Wiltse and His Bowling Trophy

Academics isn't all about teaching, research, committees, advising, vacations.

Sometimes it's about bowling.

Let me preface this blog post by stating that bowling is not really my game. In junior high and high school, I played football and baseball, skied, fished and hunted. These days, I mostly do the latter three.

But bowling has been on the periphery of my life. My junior high school was next to a bowling alley. When I worked at a newspaper, a bowling alley was across the street. So I've spent some time on and near the lanes.

Not much time recently, though. The COJO Department used to have a bowling team when there were lanes in the student union. But I haven't bowled much since then, except occasionally at kids' birthday parties.

Earlier this semester, however, COJO students organized a bowling night to raise money for Professor Frank Millar's cancer battle. Even though bowling is not my game, I somehow managed to get high score for faculty and saw my name placed on the faculty bowling trophy. I am the third winner, along with Cindy Price and Ken Smith (pictured).

This is only my second athletic trophy and the first since my baseball team won the local Little League championship in 1966.

The trophy is on display in the COJO office until I can raise funds for a pedestal display case with ceiling and floor spotlights.

Academic professionals bring teaching skills to UW

Serving on the college's tenure and promotion (T&P) committee this year is an opportunity to see how well other faculty are doing their jobs. As a journalist, I like to stick my nose into other people's business. T&P committee service gives me access to vitae, comments by faculty members, their department chairs and the dean.
Of course, all this information must remain confidential, but the committee spends plenty of time discussing faculty behind closed doors during our meetings.
I only sat through the decisions to rehire or promote academic professionals. Most people aren't aware that there are two strata of faculty at UW. Professors can attain tenure and must conduct research. Academic professionals, who mostly are lecturers (APLs), don't get the job protection of tenure. Their job duties usually emphasize teaching, not research. Professors in most departments must have a doctorate, while lecturers usually only need a master's degree.
UW gets a good deal with lecturers. Their salaries are lower than professors, and they teach more classes than professors. In exchange, academic professionals get to work in higher education with just a master's degree, and, if they do a good job, generally are rehired every year.
On T&P committee, we reviewed 29 packets from APLs going up for promotion or trying to be reappointed for another year. While there was some debate on a few candidates, all 29 passed the committee vote.
After reading their packets, including their self-assessments of their job performance, I was impressed with the quality of teaching done by APLs at UW. Many of them have won major teaching awards. Student evaluations of their teaching were downright glowing in many cases. Their self-assessments demonstrated a keen insight into the classroom environment, the effectiveness of their teaching, and their concern for student learning.
Overall, I came away very proud of the work done by APLs and am proud to be among them at UW.

The Ayers Affair: Embarrassment for UW

After all the controversy over former radical turned professor William Ayers' talk at the University of Wyoming, I have to wonder what was the big deal?

Ayers spoke last night at UW following Tuesday's federal court ruling that UW officials were wrong to cancel his speech. His speech did not try to indocrinate impressionable college students into a life of firebombing or anarchy. Rather, he rightly criticized the U.S. educational system and urged major reforms.

That's hardly radical thought for those of us in education who every day witness the weaknesses of a public education system that has failed to produce young people prepared for the rigors of college.

Some reflections on the whole messy affair:

I am proud of UW student Meg Lanker for pressing a freedom of speech civil case against the university. Lanker came to my office the day after UW canceled Ayers' speech soliciting donations to bring him to Laramie. I doubted she would succeed, but was impressed that she would take the initiative to raise funds in the name of protecting the First Amendment. Lanker also started a new campus organization, Students for Free Speech, and organized a rally last week. Few students have that kind of gumption any more. I hope her professors give her extra credit in some classes.

I am ashamed of UW officials for allowing their attorney, Tom Rice, to bring up Lanker's past during the trial. Her actions in the past were not on trial. UW's actions were. Rice's tactic is often used by sleazy defense lawyers in rape cases who attempt to put the victim on trial. UW should have more respect for its students than to subject them to unethical harassment.

