I loved hearing about Dr. Kopp’s exploits and stories on his road to becoming the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. His almost giddy, childlike nature was surprisingly refreshing and different from the stereotype of many high ranking members of academia. He was interesting, engaging, and most notably, very approachable.
The first thing that stuck out to me was just how interesting his adventure was, and I am inclined to call it an adventure because of just how open Dr. Kopp’s professional life was and is. He quickly claimed no job he ever had was lobbied for an earned but rather was presented to him and he took a leap, one of intrigue, ambition, and even fear. It was very inspiring as I am someone who has not only found my professional life lived in a very similar manner, but continue to live it this way and truly enjoy it. Kopp did not discourage hard work, effort, and pursuit, but rather the challenges that arose were cosmic byproducts of the aforementioned. In my professional life I find most of my work “falling into my lap” so to speak, and I really do love it. It sometimes makes things scary and uncertain, but that is all a part of the ride, the adventure that is my life and career contained within it. Amazingly, and parallel to Kopp’s stories, is new and exciting doors open for me all the time, and I always enter with a “let’s try this new thing, it should be fun” attitude. Regardless of Kopp’s philosophy, mine, or whatever amount of luck we have mustered in our lives, the business of my profession tends to work in this way regardless of whether you are trying to live it out or not. A lot of comedy is getting lucky, networking, knowing the right people, and overall working hard, displaying that good work, and having that work be noticed and ultimately appreciated by those who have something to offer you. I like to think of it as a very deep level of freedom, achieved only by good, hard work and determination.
Another wildly amusing piece to Kopp’s lecture was his desire for diverse students, at colleges with NO MAJORS. I was very torn on Kopp’s ambitious dream for Stony Brook and higher education everywhere. He proclaimed that more and more graduates aren’t tied down to a field by their majors, and what is more important is the passion and ability to learn of those seeking employment. Stating that having a wealth of knowledge can be far more empowering than studying a single discipline for years and years. For much of that I agree, I love to learn, I love to learn about almost all things, and I truly believe life is just a giant classroom, and one of the best things you can truly do, irrelevant of all things (age particularly) is constantly be learning. Not that my major choice was directly impacted by this notice, but it was interesting to note that my degree, Multidisciplinary (MTD), was very much in line with what the Dean was hoping to accomplish in his tenure. He even hinted that my major is perhaps going above and beyond his vision for an old world style college, one with no majors. Ultimately, he feared that graduates would be too honed in on one subject, blinded to the others, and in a growing and changing job market, his job, as he sees it, is to make sure he produces the best qualified employees that are ready for that market.
My only opposition to Dr. Kopp is a question, what about those who are hellbent on their path and will never deviate? The engineers who really care little for the arts, who struggle in them and will never see their application? This is a struggle I had in high school and college and it bothered me immensely. I am not good at art, I do not enjoy it, I never have, and I think I am at a point where I probably never will, so how do you justify it to those types of students that they must take it, or experience it? It is a very important set of questions that would need to be answered if this system is to take shape, and be applied in the future. Regardless it was an immense pleasure meeting and hearing from Dr. Kopp, and I actually we really love to hear from him more.