This is the first in a three-part series focusing on the eight faculty members who will retire at the end of the year. This week: Roger Mosvick, Communication and Media Studies, and Bernie Raskas, Religious Studies.
 

ROGER MOSVICK

Roger Mosvick came to Macalester as a student in 1948. He was active in student government—serving as vice president—and was co-chair of Religion in Life week (abolished in the 1970s), as well as a member of music and theater organizations.

After graduating with degrees in speech communication and political science, Mosvick taught history, speech and drama at West St. Paul High School for four years.

In 1956, he returned to Macalester as a professor of communication studies, despite the fact that it paid a lower salary than his job at the public high school.

“There is a special attraction—and a trap too, I guess—in returning to the institution from which you graduated,” Mosvick said.

From 1958 to 1968, Mosvick served as the director of Macalester’s Debate and Forensics program, leading the team to numerous wins at both local and national levels. A highlight of his tenure as director of the debate team was in 1960, when Kofi Annan won the Minnesota State Oratorical Contest.

“I have a whole second career out of the fact that Kofi Annan ’61 was my student,” Mosvick said, citing appearances on CNN talk shows and interviews with national newspapers.

Mosvick is quick to point out, however, that he has taught and advised some 4,500 students and nearly 600 majors or minors in his career, and Annan is not the only one of his students to make a difference in the world. He also taught Tim O’Brien ’68, renowned author of eight books including The Things They Carried and several students who have become judges and community leaders.

He said that after 51 years at Macalester he is proudest of his role in initiating the college’s first minority equal educational opportunity in 1965. “It was exactly the right thing to do, and it remains so today,” he said.

Mosvick earned his Ph.D. in organizational communication from the University of Minnesota in 1966. In addition to his academic work, he has spent the past 45 years consulting for government agencies and multinational companies including 3M, IBM and Microsoft to help improve their communication practices. He said the consulting work has helped him to better understand the real-life application of academic studies in communication.

For the past four years, Mosvick has been a part of the Macalester Senior Faculty Employment Option (MSFEO), which allows professors to ease into retirement over a period of time by gradually cutting back on the number of classes they teach. He will begin his full retirement at the end of this year and hopes to spend time working on his farm in Wisconsin. “The thing I’ll miss most is the interaction with students,” Mosvick said, noting that he won’t completely sever his ties with Macalester as he plans to come back often to use the library, play tennis and play trumpet in the faculty, staff and alumni band.
 

BERNIE RASKAS

Bernie Raskas began his teaching career at Macalester in 1985, after having graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 1945 and becoming a rabbi at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York in 1949. He was a rabbi at St. Paul’s Temple of Aaron and an instructor at the College of St. Catherine before joining Macalester’s Religious Studies department.

Raskas’ main areas of study and teaching include the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud and Jewish history, theology and philosophy.

Raskas speaks Aramaic, an ancient Semitic language in which the Talmud was written.

Although few modern scholars speak the language, he said he has been studying it for 60 years and continues to study a little every day.

In addition to Aramaic, Raskas speaks Hebrew, German and Yiddish. He said he believes it is important to understand the languages that have influenced the Jewish people because they provide greater insight into Jewish culture and thought.

“When I came to Macalester I began to interact with students from all over the world and my entire view of Judaism changed. I realized that it’s very influenced by outside cultures and all the cultural exchange that goes on,” he said. “I think I’m a better person and a better Jew because I came to Macalester and I understand different points of view. I don’t tolerate them—tolerating implies that you just put up with them—I actually understand different points of view.”

Having written two books and over 200 articles for major publications ranging from the Star Tribune to the Conservative Judaism Magazine, Raskas looks forward to spending more time next year writing. “I like to write offbeat articles on some piece of news or some interesting topic,” he said, giving the example of a recent article on Jews in baseball.

Raskas will take full retirement next year, though he plans to spend time in his office in Old Main, which will become Macalester’s Judaic library, and possibly give lectures in religious studies classes.

“I hope I can keep the association with Macalester by working in the [Judaic] library, having conversations with students and interacting with great scholars,” he said.