Our Reporter Attends the First Class
at SUNY Southampton
By Sabrina C. Mashburn
On Monday, January 22, at 12:50 p.m., Stony
Brook Southampton kicked off their first semester of classes ever
with Roger Rosenblatt’s seminar titled “Writing Everything.”
A fitting face for the newly minted university, Rosenblatt is worldly,
talented and debonair. He is obviously relaxed in his role as the
top English Department professor at the new university and carries
himself with grace and charm. The students, though nervous while
waiting for the class to begin, smiled and listened attentively
as soon as the Professor began to speak. Upon entering the room,
Professor Rosenblatt announced that I was from Dan’s Papers
and would be taking photographs and notes during the class for a
newspaper story I was writing. “This is not an uncommon occurrence
in this class,” he quipped. “Next week, Martin Scorsese
will be filming a documentary about the class.”
Once I had been introduced, Professor Rosenblatt
dove into an hour-long lecture about why we, as a species, feel
the need to write, adding in some usual first-day-of-school instructions,
including “I don’t believe in grades” and “do
not come late.” The lecture touched upon every significant
story Rosenblatt could fit into the hour. Evolution, the birth of
Christ, even the OJ Simpson trial, Rosenblatt explained, are all
“fabulous stories.” He described our justice system
and political elections as simply a “competition of stories,”
where a jury, judge or voters decide whose story they prefer. He
also spoke of the human species’ inexplicable need to write
the stories that are in them, even if they are never read. He spoke
of Holocaust victims who wrote stories and poems on scraps of paper
and stuck them into the walls of the ghetto homes in which they
lived and of dying orphans in Sudan who shared stories with him
as a way to reconnect with the world. Rosenblatt’s lecture
also included stories that had come to him while he was on assignment
for the New York Times in Sudan and Rwanda, or writing a book about
the Soviet Union while accompanied by a KGB “journalist-translator-spy-friend”
who was assigned by the Soviet government to accompany him. These
anecdotes of the professor’s successful life as a writer served
not only to inspire the students in the graduate-level writing class,
but also to bolster the reputation of the fledgling university,
whose current course offerings, while small, are of the highest
quality.
I was also fortunate enough to speak with some
of the students, who were eager to share their opinions about the
new campus and the classes they are taking. One student remarked
that although she was registered at the main campus, she was taking
courses at Southampton because there were not as many interesting
graduate-level English courses being taught at the main campus.
She also explained that on the main campus, the smallest writing
classes have 50 students in each section, while English classes
at Southampton hold only fifteen.
The small size of the classrooms and the modern,
floor-to-ceiling windows reminded me of my own Alma Mater, Skidmore
College. A tiny liberal arts college in Upstate New York, Skidmore
is known for its small, discussion-based classes and individual
attention. In most cases, a small private college like Skidmore
is the only place where a student is guaranteed the individual attention
that comes from sitting around a table, discussing topics with a
small group of students and a brilliant professor. However, at SUNY
Stony Brook Southampton, students are paying inexpensive state-school
tuition for the same personalized experiences they would have at
a small, expensive private liberal arts college.
Although classes are only being held in one building,
the pristine, bright condition of Chancellors Hall is a good indicator
of the positive changes to come, for the other buildings on campus
as well as to the state of higher education on the East End. As
Professor Rosenblatt responded when asked if they had a cafeteria
yet, “we have everything at Stony Brook Southampton.”
And it seems to be so. The students, albeit few in number and mostly
comprised of older graduate students, are excited to be there and
the professors and staff seem relaxed and ready to embark on the
inevitably long journey towards building a new university. Every
employee I encountered was eager to help me find my way around and
to answer any questions I had, no matter how far the topic was from
the field listed on their business card. The future looks bright
for Stony Brook Southampton and if you have the time, it is definitely
worth registering for a class this semester before word of this
new jewel gets around and an influx of students arrives from every
corner of the country.