I also am embarrassed by the president of UW's Conservatives, Brian Profaizer, who exercised his freedom of speech by making personal and insulting attacks against Lanker on Facebook, rather than sticking to the issue of UW canceling Ayers' speech. Profaizer has a future running attack campaigns for conservatives, but he has a lot to learn about becoming a citizen in a democracy.

UW also blew it by bending to the threats of donors. The court case revealed that one big donor, John Martin of Casper, threatened to stop giving money because he didn't want Ayers on campus. When I worked for newspapers, we received similar threats. For example, an advertiser threatened to pull his ads unless we would agree to not run the name of his son, who was arrested for drunken driving. Our response was that advertisers don't control our news coverage. Sometimes, businesses would cancel their advertising, but usually they didn't.

UW needs to use the same response with disgruntled donors. Their money cannot dictate the educational process at the state's only four-year university.

Finally, if UW hadn't cancelled the original appearance by Ayers, maybe 50 people would have shown up. Because of the national controversy that erupted over the cancellation, more than 1,100 people showed up last night. Ayers couldn't have bought that kind of publicity.

William Ayers cancellation tarnishes us all

The University of Wyoming should not have backed down after it invited controversial William Ayers to speak on campus about education reform. The Center for Social Justice should have known that Ayers, because of his radical Weatherman past and his flimsy connection with President Obama, would get conservatives and Tea Party types worked up.
Knowing this, UW administrators and Center officials needed to take steps to ensure everyone's safety after threats of violence surfaced last week, leading to the cancellation.
Initially, I didn't plan to attend Ayers' speech, particularly if there was something I liked on TV that night. But after his speech blew up into a front-page story, I would have gone out of curiosity and to support his and everyone at UW's right to free speech.
Here are some of the comments I got from friends that I e-mailed about the issue.
"Even in saner times his visit would have caused a lot of protest. If they didn't have the cojones to weather it, they shouldn't have invited him in the first place. ThugNation is starting to scare me," said a fellow telemark skier.
A Montana University System employee commented, "So much for university campuses being laboratories to test and question the merits of ideas."
A former UW employee, who added he didn't like Ayers because of his radical past, said, "If the University had to bring the National Guard down here to maintain order, that is exactly what they should have done. If every state patrol in Wyoming had to be on hand to provide security, then that is what should have been happened. Because THAT is what academic freedom is all about."
I agree. Unfortunately, when confronted with threats of violence, the best solution may be to respond with a show of brute force. To quote country songwriter Jerry Jeff Walker, "Up against the wall, redneck mothers."

Welcome to Laramie, Kristen

Those of you who read my posting of Nov. 13, 2009, may be wondering what happened to the COJO job search for a new faculty member.

It is my pleasure to announce that the search was successful, and we hired Kristen Landreville as a new assistant professor in new media starting fall semester.

Kristen is finishing her dissertation from the Ohio State University and is living in Columbus, Ohio. Her undergraduate degrees are from the University of Florida.

According to her Web site, Kristen's research involves "the intersection of mass and interpersonal communication on political and social outcomes, especially how uncertainty, emotion, and engagement in political entertainment (e.g., documentaries, satire) influence political discussion."

She has published research articles in such journals as Mass Communication and Society and Communication Quarterly.

Next fall, she is scheduled to teach Online Journalism and Politics and the Media.

To find out more about Kristen, check her Web site.

