I get frustrated sometimes with the way university administrators are fixated on marketing and branding, and on “student success” implicitly defined as processing as many passing grades as possible (not just at UK; the phenomenon is a pandemic).  Sometimes to relieve my frustrations I make things such as the flier below to amuse myself.

We’re supposed to advertise our courses to make them attractive to students, and to keep them entertained once they are in the class. If they don’t show up, it is the professor’s fault for not being entertaining enough.

I sent the flier to some colleagues in the department, none of whom recommend actually using it (I think I can safely assume that few, if any, potential GEO 130 students will read this blog). However, it has stimulated some interesting discussions.

A couple of people (that is, about 50% of the blog’s readership) have asked about the “Jedi” reference in the Jedi Geoscience label. It comes from a PhD student about 10 years ago. After I answered his methodological question about his fieldwork, he good-naturedly suggested that my advice was about as helpful as if I had told him, like the Jedi Knights in the Star Wars movies, to “use the force.” After this story made the rounds, some of the grad students at Kentucky at the time referred to me as the “Jedi Geomorphologist.”

And now you know.

Jedi Geomorphologist using the force.