Interview with Dr. Yitzhak Sharon

By Gabrielle Bibus

Yitzhak Sharon is a Distinguished Professor of Physics and Weinstein Professor of Jewish Studies at ��������, where he has taught for nearly 47 years. In this impressive length of time, he has impacted the lives of thousands of students and made a significant mark on ��������. Professor Sharon agreed to talk with me about his experiences at �������� and ways that the school and its students have changed over the years.

Here are some highlights from the interview; the full audio is above.

Q: When exactly did you arrive at ��������? How long have you been here? [0:02:16]

A: I came to �������� in September 1972. The college began admitting students for the class that started in September 1971. So while different people, for example Ken Tompkins, came at least a year before me or even more, I came in with the second �������� class.

Q: How would you compare the original �������� students to now, in terms of work ethic and general "vibe" you got from them? [0:08:10]

A: In the original �������� student body, there were more non-traditional students; there was a larger percent of non-traditional students. Gabby, there was, suddenly in 1971, a new college opened right in our area, and there were many residents of Atlantic County, Cape May County, who wanted to go to college at a complete college, but for one reason or another were not in a position to travel, for example, to what used to be Glassboro then, or Rutgers Camden, and so forth. And now, suddenly there’s a nice new college in their backyard! So there were more non-traditional students. They were very serious, they were very dedicated, many of them were quite talented. I remember that when I came at maybe the age of 36, there were students in my classes who were older than I was. Now, age-wise, I believe the large majority of the students come to �������� either right after they finished high school, or two years after they finished high school because they went to community college. So there were more non-traditional students in the past. 

When I talk about original students, we talk about the first few years. The students often were not necessarily overwhelmingly interested and dedicated to their future careers. They were more, many students, were just free spirits, they wanted to learn, some of them did not take college too seriously, and probably the student-faculty relations were closer. Then and now, students and faculty are on a first name basis, which I consider very nice. And we had an unusual grading system: instead of A-F, we had H for Honors, S for Satisfactory, and N for No Credit. What happened is that eventually, as more people began applying to graduate school, each student who applied had to get a letter from his professors saying that “Tom got an S in my class and this was equivalent to a B+.” And so forth. There was no Honors system, we now have an Honors system, both in terms of the system and honors at graduation. Students had a greater say in what happened in the college. For example, in the very early days, when faculty came up for retention, or promotion, or tenure, there was a committee that consisted of both students and faculty.

I would say that now, most of the students are very career-oriented. Both then and now, many students were the first generation in their family to go to college. Probably students are now more grade-conscious than they were then. I think that, overall, the skills with which students come to �������� are now stronger.

Q: Do you feel like the older students, since �������� was brand new and it was exciting to have a school they could go to, do you think they had more pride in the school than they do now? Or do you feel like school spirit is still high for the school? [0:15:01]

A: I would say that school spirit is still high, and one thing that I want to emphasize is that �������� puts important weight on excellence in teaching. This was always true and is still true now. There’s some other universities where, in addition to teaching, research is evaluated very seriously. At �������� in the early days, teaching was very much paramount, and faculty were hired on the basis of their excellence as teachers. And this has still continued to be typical at ��������, and, sometimes, students who come to �������� from other colleges or community colleges, or are at �������� and then transfer to other colleges, realize that the teaching at ��������, overall, is excellent. 

Also, I should note, at the very beginning, �������� was very innovative. There was heavy emphasis (more than now) on multidisciplinary teaching, for example. There was more emphasis on experimenting in the pedagogy of teaching. And this was very exciting, because one feels as a teacher that one could experiment more. Ther