Teaching online: Cyberlearning has pluses/minuses

Somebody once told me that the best thing about teaching online classes is that you can work in your pajamas.
I won't admit to ever wearing PJs while teaching, but I will admit that I will never wear a necktie while teaching online.
I've been teaching two online classes - Public Affairs Reporting and Investigative Reporting - since 2006 during fall semesters. This is the third time I've done Public Affairs, and there has been a steady increase in enrollment. The first year, 16 students signed up. The next class there were 19 and this year there were 26 students enrolled at the start of the semester.
In informal surveys that I send to students at the start of the semester, they are asked what they like and dislike about online learning. Their responses are enlightening.
"I enjoyed the freedom of being able to access ‘class’ from various locales. I did not, however, enjoy the detachment I felt from both my classmates and my prof in lieu of a real classroom," said a woman in this semester's class.
"I liked online because I can do things in my own time. I like that I can set aside my own time to do things and having online lets me manage some more credit hours," said another woman.
However, she added, "I disliked online, because sometimes it’s difficult to know exactly what the teacher wants. I like having face to face interaction, because I think I understand things more clearly."
A male student echoed that dichotomy: "I liked how you could set your own schedule, the class fit to you instead of you always having to fit to it; I found it hard when I needed to contact instructor because in a face-to-face if you are still confused you can ask them right there where in an e-mail you have to send another and another until you have the answer."
Surprisingly to me, their likes and dislikes are similar to my own as the instructor. The convenience of teaching whenever and wherever I please are two of the main draws for online instruction for me.
However, I am convinced that many students will not learn as much in an online class because they need the face time and hands-on instruction that can only come from a classroom environment. However, research has shown there is no difference in performance for students in online vs. traditional classes. Essentially, students learn as well online as they do in live classrooms, according to studies.
I try to include as much interaction as possible in online classes. We hold weekly live chats in real time. There is a threaded discussion each week in which students post comments to a question and interact with each other by posting responses. And students can and do e-mail me all the time.
One reason that I developed the two journalism classes offered online is so students at the UW-Casper College campus can take required courses without having to come to Laramie, or without me having to drive to Casper.
Besides Casper, students in my online classes have been based in Colorado, Jackson Hole, Gillette and even Hawaii.
Online classes will probably continue to expand in the COJO Department because there is demand for them from students and UW administration.

COJO changes: Faculty take new posts

There will be some changes in the COJO Department when fall semester begins later this month. Two faculty members are moving to new jobs that will affect the department.
Tracey Patton, associate professor, took over as director of the African-American Studies Program on Aug. 1. She will continue to teach three classes a year, including her popular Cross Cultural Communication course that has raised money for an orphanage in Africa.
Tracey also was director of graduate studies in the department. Dr. Michael Brown will resume that role.
At African-American Studies, Tracey replaces Gracie Lawson-Borders, who also is an associate professor in the COJO Department. Gracie moved from AAST director to associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences on Aug. 1. As associate dean, she no longer will be teaching COJO classes. Those include Media Convergence and Minority Media Ownership, which I consider crucial classes for our journalism majors.
We wish them both the best of luck in their new endeavors.
However, their departures coupled with the hiring freeze at UW will impact students. After a couple years of requests, the department finally obtained permission to hire a new journalism professor. We had to shut down our job search after budget woes forced the university to make budget cuts.
As a result, we won't be able to offer as many courses, particularly in journalism, as in recent years.

Summertime: When the learning is easy

Summer classes are under way at UW, and I'm teaching two classes during a three-week session. Online Journalism is in the morning, and Graphics of Communication is in the afternoon.

The three-week classes are kind of an endurance race - can students and faculty last three hours, 10 minutes per class Monday through Friday for three weeks? Can you cram in everything you'd cover during a normal 15-week semester into 14 days (no classes on Memorial Day)?

My observations after years of teaching in summer is that students actually learn better in three weeks than in 15. I base that on anecdotal evidence as well as on their actual performances.

For instance, last summer in Online Journalism, the average final grade was 85.3 percent. This spring, the average in the same class was 82.5. I didn't run a statistical analysis on the grades to see if they were significantly different, but judging by the gap, I'm willing to bet they were.

What accounts for the difference, I think, is that students are only taking one class during summer and are able to focus all of their attention on that single subject. During a regular academic semester, full-time students are taking 4-6 classes and their energies have to b e divided among all of those courses.

