My columns are supposed to be politics-related, but I’m wandering off-topic this week. Forgive me.
Most everyone reading this had that teacher – teachers (plural) if they were lucky – who made a long-lasting positive impact on their life. I count myself in the lucky lot since I’ve encountered a few of these folks scattered across the entirety of my educational experience, from elementary to graduate school.
None of these educators, though, has remained a constant presence in my life like Dr. Betsy Alderman, the now former-Communications Department head at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Man, it was weird to type the word “former” just then.
Also, it probably read oddly to the thousands of students who’ve sat in her classes at UTC over the past 22 years. After all, Betsy (she insists alumni call her by her first name) is one of those professors whose influence and constant glowing presence provided a sense of place to a sprawling, ever-changing college campus. No doubt, as she closed the book on her academic career upon the spring semester’s end, the university lost an anchor to which innumerable alumni memories are tied.