honoring the !ast, I guess$

TWC: /ow many more semesters are you here for?

CY: I have three more semesters, since my !osition is a A6year visiting !osition$ &fter

that, this !osition is denitely done$ )ut this is the !ossibility of them hiringsomeone errantly, and I that I could throw my hat into the ring for$

TWC: -o you !lan to stay, or do you have !lans for somewhere else?

CY: The diBcult !art for me is that in terms of the "ob alone, I want to stay$ )ut I do

have a signicant other, and we#re trying to solve our *two body !roblem$+

Crawfordsville doesn#t allow very many o!tions for a second !erson$ /e#s also a

math !rofessor and with a school that#s small it#s diBcult to hire multi!le !eo!le$

They do their best to accommodate but it#s really hard when you have such a

funding crunch$ So we have to be o!en6minded about how we solve that !roblem$

)ut there are other schools that are nearby, close enough that you can s!lit the

di4erence between here and Indy$ It#s something where I feel it#s hard, because Iwant to be with this !erson for the rest of my life, but I thin that I will be very hard6

!ressed to nd a better "ob than this one$ Ds!ecially, because it#s di4erent in every

sub"ect, but if you want to teach at a liberal arts college, and you want that small

e(!erience: there#s no other !lace that really graduates as many math ma"ors as

here$ 5ast year Wabash was third in !ercentage of students graduating with math

degrees$ That#s really awesome to teach so many cool classes$ It#s hard at other

!laces to nd so many students who want to go beyond and tae inde!endent



studies or you might not get the o!!ortunity to teach a lot of e(citing classes$ 1r to

have a class that#s lled with !eo!le that want to study math$

TWC: &s o!!osed to the freshman in =E=?

CY: Yeah2 You can only teach Calculus = so many times before you need a brea2

TWC: 3oving away to something more frivolous, do you have a motto that you liveby? Something you can !ut u! on the wall?

CY: 1oh, that#s diBcult$ 5et me start with teaching, and I#ll see if I can#t come u!

with something else$ In terms of teaching, there#s lie two sides$ There#s the

*clinical education+ side$ It#s getting students to be active and to do$ In math you

have to do, you cannot !assively listen$ 1n the more !ersonal side of things, and

this only fairly recently that I thin this, I thin it#s that students learning is more

important than me teaching$ It#s about me trying to gure out what they#re doing

and thining$ It#s not about how I say it to them$ If I#m not listening to what they

need or where they#re at, it doesn#t matter how I say it$ It#s really tem!ting when

you have students that are lost to "ust tell them the answers$ )ut to try to tae timein class to say, *You guys try this one, and do this !art,+ it#s a thing I#m reali%ing is

much more about them than me$ It#s hardF it#s easier to control what I do that to

control what they do$

TWC: -o you nd that this hel!s in the classroom?

CY: I mean, I can only be so e4ective, and I can only be so e4ective without thining

about what they#re thining$ It#s hugely im!ortant because everyone thins about

things di4erently$ Sometimes !eo!le as a uestion and aren#t read to hear the

answers, so I have to nd out where they#re at before I can give the answers$

TWC: /ave you ever had any really diBcult situations with a student at Wabash?

CY: 5ast semester, in &bstract &lgebra, there were GH students$ That#s a really big

class2 That was my toughest teaching e(!erience so far$ It was students of every

class and mathematical ability, and maturity$ I was occasionally close to losing my

tem!er$ It was challenging to reach them all$ There were !eo!le I wasn#t !ushing

hard enough, and there were also students who we were going too fast for$ In terms

of single students, I haven#t had a serious !roblem$ 1r, at least, they haven#t told

me2

TWC: /ow do you deal with the teaching worload here?

CY: In the math de!artment, we usually teach three classes a semester$ That#s

!retty good for an undergraduate school focused on teaching$ & school lie this, isthe best you can ho!e for is three6two, and we#re three6three$ It#s easier when you

have two of the three being the same course, but we lie to give students o!tions as

to who they tae a course with$

TWC: With regards to academia, is it di4erent woring here than at a big school?

CY: I get a lot less research done2 In some senses I#m still guring this out$ I#ve been

here a year and a half and I#m still trying to gure out what wors for me in terms of



what I can e(!ect to get done$ The rst chun of the rst semester, I was trying to

write u! a !a!er to submit$ I thin it#s that you can get new things done in the

summer, and you can write those things during the school year$ That !art can be

hard, but the e(!ectations here are a lot less$ It is hardF there is a balance between

being available and !rotecting your time$ Those are tough waters to navigate$ I

draw the line at weeends2 &nother situation is when it#s not your student and they

want hel!$ Sometimes, I have to say no$ If I have time though, I try to hel! as much

as I can$ What else would I do, chec more emails?

