By Katie Stobbart (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: February 25, 2015
Prof Talk is The Cascade’s oral history series, featuring the people best qualified to talk about what UFV has been like over the course of its first few decades, and as it looks to change for the better in the future: its professors. Each week we’ll interview a professor from a different department, asking them what UFV was like before it was UFV, and if and how things will continue to change here.
Diane Luu is a professor in communications who has worked at UFV since it was Fraser Valley College (FVC) over 35 years ago. She has also taught at SFU, UBC, BCIT, and Douglas College.
You’ve taught at a few institutions; what brought you to UFV in the first place?
It was the focus on students. At the other institutions I taught at, I found that they were driven more for research or advancement. It was very grassroots-based when they developed Fraser Valley College and so it really showed. Also, the vision of the first president had a direct impact on the people who were hired. I think they had a teaching vision; it wasn’t a research vision, which makes it a whole different institution.
How would you describe the culture or feeling you got when you started teaching here?
What I saw was a transparency and — what a strange thing to say nowadays, but — an honesty. You didn’t have to worry about how your words would be read from a personalized political point of view. There were politics everywhere, but it wasn’t the type of politics I was used to in larger institutions.
I found that people were passionate; I found that students were driven to learn. It was something new and fascinating because finally education came to the valley. Also, I think a lot of us brought startling information, too — especially the art department — information that may not be readily accessible during that time period.
So the development of FVC, then, had a political impact on the Fraser Valley.
Economic, political, and social impact. When I talk about the art department, when they started to draw nudes in church basements, that’s what I’m talking about.
I think the biggest thing that I was attracted to at Fraser Valley College is that we were empowering the students; if we empower the students, then they can make decisions that allow them to make positive changes in their lives.
It was just marvellous, because when I taught at UBC, those students were already set economically, many of them. So the changes were there, but it wasn’t so life-changing. But here we saw people change and grow to become successful contributing citizens, and they would never have been had the college / university [not] been here.
How has UFV’s place in the surrounding community changed since its inception?
We have more voice. We have more impact — economic impact. Certainly we’re more visible. We are a wonderful option for students in this area. We’re still growing; time will tell.
I don’t think many students locally realize that UFV gives them an advantage and a cutting edge that they will never have at some of the larger universities with hundreds of students in a lecture hall. I remember going to university. You didn’t talk to your professor, you talked to your TA. Your professor wasn’t interested — just put the papers under his or her arm and went off to do their research.
I actually get to know my students more, and I get to help them. They can drop into my office hours and spend as little or as much time as they want.
So what does that mean for your experience as a professor?
I love teaching. I love seeing the light bulb go off, the transition. I love seeing students being able to actualize their abilities.
I’ll give you a story of a student, a mature student, and he had a very rough life. He failed the first two tests, and I gave him the next test, but before I did he came up to me and asked, “Do you give any extra work to bring my grade up?”
We don’t do that in university — I don’t do that. So I said, “Did you try some of the strategies that I taught in class? The right hemisphere strategies versus the left?”
So he and another student changed their notes into diagrammatic form with colours and graphs, et cetera, and I handed the midterm back, and he said, “I got a B!” And do you know, the class clapped? I never expected that. That tells you something, doesn’t it?
Some friendships actually go beyond the classroom. But actually there is a loss, I have to tell you that. I like iPhones, I love cells, I love the internet. But it causes a division between students during the [class] breaks. Before, during the breaks students would talk to each other — what else is there to do, right?
Now we go for a break, people disperse, go talk outside with their phones, or go on their phones or laptops right away. There’s no engagement, which really disappoints me because that’s where the friendships happen. Everyone’s little, tiny silos. It’s really too bad because this was the gathering place, the place of interaction, where you get different points of view.
I don’t know how we’re going to avoid that loss with today’s technology. I don’t know where that will lead us to. They’re looking at me, and I want them to look at each other.
What kind of changes have you made in your teaching style?
I’ve had to change not only the content — I also change the content every single class to reflect the interest areas of students. If I have students in aviation, if I have students in basketball, science, or social work, I bring examples from all those dispersed areas.
I change it to the needs of students. The needs of students back at FVC were so different, considering that our new tech was overheads and electric typewriters.
UFV drags us into the 21st century, so we’re always learning more. What I do is a mix of PowerPoint, overhead, board, handouts, the internet, and group work. Our technology now is very fast-paced, so we have to grab that 30-second bite. But I also have to train my students in the first year to withstand a three-hour lecture.
I answer all questions and I tell students there’s not a single stupid question out there. My classroom is a safe environment, so they can risk learning, risk asking, risk failure in my classes. It’s okay to fail; in science, that’s what you do — you fail, you don’t do it again, and you know what does and doesn’t work. So I give them a different perspective to allow them to see beyond the way they see, to see outside the box of society, I’m hoping.
Have there been any colleagues or students who have particularly influenced what you do as a teacher?
They all do. We learn from [students] as they do from us, but I know that’s an old-school way of thinking. That was our philosophy years ago at Fraser Valley College. So I’m old school. I believe in the passion of learning.
What kinds of projects or research have you worked on while at UFV?
I’m constantly researching; it never stops. Not for peer research, but for teaching. Currently I’m interested in disability and diversity, but now I’m looking at it further for accessibility because our institutions have to be more accessible. I think it’s hidden in terms of the fact that we tend to hide those who need access.
I’ve also researched critical thinking and technology. I had a student who could not read anything from a book; it had to be on screen. He said he could not focus if it was in paper form. He’s the only student I have ever met like that, but when I meet with students, I say, you’re going to be the last generation that is half-paper, half-electronic. That has huge implications for an institution. So, only because I had my experience with that student, I realized we’re going to have a huge problem.
So again, technology is good in the classroom, but then it causes those little silos; technology is good, but it causes problems in the community.
Each student or teacher is going to take something different out of UFV. What is that for you, and how are you still changing it?
An intellectual high. I teach to empower, and when I see that empowerment, that’s an intellectual high you can’t get anywhere else.
Being driven to help a student is different than being driven to help an institution. There’s a lack of drive — a lack of humans, of course. It’s amazing what we as human beings do to help another person.
