From CSUB to CSUF

Karen Stocker is rolling with the punches that come with teaching at Cal State Fullerton.

The anthropology professor is new to CSUF after transferring from Cal State Bakersfield, where she taught what she loved for seven years and had tenure.

Most professors would feel comfortable in that position, but not Stocker. Despite having tenure, she was still worried about job security.

“I came to Fullerton because the anthropology department is more supported here than at Bakersfield,” Stocker said.

CSUF’s newest anthropology professor, who happens to be the only professor added to the department’s full-time staff this year, said that the administration at Bakersfield seemed to be eliminating anthropology from the college altogether. She felt it was time to move to Orange County even if that meant leaving tenure behind.

Stocker is warming up to her new environment.

“I think anytime you switch campuses, even if it’s in the same system, there are new things to learn, departments have different names, the process by which things are done are a little different,” Stocker said. “But overall, my teaching job is very similar here, so I’m able to take the little adjustments in stride.”

Packing up and moving for a job that is nearly 150 miles away from her last takes some time to get used to, but Stocker is no stranger to traveling. After growing up in the San Francisco Bay area, Stocker studied at Carleton College in Minnesota, where she received her bachelor’s degree in Latin American Studies. It was while attending Carleton College that Stocker noticed the easy access she had to her professors.

“Carleton was a small school, but there was a fair amount of faculty that I could see if I ever needed to,” Stocker said. “Meeting with a professor was never a problem.”

After receiving her BA, Stocker attended the University of New Mexico, where she earned a master’s degree and doctorate in Latin American Studies.

It was before Stocker attended graduate school, though, that she knew she wanted to teach cultural anthropology. Her field work in Costa Rica, where she studied changing gender roles in several communities, gave her experience that she could share with her students to interest them in anthropology.

“Teaching at the college level appealed to me before I enrolled at the University of New Mexico. I knew it would allow me to get students interested in anthropology while also enabling me to do research on the side,” Stocker said. “When I first started, I focused on establishing a teaching style I was comfortable with and that was effective. That’s what I was most concerned with.”

Cindy Leung, who is in one of Stocker’s anthropology classes, believes the new professor has a teaching style that is very effective and offers something a textbook cannot.

“I like the fact that she brings her own experiences into the class, so it’s easier for us to have a insight of what it is instead of reading directly from the textbook and have it describe something you really can’t understand,” Leung said.

Although Stocker’s concerns when she first started working were hardly about job security, those days are over.

“You can’t help but have budget cuts on your mind,” Stocker said. “You want to make sure that you are teaching like you’re supposed to, but you have these things in the back of your head. It’s distracting.”

Stocker said she first noticed how California’s increasing debt was affecting the Cal State University system when Cal State Bakersfield’s staff was shrinking.

“Bakersfield was a smaller campus (than CSUF) so it seemed to be more affected by the state of the economy,” Stocker said. “Fewer people were being hired, retiring faculty weren’t replaced, and a couple of full-time staff members who were popular among students and other staff were laid off.”

After transferring from Bakersfield, Stocker is focused on her job at CSUF. But the seven-year teaching veteran said that despite her experience she still had jitters on the first day of the semester.

“There are always fears on the first day, the first day sets the tone for the entire semester so you really want that day to go well,” Stocker said. “I think there’s always a degree of nervousness, but I think those nerves are actually good because they show your commitment to want to do well.”

Now over half way through the semester, Stocker has found her teaching groove that enabled her to have tenure at Bakersfield. In teaching two general education courses and an anthropology major course, one of the differences that she sees between her previous teaching job and CSUF is in the size of the classes.

“In Bakersfield, my classes got up to 75 students for an introductory course, where here my introductory courses are at 40 students,” Stocker said. “I think that really lets me give more feedback on (the students’) writing, know them better, know everybody’s name and engage with students in a more educationally successful way.”

One of Stocker’s students, Saul Corona, agrees that the intimate size of the class allows for better communication between the students and professor and helps keep him engaged during lectures. The interesting stories shared by Stocker grab his attention too.

“I like it because we all have discussions and we can voice our opinions. It’s really nice,” Corona said. “She has many stories to tell of her personal life and her teachings in class are based around that, and I like it.”

The large classes at Bakersfield may be an effect of the college lessening its staff, thus asking more from the remaining faculty in order to pick up the slack. Business majors call this “efficiency.” Professors call this a headache.

“You are asking a smaller number of people to take on all the jobs that make a campus work,” Stocker said. “That requires a lot of committee work to make that run smoothly, so when you have a smaller faculty you have people who are spread more thinly to cover all of those areas.”

As Stocker teaches in her first year at CSUF she said that she does not have to worry about large classes or fulfilling “service duties”, where in addition to teaching and conducting research professors must contribute to campus life. These services are more reserved for older faculty members.

“As a new professor I am really shielded from that so I could focus on establishing my teaching and publication record,” Stocker said.

But Stocker would hardly complain about having the responsibilities of a veteran professor if it meant securing a position as a full time faculty member for years to come. Giving up tenure was a difficult decision for her and she is looking to regain the privilege at CSUF.

“I hope I can make a career (working at CSUF),” Stocker said. “I think that if budgets turn around and it goes well with tenure and I continue to earn that, then it would be a nice place to stay.”