While summer classes can be intense, they also seem to be better learning experiences. Higher education should consider revamping the old semester system into three-week sections, during which students would take just one class in each section.

Graduation into the real world

Graduation is a time for celebration, and there were lots of events at the University of Wyoming at the end of the semester to put people in the mood.

First, I attended a luncheon to honor the finalists for the Spitaleri Award given to the top female student at the university. Hanna Bush, a senior in journalism from Gillette, was a finalist, and I attended the lunch with her and her parents. Hanna didn't win the award, but the recognition of being one of the top seven women out of the entire senior class is truly an outstanding achievement. And the lunch was pretty good.

The next week, I went to breakfast with Hanna and her parents (they put in a lot of driving!) to honor the College of Arts and Sciences top 10 graduating seniors. Dean Oliver Walters and his staff put on a nice spread, and I ate way more than usual for breakfast that day. By the way, Hanna also was editor for the Branding Iron this past year.

Last weekend, the winner of the first Larsh Bristol award for photojournalism was honored at the UW Alumni House. UW student Joe Riis had a public show of his photography funded by the Bristol award. Larsh Bristol was an alumni of our journalism program, and his friends set up this award after his death. Riis has done some incredible work documenting the migration of the Jackson Hole antelope herd. His work is also being funded by National Geographic, which gives you some idea of the quality of his photography project.

Hanna and Joe are just two of the remarkable students you will find at UW. I think you'll be hearing more about them in the future.

Roller derby mania hits Laramie

Last weekend there were two sporting events in Laramie - the University of Wyoming spring football game and the first-ever bout for the Naughty Pines roller derby team.

Guess which event attracted the most fans?

The roller derby sold 730 tickets at $10-$15 apiece. It was a sellout. Meanwhile, only about 400 fans turned out for the Cowboys game, which was free. As many as 1,000 fans may have attended the derby because a lot of comp tickets were given away.

I'm not going to predict that roller derby will always outdraw UW football, but I was amazed at the crowd for the debut event. People had to park as far away as the Rec Center and walk through drizzle and rain to the ice arena where the derby was held.

Many people probably didn't know the rules, but that didn't stop the crowd from getting loud and crazy, ringing cow bells and stomping feet on the steel bleachers. Even though the Pines got creamed by the more experienced Denver squad, they never lost the support of their fans. It should also be noted that Denver had a ringer - their best jammer previously was a competitive speed skater.

Beer sales helped fuel the crowd, no doubt. The Altitude had a table with kegs of wheat beer and IPA for the older crowd and the ever-popular Pabst's Blue Ribbon for the college set. In future bouts, the beer situation needs improvement. There were only two servers and people spent more than 20 minutes in line. Altitude needs at least twice as many servers next time.

The Naughty Pines originated in the COJO Department with some graduate students and administrative assistant Sue Benson. Judging by their initial outing, the Pines were a rousing success.

Putting the student back in student athlete

When I walked into my Online Journalism class on the first day of this semester, I felt like I was entering Lilliputia, and I was one of the midgets. I stand about 6-feet tall and normally don't feel dwarved in most social settings. But this class was full of huge guys who are on the Cowboy football and basketball teams.

The other student-athlete in the class, a UW golf team member, is average size.

For the most part, the athletes have shown up for class regularly and are performing satisfactorily in their academic work. That amazes me, considering the time they must spend outside of the classroom on training, practice and travel.

I played two years of high school football until I realized there wasn't much of a future for a 130-pound quarterback. But I remember coming home after a full day of school followed by two tough hours of practice. After wolfing down as much food as my mother could cook, I would face another 1-3 hours of homework most evenings. Then, exhausted, I'd try to grab at least eight hours of snooze time.

But I can't imagine trying to do that at the college level, juggling a full-time course load with a grueling schedule of weightlifting, cardio workouts, full-contact practices and long road trips.

