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Dean Dupre
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Dean Dupre in 1956.
A life lesson learned during 8 a.m. history
As a wide-eyed freshman, some upper classmen (attempting to be helpful) took it upon themselves to assist in the planning of my first semester schedule. Thus I ended up in Dean Dupre's 8 a.m. history class where an essay was due every Monday morning... a shocking reality, I soon discovered. It was in this class that I experienced the consequences of plagiarism. Actually, I only had to rewrite one paper! Fortunately, some lessons one learns the first time around. I must say this came in handy as a future sixth grade English and social studies teacher.
Jan Hautzenrader Mattox
Discussions with advisor “Dean”
Dean Huntley Dupre was my faculty advisor. I thought Dean was his first name, having no idea of his status as Academic Dean. He encouraged me to visit him at any time of the day, which I did, sometimes just to talk. He listened to my objections to taking English. I argued that every writer of note to my high school English teachers was either an Englishman or an American male who had lived in England. Demonstrating that I could write clearly and outline a text, he arranged for me to be excused.
Another discussion I remember with Dupre involved a comparative government text he assigned that I thought biased. He defended his choice by pointing out that this book provoked class discussion whereas students accepted his previous choice as the “gospel.” We discussed Mac’s choice of Chapel, with its required attendance, as the site for talks by controversial speakers. He responded that students sat quietly in Chapel unlike in Convocation. And no, he did not excuse me from Chapel. Norman Thomas was invited to speak every year, as I remember. Dupre gave me permission to watch the Army-McCarthy Hearings on the only campus television set, located in the faculty lounge. I hosted a radio program geared to women’s issues, but daily I also reported on this monumental event. I found the soundproof studios a perfect place to study as well.
Corinne E. Johnson Nyquist ’57
Explaining what I meant to Dean Dupre
Macalester was a wonderful experience for me expanding my understanding of life and the world and giving me a good education. An important moment occurred for me in Dean Dupre's class on Comparative Government. It was classified as a course for juniors and seniors but somehow I was allowed to enroll even though I was classified as a sophomore. The class seemed filled with mature political science majors and I was intimidated. Dean Dupre's method of teaching was to assign papers, which were to be written more quickly than the standard term paper. He read them immediately and used them to engage his students in discussions of what they wrote. Since I was not acquainted with his method, I was surprised and caught off guard when he opened the next class by saying "Mr. Stanton, you said such and such about England's bloodless revolution. Please explain what you meant." I wanted to fall through the floor. I had approached the paper in a way that I had been used to doing class papers by weaving the thoughts of scholars with little thought about what I thought. Somehow I survived that interrogation and went on to take every class taught by Dean Dupre and came to love and respect him very much. In some respects, I grew up educationally at that embarrassing moment.
Norman Stanton
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