History professor marks 50th year at TCNJ

Many current TCNJ students might have trouble envisioning a campus where Centennial Hall is a new building; classes are held on Saturdays; professors (or one of them, at least) bring their pets to class with them; registering for classes is done in the Packer gym; and the faculty has its own “student center” in which to pass time between classes. But John Karras, professor of history, remembers those days well. He is now in his 50th year of teaching at the College, and experienced all of it.

“It was a simpler life in many ways. Better? I don’t think so,” commented Karras on the changes he has witnessed firsthand in his five decades at TCNJ.

Karras has watched the College flourish from a small teachers college enrolling 1,500 students...to offering its first non-education major graduate in the 1960s...to becoming the nationally renowned institution it is today. “I enjoyed the quality of the students and programs,” noted Karras, on why he has stayed for 50 years.

Some people claim students never change, but Karras feels otherwise. “Students are different now than they were back then,” he feels, because many more students were the first-generation in their family to earn a college degree 50 years ago. The students from the past had different objectives and motivations from current students, because today’s students are more intellectually motivated, while students form the past often focused on learning for their careers and supporting their families.

Karras described his career not as a job, but as “an activity I’m paid to do,” because he enjoys teaching—as well as the subject he teaches—immensely. “I look at the ancient world from its conception to its collapse and try to learn as much about its facets as possible,” said Karras, referring to the ancient civilizations of Rome, Greece, Byzantium, and Persia he researches and teaches, “Everything has a beginning, middle, and end.” After he finishes with each step of research, he likes to enlighten his students about how these civilizations “did many things we do today,” and how humans can learn from past human behaviors.

In honor of Karras’ 50th year of teaching and his commitment to the College, a series of lectures was held in the library auditorium on Friday, October 5. Rose Mary Sheldon ‘69, professor of ancient history and culture and chair of the department of history at Virginia Military Institute, spoke on “Trajan’s Parthian Adventure.” Craig B. Champion ‘84, associate professor of ancient history and classics and chair of the department of history at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs spoke on the “Perils of Paradigms: A ‘Marxist’ Misrepresentation of an Episode in Ancient Greek History.”  Both Sheldon and Champion are former students of Karras.

Karras will also be honored at the School of Culture and Society’s Leadership Reception during Homecoming weekend. That event will be held Friday, October 19, in the Social Sciences Building atrium. For more information  on the event, contact Diane Minger at 609.771.3434.