Apparently, a lot of athletes can't handle that strict regime either. Graduation rates for major men's sports are a big concern for the NCAA, and many universities face penalties and sanctions for not meeting graduation benchmarks.

Those penalties don't concern me much. I am more concerned in getting individual student-athletes their diplomas in their five years of scholarship time. Athletes with full-ride scholarships get a heck of a deal - free tuition and fees, room and board, and books. Even at an inexpensive state school such as UW, that can be worth over $100,000.

In exchange, student-athletes provide entertainment for thousands of alumni and fans, and generate millions of dollars in ticket sales and donations. Some sustain injuries that will bother them the rest of their lives.

But if they don't graduate, I think they are being cheated by the system.

My solution: allow athletes to take a part-time courseload during their seasons. For football players, that would mean they would only have to take nine credit hours (three classes) in fall. It would be more problematic for basketball, but I propose starting their season later in fall semester and running it longer into March in spring semester. Under my system, basketball players would only have to take nine hours in spring then.

To keep them on track toward graduating in five years, I propose that student-athletes get three hours of internship credit during fall for football or during spring for basketball.

Student-athletes in other sports would also be eligible for part-time courseloads and internship credit. The hard work they put in for practice and intercollegiate competitions should be worth internship credit. Every athlete would be allowed to take up to 12 internship hours over their college careers.

A lot of professors would say that student-athletes are only part-time students anyhow. But I think reforming academic standards would result in better grades, more learning and higher graduation rates.

Hardball: Chris Matthews Live

One of the great things about working at the University of Wyoming is the opportunity to meet people from all over the world, from all walks of life. One benefit of being in Wyoming is that the state attracts a lot of famous people, too.

Over the years, I've had former Interior Secretary James Watt speak to a class, talked about horses with former 20/20 anchor Hugh Downs, and listened to former U.S. Sen. Al Simpson's stories and yarns at several social functions.

The latest public figure to visit campus was Chris Matthews. The host of MSNBC's Hardball was on campus today at the invitation of Al and Pete Simpson to discuss the Obama presidency. But first, Matthews took the time to have lunch with students and faculty from the Communication and Journalism Department.

Most of what I know about Matthews comes from Saturday Night Live skits poking fun at him and from recent quips from the right wing about his "man crush" on Obama. I've seen his show a few times but don't watch it regularly.

So it was interesting to hear him talk about his career as a columnist for the San Francisco Examiner who has written five books and got into journalism because he was fascinated by politics.

Although he had just returned from Egypt and was kind of run down from the quick trip to Wyoming and our 7,200-foot altitude, Matthews was very accessible to the students who wanted to know, basically, what it's like to be him.

His biggest news story? Covering the fall of the Berlin Wall for the Examiner easily topped the list for him.

His gaffe while dancing on the Ellen Show? He praised Ellen DeGeneres for having the savvy and guts to turn the controversy over her lesbianism into one of the most popular TV shows on the air.

But my favorite anecdote had to do with his role in the Culture of Celebrity. Matthews said he was shopping for sunglasses in Bloomingdale's recently and, within 20 minutes, somebody had put video of his shopping trip online.

Thanks to the Simpson family for inviting Matthews here, and thanks to Chris Matthews for taking the time to talk with our students.

Scholarships: Demand up, but so is supply

As we enter Week 12 of the semester at the University of Wyoming, students and faculty alike realize that the time to learn is winding down. Some students are so far behind that they probably can't catch up. Others are improving their scholastic work every week as they absorb and process new information and skills. Those are the ones who will see their efforts rewarded.

Last week, the Student Interaction Committee met to award scholarships to deserving Communication and Journalism students. Demand was up this year, but so was supply - a welcome economic situation during the current recession. More than 40 students applied for scholarships for the next academic year and for this summer. The increase probably is due to two factors: 1.) their parents can't afford to fund students as much as in the past due to the lousy economy, and 2.) better efforts by the department to publicize the scholarships.

