[Previous entry: "MORE ABOUT KANSAS ORIGINALS SPIRIT OF KANSAS ART FAIR AND FUN DAY, SATURDAY"] [Main Index] [Next entry: "THE SMU SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING e-PROFILES"]

09/25/2003 Archived Entry: "DR. GEORGE WILCOXON"

DR. GEORGE WILCOXON

Here is an interesting letter from Jesse Manning that should be of particular interest to K-Staters:

Peg, I thought this might be an interesting piece about K-State that very few people know about. It just goes to show you that dedication to students really does reign supreme for some of K-State's excellent faculty.

Three of my classes here at KSU have between 30 and 40 students in them: International Relations, The American Presidency, and History of Christianity. With this small number of students, questions can easily be raised in class and discussions can quickly arise. Another class, Natural Disasters (a science requirement for me), has upwards of 500 students, or so I've been told. Students visit, read the newspaper, or catch up on sleep in this class where contact with the professor is virtually impossible.

Naturally, I prefer our smaller groups to a huge lecture hall filled with inattentive, often-times hungover, college students. However, there's one class that takes the cake over my small group/discussion courses - The History and Culture of Rome. I sit alone in this class...in fact, it's held in the professor's office on Monday and Wednesday mornings instead of a classroom filled with desks. The professor sits just a few feet from me as we discuss ancient Rome. And I'm in this unique learning situation not because of favoritism or supreme intelligence - nope, I'm having a one-on-one discussion because of one extraordinary professor's dedication to ancient history and those who wish to learn it.

Dr. George Wilcoxon will turn 90 years old next month. He's been retired from Kansas State University since 1984 yet has continued to teach, often free of charge, in order for KSU to keep their ancient history classes. For a more in depth look at Dr. Wilcoxon's time at K-State, you can read this 1996 article about him here: Dr. Wilcoxon

Needless to say, Dr. Wilcoxon has been going above and beyond the call of duty for nearly 20 years now. Since I started college at K-State, I had kept an eye on the Greek and Roman History classes that were offered once a year. Of course, as a freshman I had no hope of joining either of these upper level courses (History 565 and 566, respectively). It was no matter, however, as Dr. Wilcoxon didn't offer his courses in the fall of 2001. As the fall 2002 semester neared, though, he was on the agenda again, and with the right timing and a little luck, I secured a seat in History of Greece, where I shared the room with 19 other fortunate students.

Those "fortunate" students didn't think themselves quite so lucky, though. Dr. Wilcoxon's classes were hard. His questions on exams were picky and peppered with minuscule details about the more obscure facts of Greek culture. I, on the other hand, loved it. After a rocky first exam, I came out of the class with an A as well as an even greater love for ancient history. I was eagerly looking forward to the History of Rome in the fall of 2003.

But when the course schedule for this fall was released, Dr. Wilcoxon's classes were missing from the lineup. It seemed he would no longer be teaching classes of any kind at KSU due to many considerations - failing health and lack of connection with students chief among them. Even a class of 20 (just about the smallest class possible at the University) would be too much to handle again. I asked the head of the History department whether anyone would be taking up the subject in the near future, but she had her doubts.

Then I thought of something that, at that time, seemed completely out of the question, but I had to ask anyway. Would Dr. Wilcoxon be at all interested in meeting with me one-on-one to assign readings and discuss material? The head of the department treated the subject very questionably, and my adviser had deep doubts about my prospects. But by the end of the spring semester, tentative plans for one-on-one sessions had been made as Dr. Wilcoxon was "happy to do it".

Now on Mondays and Wednesdays I attend, not so much a lecture, but a discussion session with Dr. Wilcoxon. True, I listen a great majority of the time, but in this face-to-face situation, my immediate questions can be dealt with. Our conversations may stray from Rome's battles to Roman psychology to Greek philosophy to K-State football (we were both depressed by the results of last week's poor performance by the Wildcats). It is truthfully the most unique academic experience that I've had thus far at K-State, and next semester I'll miss our meetings and my near-exclusive access to a great mind - Dr. Wilcoxon has probably forgotten more than I will ever know. He's truly a great professor dedicated to his profession, his specialty, and his students.