Scott Morschauser

Scott Morschauser

“I Have Enjoyed My Teaching Very Much”: Scott Morschauser (1994) Remembers Three Decades at Rowan University -- Memory #48 of 100

Today’s Project 100 memory comes from Scott Morschauser.  Born in 1955 in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Scott moved to Philadelphia two years later. When he was seven, in 1962, he and his family moved again, this time to Blackwood.  His father was a dentist, and his mother was a housewife who helped raise Scott and his two younger brothers.  He went to public schools and graduated from Highland High School in 1973.  His father had gone to Gettysburg College, and he visited the town every summer because his grandmother lived there.  It was the only college that he wanted to attend.  He began in the Fall of 1973 as a religion major.  During his first day of registration, he decided to take a class in Ancient Greek instead of continuing his studies in Latin, which he had begun in high school.  There were only eight students on the first day, and there were only four after the first exam.  It was a very hard subject, and he is most proud of his C that he earned that first semester in Ancient Greek.  He decided to become a double major in Ancient Greek, and he got better as he progressed, earning A’s soon.  Still, even now knowing ten total languages, he considers Ancient Greek to be the hardest language he has ever studied.  After graduating in 1977, he began his doctoral studies at Johns Hopkins University in the Department of Near Eastern Studies, studying Ancient Egypt.  After fourteen long years, he finished his doctorate in 1987.  It took him so long due to having to take four years of course work, three semesters of exams, and then having two early dissertation topics undermined by new publications.  He taught at several places after graduating, including at Johns Hopkins itself and later at Princeton Theological Seminary.  During this time searching for a full-time position, he decided to go to Princeton Theological Seminary, graduating with a master of divinity in 1991. Soon thereafter, he became the minister at Bethany Presbyterian Church and was ordained in the Presbyterian Church in 1992.  He served there for eleven years, but he continued to teach history and religion courses as well.  He first began teaching at Rowan in 1994.  After many of years teaching at Rowan, he became a full-time visiting professor of history and then, finally, an assistant professor of history in 2003.  During his time at Rowan, he has taught a wide variety of courses, including Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, Ancient Mediterranean World, Medieval Europe, the Crusades, the Search for the Historical Jesus, and many other courses at all levels.  Now, a full professor, he will retire in the Spring of 2023.

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The story of how I first came to teach at Rowan is an interesting one.  In 1993, Mona Johnston, the Department’s administrative assistant, mentioned to my father, who was her dentist, that the Department needed someone to teach a course.  My father told her that I had my doctorate.  Soon, Gary Hunter called me and offered me a contract to teach Western Civilization since 1660 starting in January of 1994.  When I cautioned that my expertise was only in the earlier era of western civilization, he claimed that I would be just fine since anyone smart enough to do “Egyptologizing” would be able to pick up the second half of the course.  I agreed to the contract, but I had to do a tremendous amount of reading and preparation to teach that course.  My wife said that I spent almost as much on new books to prepare as I was being paid me to teach the course.  During that first semester, Dick Porterfield was very helpful to me in teaching that course.  He emphasized that I could organize the course as I wanted, but he gave me great suggestions on books to read and on how to structure the course.  Most of all, he gave me confidence that I could teach the course properly.  After that, I started teaching more courses for the Department, including Ancient Mediterranean World.  One very memorable moment teaching that course was when I had to be absent for a two-week trip to Israel.  Gary told me that I had to figure out how to make up for at least some of those missed classes.  I proposed to the students that they come in for lectures during their Spring Break.  Shockingly, almost all of them came.  In 1998, Gary offered me a full-time position replacing Joy Wiltenburg who had earned a sabbatical. 

I was primarily full-time going forward after this, but there was one great moment of stress for me.  In early 2001, the Department finally received approval to advertise and hire for a tenure-track position in ancient history.  I applied for the position with great expectations, but the world changed on September 11, 2001.  Soon, Governor James McGreevey instituted an automatic hiring freeze, and my position was put on hold.  In the Fall of 2002, the Department again received authorization to hire for the position.  My nervousness that things might go awry again did not dissipate even when the Dean offered me the position.  Only when I turned in the signed contract did I momentarily breathe easy.

I remember when Bill Carrigan and I came up with the idea for the CLIO learning community for incoming history majors.  We were chaperoning honors students at the annual Phi Alpha Theta conference.  I believe that we were at Catholic University, and I came up with the idea of naming the group after the Greek Muse of history, CLIO.  I also came up with the acronym, Community of Learning in Operation (CLIO).  We agreed that we would teach this new cohort in the Fall. Bill would teach United States History to 1865, and I would teach Western Civilization to 1660.  Other faculty would teach courses in the second semester.  The program has been very successful and continues all these years later.

Around the same time, Edward Wang pushed for the creation of a Master’s program in History.  Several of us ended up doing work to propose this program. I remember interviewing students about what they would want from courses and the degree.  Eventually, I agreed to become the first Graduate Coordinator.  In fact, I have held that role all this time, except when I have been on sabbatical.  I am proud that we got the program off the ground and were able to offer the opportunity for advanced study in history at Rowan.  We have had some remarkable students, and I have been pleased that the degree has helped them in their careers in various ways.

I have enjoyed my teaching at Rowan University very much.  The only thing that has been hard for me is the rapidly changing technology, and it has been hard for me to keep up.  I first noticed it when I returned from my 2009 sabbatical, when it seemed that the number of students with laptops had exploded.  It has also been, of course, in great evidence since the pandemic began.  I have introduced many new things, at least for me, including sharing videos and images.  I did not find that my use of PowerPoint was at all helpful to student learning, and I returned to my traditional style with writing on the board. I am happy that students still respond favorably to this lecturing style.

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This is part of the Department of History’s “Project 100,” the collection and sharing of one hundred memories by Glassboro State College and Rowan University alumni and staff in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of Glassboro Normal School, later Glassboro State College, and now Rowan University.