The committee - Rebecca Roberts, Eileen Gilchrist and me - sorted the scholarship applications into several stacks based upon grade-point average, major and residency. Some scholarships require a GPA above a certain level. Others were aimed solely at journalism majors or students in advertising and public relations. One was geared for students from certain Wyoming counties.

Another factor we considered was extra-curricular activities. For instance, students who worked on the Branding Iron and other student publications, or those who had internships with newspapers, businesses or public relations agencies sometimes had an edge over students without those experiences for certain scholarships.

In the end, we awarded as many scholarships as possible to deserving students. Some scholarship funds had as much as $3,000 in them. We usually chose to split that sum into two or three awards to spread the money out among as many students as possible.

The big addition this year was the availability of summer scholarships that would pay for COJO classes taken during the summer sessions. The $10,000 available for summer scholarships made it possible for the committee to award some money to every student who applied for those.

On April 19, we will hold the annual Student Recognition Reception to publicly acknowledge the efforts of students receiving COJO scholarships.

Spring Break: Beats working

When I was a college student, I never went to Cancun or South Padre Island or Fort Lauderdale or any place fun for spring break. When spring break finally rolled around, I went home to work at a ski area or in my dad's liquor store to make enough money to get me through the rest of the semester.

Only since I started working at the University of Wyoming have I been able to enjoy spring breaks the way they were meant to be enjoyed - to the max.

This year, my son and I headed for Bozeman, Mont., for some fun. We skied Bridger Bowl, Big Sky and Moonlight Basin. My son broke his snowboard binding so I loaned him mine, which meant I didn't snowboard at all. But I telemark skied for the first time this year, and also enjoyed riding my alpine boards on some extreme terrain.

We hit a lot of new runs. Bridger Bowl this winter opened Schlasman's Lift, which accesses 1,700 vertical feet of steep bumps. At Big Sky, we rode the tram to the top of Lone Mountain and descended the Liberty Bowl in clouds and blowing snow. Poor visibility made the run treacherous and challenging. The next day under blue skies, we rode the Headwall Lift at Moonlight Basin and skied their expert terrain.

After a winter at our local Snowy Range Ski Area, the opportunity to shred some big mountains (and 10 inches of powder at Big Sky) was a wonderful change.

Needless to say, it was tough coming back to work today.

Tim Masters Case: A question of questions

Whenever I hear students complain about college, I will say they haven't suffered anywhere near the injustice that Tim Masters has in his life. Masters spent 10 years in a Colorado prison before being freed last year when new evidence surfaced in the 1987 murder case of Peggy Hettrick in Fort Collins.

My investigative reporting class last week attended a public forum with Masters and his defense attorneys at the University of Wyoming. We had just covered a chapter in our textbook about investigating police and court misconduct, and the Masters case was a textbook example.

According to his attorney, Masters was convicted mainly by a psychological profile based on violent drawings made when he was 15 years old. The drawings mostly were of Friday the 13th type slashers and monsters. Now, Masters has filed a lawsuit against Fort Collins.

For stories about Masters and how the legal system was twisted and perverted to unjustly imprison him, see a series from the Rocky Mountain News.

I was interested to hear Masters talk about his experiences and his thoughts about how to reform the legal system. Unfortunately, most of the program was dominated by his main defense attorney. However, Masters did answer a few questions that were supposedly submitted by UW law students.

The questions included: What was your worst experience in prison? His answer: Everything. Another question: What was your best experience in prison? Answer: Nothing.

These were some of the lamest questions I've ever heard. If that's the best UW law students can come up with, I wouldn't hire any of them if they ever pass the bar.

The next investigative reporting class, I asked students to think of two good questions that an investigative reporter might ask Masters in an interview. Here are a few of them:

• Describe the interrogations. What kind of questions were you asked? How were those questions directed at you? Were any of the circumstances particularly memorable (emotionally draining)?
• I would ask if he and his lawyers are planning to add the police into their civil lawsuit. It sounds like they crossed the line.
• I would ask Tim and his lawyers how big of a role the media played during those years shortly after the crime happened and then when he went to trial. How did the media make him look?
• Who do you hold most responsible for your convictions, the prosecutors or the police? Why?

