Life before NIU, for three of its faculty members, was filled with “interesting” teaching experiences at other well-known universities. These professors have shared their knowledge with students in the western world from Hawaii to Paris, France.

The NIU history department is staffed with an ex-Princeton University professor. Professor Allan Kulikoff, associate professor of history, taught at Princeton from 1982 to 1987.

“The department and faculty (at Princeton) were wonderful. It was far more departmentalized than NIU,” he said.

“Princeton places more emphasis on teaching than NIU, especially at the undergraduate level. Th town itself was very elite-ish,” he said.

Kulikoff left Princeton for personal reasons. He applied to many universities for a job, but came to NIU because it was “the only one that offered me a job,” he said, “but also because it has a firstrate history department.”

Professor Susan Leger, associate professor of French, also came to NIU because she was offered a job here.

As part of her doctoral program, Leger taught English from 1974 to 1975 at Universite de Paris VII. She came to NIU in 1980 following a two year temporary position at Ohio State University. “This (NIU) was on of the few permanent jobs around,” she said.

“It was intersting to see French students learning English. For me that was an interesting teaching experience,” Leger said. Her duties at the French university included teaching an advanced translation course and working in the language lab.

Since she was the only American there and French students learn British English, the experience was unusual for both Leger and her students. “I was the foreigner with a strange accent. They usually hear American authors read with a British accent. I made a few tapes of American authors for them,” she said.

Leger described some differencs between French and American universities. She said the French school system differed from that of the U.S., even when it came to simple tasks; the departments required two weeks’ notice just for making copies.

“University life is very different in Paris. There’s not any campus life as there is here,” she said. However, she said she prefers to teach in America. ” I prefer American university life, but the students there (Paris) work harder. They were very well prepared always. They were very serious.”

Differences in a foreign country are expected; differences in a native country are, well, different.

Professor John Smith, chairman of NIU’s accountancy department, taught auditing and financial accounting at the University of Hawaii as a visiting professor for one year in 1978. At the time, he was a professor at University of Iowa and took a one-year leave of absence to teach in Hawaii.

Smith enjoyed this teaching experience in Hawaii. “The student body is a good mixture. The students have a different approach; the attitude is different,” he said.

Smith noted the diverse student popluation at the university. He said, “There was a larger population of international students. Out-of-state tuition is lower; students come from all over.”

Smith, who has ben at NIU for four years, said, “I miss the climate. Northern is a better school, a better university…the quality of students is better here. The university (NIU) is better overall in academics. Hawaii is as you’d expect-more laidback.”

Smith talked about a minor culture shock he experienced. “They still have examples of family-arranged marriaged in Hawaii, which I found suprising.

“I would recommend to faculty to teach somewhere else. Not necessarily Hawaii, but at other schools,” he said.

And if they do teach at other schools, they can always return to DeKalb to share knowledge gained from their experiences-maybe with a Frence accent, or maybe with a Don Ho record to play for the class.