Professor Hartman responds to some questions raised by Professor Emeritus Norman Shapiro, the editor of CONNECTED.
Q1. Did you enjoy teaching while at City College?.
Teaching at CCNY was truly one of the major professional joys of my career. On average each semester my students were born in 17 different countries. In addition to loving the diversity, the attitudes of our students are wonderful. They had a real hunger to learn and they caring deeply about giving back to their communities. They also shared fascinating insights from their cultures and experiences, and the mutual respect they had for one another made each class session delightful.
Tutor training and training supplemental instruction leaders helped me develop skills as a generalist and develop subject-specific knowledge, pedagogy and instructional materials. Teaching CCNY faculty was exciting and challenging and further developed my skills as a generalist. It started in 1987, with Joe Griswold from the Biology Department, and continued with funding from the Diamond Foundation, Title III, and National Science Foundation grants which enabled me to work with juniors through seasoned faculty college-wide. The two years devoted to directing the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning were also wonderful experiences, and it was especially interesting working with the mix of full-time and adjunct faculty college-wide.
Q2. How do you think we might enhance & improve the School of Education?
I think the School of Ed should be reorganized so there is a better balance in the number of people in each department. With the current structure of one large department and two small ones, sometimes I felt my department was steamrolled
when it came to voting on a variety of issues, especially related to curriculum.
The School of Ed could also be improved by increasing collegiality within and across departments and fostering more collaboration. There have been some wonderful efforts in this direction that could be built on. There have been some problems with mutual respect for each others' areas of expertise, which includes commandeering courses/course content from people who are specialists in their areas by colleagues who are not. Also, I think having more social functions off campus could promote positive relationships. These could occur during the semester and/or during winter and/or summer breaks.
School of Ed faculty and staff should be actively engaged in as many college-wide, university-wide and community activities as possible, so we are recognized as involved with and integral to the institution and its broadest scope. This includes things like the union, local conferences, and outreach to schools and community-based organizations. Many School of Ed people are already engaged in such activities, but the more the better!
Finally, there is the issue of full professors. We need more people promoted to this level so they can mentor assistant and associate professors in scholarship and so they can assume more administrative duties, freeing up more junior faculty to concentrate on their scholarship so they too can ultimately get promoted to full professors! Most of the associate professors who have served as chairs have done/or are doing an excellent job in this capacity, but their own advancement to full professor is jeopardized, and this situation isn't a good model for junior faculty, all of whom I feel should strive to become full professors!
Q3. What do you think you will you be doing in the next several years professionally and otherwise?
Not necessarily in this order, I plan to:
A. Continue writing - articles and books - professional & personal, including a cookbook
B. Flip the structure and become a student. Some of the things I want to study include physics, mathematics and Chinese.
C. Volunteer for some nonprofit organizations, possibly including the Durham Museum of Life and Science, and a food pantry or homeless shelter.
D. Learn about all the wildlife and plants at my new home, which I call "Peninsula Park".
E. Continue working with our CCNY chapter of the PSC union
F. Spend quality time with my two granddaughters
G. Entertain visitors to our beautiful new home