If I could have asked questions, I would like to know if he wants his civil lawsuit to go to trial so he can have his day in court, or if he is willing to settle?

I'd also like to know if he still draws.

Meetings: Vampires of a university's lifeblood

If you work at a university in any capacity - custodian or president - you will attend meetings. Some people like meetings because they get paid for sitting around and talking or listening. Other people don't like them because they're a waste of time that could be spent on other efforts, such as teaching.

We had a department meeting at 8 a.m. today. It was fun chatting with my colleagues and laughing at the occasional wisecrack. But, frankly, most of the business could have been handled through e-mail. We didn't vote on anything and didn't make any decisions. But we did take an hour and 15 minutes to do essentially nothing.

Universities are fueled by meetings, many held by various committees. Everybody is expected to serve on a committee. I'm on two department committees now and in the past have served on committees at the college and university levels.

Committees are supposed to study issues and then make recommendations. Sometimes the powers that be go along with those recommendations. Other times, they reject them. Ultimately, all of the big decisions are made by a handful of powerful people - the president, provost or Board of Trustees.

The University of Wyoming is so obsessed with committees that there's even a Committee on Committees (I am not making this up). Imagine attending one of those meetings. Pass the caffeine pills, please. I mean the whole bottle.

There's got to be a more efficient way to run things. With current technology, we should be able to have virtual committees where we can take care of business with blackberries, ipods, cells, PDAs or other mobile devices. We could meet in our homes, cars or while waiting for the university's buses.

Let's hold a meeting on that.

Sorority House Party: Not the movie

Like most Americans, I've often wondered what life inside a sorority house is like. Last night, I found out.

I was invited to Kappa Kappa Gamma's spring scholarship banquet by Rachel, who became my favorite student this year when I found out cheesecake would be served for dessert.

My experience with Greek organizations has been limited, despite spending 25 years of my life in the academic world as a student and faculty member. I first set foot in a fraternity house when I was a poor grad student in Missoula, Mont. A couple friends and I decided that it would be prudent to crash some rush parties so we could drink free booze. Even though we drank a lot of their free booze, we were not invited to join.

My next trip to a frat house was in Laramie when a student invited me to the old Farmhouse Fraternity for a few beers. This dump was right out of Animal House, interior design by Bluto Blutarsky. Populated by cowboys, hicks, farmers and assorted deviants, the Farmhouse was right up my alley, if I had been 20 years younger.

But to date, my only knowledge of sorority houses came from movies. There is the scene in Animal House when the peeping Bluto watches scantily clad coeds engaged in pillow fighting. Sorority girls also seem to be favorite targets in slasher flicks.

Sorry Bluto, but the scene at Kappa Kappa Gamma was very civilized. On Sorority Row, I walked into a beautiful, old, brick home populated by well-dressed young women. I was reminded of my grandparents' old house with its large rooms, high ceilings and tasteful furniture and decor. I drank punch and chatted in the game room with Rachel and Shannon, another student in my classes. Meanwhile, a sorority sister played piano in the background.

Dinner was in a formal dining room with waiters serving the food. I managed not to spill spaghetti sauce on my shirt and, as far as I know, committed no social or etiquette faux pas during the meal. Did I mention there was cheesecake?

After the main course, the sorority honored members for their academic achievements, including making the president's and dean's lists, and maintaining 4.0 GPAs. Rachel and Shannon were deservedly noted for their impressive work. As I mentioned early in the party, KKG must be "the smart girls' sorority."

So I had the wrong impression of sororities, due to media portrayals. Maybe I have the wrong idea about fraternities, too. I offer the challenge to any fraternity members who want to try to change my mind about them.

Just don't forget the cheesecake.