Welcome! This website is designed to introduce you to my new book. I hope you enjoy your visit.
Book Summary
Fifty years! That’s a long time to spend in college – but that’s how long it took me to learn all of my lessons. Through stories gathered from a lifetime in the wacky world of academia, the finest pub in Pennsylvania, and a home filled with wonderful (and occasionally quirky) women, you’ll discover:
- Why the answer is always false
- The importance of emotional bank accounts
- Why happiness is undervalued in academia – and why it shouldn’t be.
- The powerful, often counterintuitive lessons learned from family and friends
- The joy and impact of using stories and analogies as teaching tools
- And why Bruce Springsteen absolutely cannot have thirty five songs on anyone’s top one hundred list
You’ll also get a peek behind the curtain at how the academic sausage is made: from the recruitment (although I use a different word) of a talented and diverse student body, to the debate over of equity versus equality in student life, to the ever-controversial concept of academic tenure. Along the way, you’ll meet many of the amazing students who – along with my wife, daughters, and friends – brought challenge, fulfillment, and a whole lot of happiness to my life.
Table of contents
- Foreword
- Prologue
- Part I: College
- Chapter 1: Lessons Learned with Students
- Chapter 2: Lessons Learned with Colleagues
- Chapter 3: Lessons Learned in Committees
- Chapter 4: Lessons Learned While Mentoring
- Chapter 5: Lessons Learned While Making Decisions
- Part II: Family, Friends and the Pub
- Chapter 6: Lessons Learned with Family and Friends
- Chapter 7: Lessons Learned at the Pub
- Part III: The End of an Era
- Chapter 8: Lessons Shared with New Colleagues
- Epilogue
About the author
Jim Schaffer
Professor James Schaffer earned his BS, MS and PhD from Duke University. After five years at the Georgia Institute of Technology, he joined Lafayette College in 1990. While continuing to teach throughout his career, he also held several administrative roles, including director of engineering and director of institutional research.
Schaffer’s research focused on the characterization of defects in crystals using positron annihilation spectroscopy. Over the course of his career he authored thirty three journal articles, published two textbooks, was granted two patents, and served on over fifty college committees, chairing fifteen of them. He mentored twenty-five undergraduate research students and sixty independent study students, many of whom went on to earn advanced degrees.
He taught a wide range of courses including, Introduction to Materials Engineering, Engineering Mathematics, Experimental Design (Laboratory), Engineering Ethics, Technical Literacy (for non-engineers), and Engineering Economics. Most at home in the classroom, he earned nine teaching awards along the way.
Jim and his wife Lisa retired from Lafayette in 2024 and now live in Savannah, Georgia, with their cats, Maisey and Peter. All four are passionate Duke basketball fans and try to attend at least one game a year in Cameron Indoor Stadium – although the new clear bag policy makes it even more difficult to smuggle the cats in.
