This week’s “Professor Chat” is with Bob Coleman, Coordinator of Media Technology and adjunct professor in the Communication Department. Coleman is a big Anne Rice fan and can be found teaching Digital Print Design or helping out with any technological issues in the Communication Department office this semester. Read on to find out a little more about your professor.
Q: Why are you a professor in the subject you are?
A: I’ve been pretty much in communication/production education for my whole life. I’ve been doing this for over 30 years—I went to college to study broadcast and telecommunications, then I went to graduate school for education. When you put those two together you get education and creative television, and voila—you get this. That’s aside from the fact that I really enjoy doing it. If you ask me really why I do it, it’s because I like doing it.
Q: What is your favorite part about MC?
A: Oh it would have to be the students of course. The students are a lot of very unique individuals. Manhattan College is also very nice to us—the faculty, the staff, the administrators. We’re appreciated and recognized as professionals, rather than just some sort of employee. But really the nice part about working here is that you teach students for four years, then they move on and graduate, and then you keep in touch with them and see them get jobs and develop in their lives, and it’s actually extremely rewarding.
Q: What is your biggest student pet peeve (if you have one)?
A: I do, particularly in the teaching part of my job. I think I try to make my classes an enjoyable learning experience. I don’t think I’m very demanding but I expect quality work and original work. And, I expect students to make an effort to come to class and come on time. So my biggest pet peeve is students who stroll in late, which I find extremely disrespectful. Some don’t realize that it is their responsibility to come to class each week.
Q: Where can you be found on the weekends?
A: Well these days—since June—you can find me at Lifetime Fitness, swimming. I always
knew how to swim but I took lessons in June because I needed to do some form of exercise, and swimming is the best exercise. So I took lessons for a month and then started swimming laps every week. So you can find me hanging out by the pool, swimming laps.
Q: What is your favorite thing to read (book, newspaper, magazine, etc.)?
A: As far as books go, like my taste in movies also, I like horror flicks, science fiction. For easy reading, I think I’ve read every Stephen King book there is. I also read The New York Times and USA Today online on my iPad every day. I read some food blogs—now I’m really into reading all of the food blogs from “Spoon University” because I’m the new faculty advisor for the new club on campus. And anyone who knows me knows I love cooking and I have, no joke, probably 500 cookbooks at home. Not that I’ve cooked everything in them but I love to read them and flip through them. I don’t know if “cookbooks” is actually a genre of reading, but I do love reading them.