TWC: /ave you e(!erienced any faculty email wars?

CY: That#s a good uestion$ I would totally share that ind of "uicy gossi! with you

guys, but I haven#t2 I#ve also missed the only contentious faculty meeting that I

now of$ The faculty, from what I can tell, get along really well$ )ut it would be more

fun if I had something to tell$ You guys, I mean this broadly, you guys get into some

real battles$ This year is more uiet than last, though$ I#m thining !articularly of

archery club2 Those emails were my favorite in that whole big chain$

TWC: You now, there is still no archery club2

CY: I never really assumed it e(isted, but I really a!!reciated those emails$

TWC: What was that contentious faculty meeting?

CY: Well, I missed it, but it was about the su!!ort for /;6J or whatever it was at the

time$ I thin that there were some arguments there$ The most dramatic meeting,

well it wasn#t dramatic in and of itself, but I thin it was !erceived that way, was the

meeting about yiya$ That wasn#t a scheduled meeting, it was a *We#re meeting

about this2+ I nd the faculty here to be su!!ortive to eachother$ There are things

here that are really great, that I#m not sure other schools can !ull o4$ Ds!ecially not

when the faculty gets bigger$ We have all these committees that !ut on things$ There#s a tal you can go to every single lunch, times ve$ There#s meetings about

teaching and learning, and it#s really interesting to tal about teaching with !eo!le

who are not in your disci!line$ Those meetings have been really useful for me

!rofessionally$ It#s really great to see that everyone cares about what we do here$

TWC: What other de!artments have you !iced techniue u! from?

CY: 3ichael &bbot gave a really interesting tal about course design as a video

game$ It was interesting to listen to this idea about designing a class where the

students learn in the same way you learn from !laying a game$ /is ideas was going

from *read the syllabus, and then you now how to tae the class,+ to Well when

you !lay a video game, you !robably don#t read the manual from cover to cover,you "ust !lay and get feedbac and gure out how it wors$ That was really

interesting$ I also have learned things about student interaction and classroom

environment$ It#s interesting to listen to someone in a di4erent disci!line$ It hel!s to

see what is a universal teaching truth$ What is a!!licable to all elds? What things

are a!!licable to math teaching that I never considered? It#s im!ortant to not get

burnt out, and always have something new to try$ &s soon as you reali%e you#re not

e(cited about teaching, who is going to be e(cited to learn from you?



TWC: If you could change one thing about Wabash, what would it be?

CY: 1ne thing that I would change? That#s diBcult$ Su!ercially, I wish com!s were

later2 &ll the math conferences ha!!en the wee of com!s2 I really do lie the idea

of com!s, but I don#t lie the !ressure$ Some !eo!le "ust melt under the !ressure,

and that#s sad$ I#ll say something bold2 I understand the discussions about it, and

the reasons why it didn#t ha!!en, but i#d lie to Wabash go co6ed$ I thin interactingwith !eo!le who are di4erent than you is im!ortant, and girls are di4erent than you

guys$ You guys are di4erent, obviously I am not taling to three clones, but I thin

about my own e(!erienceF it was really good for me to not go an all6girls college$ I

thin learning about how to wor with !eo!le really di4erent than you is su!er6

valuable$ That#s my bold statement2

TWC: -o you have any !articularly close relationshi!s with other faculty at the

college?

CY: Yes, Krofessor 3ills and Krofessor ush, they were both new when I was new, and

they#re both visitors$ We have s!ent a lot of time together2 In my graduate !rogram

there were not very many women$ It was really great to be able to s!end time withKrofessor 3ills, she#s a really uality !erson$ It#s also e(citing to have a female

friend who does something totally di4erent than what I do2 )ut I would say I have

s!ent the most time with the two of them$

TWC: &nything else you want to say on the record?

CY: 1h my, I#m not sure if I should say more$ -o you guys do redactions?

TWC: 0ot for free atleast

CY: That#s really shady guys2 I really love not being treated lie a second class

citi%en for being a visiting !rofessor$ 0othing comes from the faculty or the

students, and it feels really nice to be treated lie !art of the gang2

TWC: Than you for your time$

CY: Than you guys$

carolyn yarnall interview

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