Dear Friends in the Community,
It is with a mixture of joy and sadness that I inform you I will be retiring at the end of this semester. Much of my decision is personal. I began as an undergraduate at the University of Illinois in 1965, and, then spent my graduate years at the University of Wisconsin. From 1975 until 1988, I taught at St. Lawrence University, a small liberal arts college in northern New York. In 1988 I moved to San Diego State where I have taught in the History Department, directed the Jewish Studies Program until 2006, and served as the history graduate advisor ever since. Although I feel extremely fortunate to have been able to pursue my calling as a historian, I must confess I relish the idea of sleeping late, spending more time with my wife, son, friends, and pets (in that order), travelling, and writing and speaking about all the projects I have put on the backburner all these years. Frankly, I’d like to get in touch with my inner indolence.
I still love teaching, particularly teaching graduate seminars with the diverse and talented students in our MA Program, but I find it increasingly difficult to teach undergraduate classes whose enrollment keeps growing while funding for graders, teaching assistants, and lecturers keeps shrinking. I would like to think this is a momentary product of the recession, but realize that the financial commitment of state government to public education has consistently declined over the past 24 years. When I first arrived, the History Department had 37 professors: 14 specialized in American history, 12 in European, 5 in Latin American, 4 in Asian, and one each in African and Middle Eastern. Ten years ago the number of full-time faculty members had dwindled to 24 with 10 Europeanists, 7 Americanists, 3 Latin Americanists, 3 Asianists, and 1 Africanist. The trend of retirements outpacing new hires has inexorably continued with only 20 full-time faculty members left, comprised of 7 who specialize in American history, 6 in European, 4 in Latin American, 2 in Asian, and one in Middle Eastern.
While I don’t have the exact figures, total enrollment in history courses and for each faculty member has increased because the university has tried to compensate for budget cuts by relying on large lecture courses―500 seat lecture halls for history courses were introduced only over the past decade― and raising the enrollment caps on undergraduate courses in tandem with your tuition. I am proud that the History Department has resisted attempts to enlarge the size of graduate seminars and that it insisted it would only offer the jumbo lecture classes if there were discussion sections run by teaching associates.
I hope that the university will reverse the trends I’ve described when the economy improves. But then again, I’m a Chicago Cubs fan and believe in miracles despite abundant evidence to the contrary. I plan to do more research and writing on Jewish film, the Holocaust, and various aspects of San Diego Jewish history. I also will be doing a lot of public speaking as my new book on Jewish film has generated much interest around the country. As long as you don’t see me pushing a shopping cart and collecting empty bottles and cans from garbage pails, you’ll know that retirement is treating me well.
B’ Shalom,
Professor Lawrence Baron
San Diego State University