Features Reporter
Photo by: Whitney Kidd
On a nice spring afternoon, the last place anyone wants to be is cooped up inside talking politics. However, Dr. Justin Gollob, dressed in his famous pastel purple shirt, was eager to do just that with his Thursday Legislative Process class.
“For me, teaching is something you have to find yourself, with guidance, of course,” Gollob said.
Gollob has been an assistant professor of political science at CMU since the fall of 2008. He teaches Intro to American Government, Intro to Political Science, The American Presidency, The Legislative Process, State and Local Government, and Political Behavior. He also serves as the faculty advisor for ASG.
In his four years here, Gollob has learned, “You can’t go into a class and be someone you’re not. It has to be part of you, otherwise the students will see through you. You have to take the principles of teaching, internalize them and turn them into who you are. In order to get students to really bite in a class, they have to feel as if what you’re giving them is genuine.”
By all accounts, Dr. Gollob’s class seemed completely at home, even eager to learn.
“It’s a very open atmosphere,” Shannon Vassen, a sophomore in Gollob’s Legislative Process class said. “We watched Parking Wars, the Simpsons… they’re all related to the topics we’re going over. He brings up a lot of relevant pop-culture references.”
Instead of your typical point A to point B lecture, Gollob was making an honest effort to connect with his students.
“He’s very knowledgeable, but he makes it fun,” Ashley Greco, a junior also in Gollob’s Legislative Process class said. “He has life experience to tie it to.”
Gollob’s life experience certainly could have been quite different from the events that have made him the professor he is today.
“I didn’t have a burning passion for political science,” he said. “It wasn’t until college that I started to be interested in politics.”
In fact, when Gollob first enrolled in Idaho State University, he was pursuing nursing.
“Why? Because my mother was a nurse,” Gollob said. “I took a zoology course and quickly learned that wasn’t for me.”
As one of his general electives, Gollob took Intro to American Government.
“It was in that course that I really started to see a deep interest,” Gollob said.
Perhaps that’s why, despite his specialization in legislative studies in a state and local context, Gollob delights in teaching his Intro to American Government class.
“I actually really enjoy teaching my Intro to American government course,” Gollob said. “There’s a lot of growth that I see in my class. Deep down I want them [the students] to see the logic of politics.”
Outside of the university, Gollob enjoys playing soccer (his intramural team once placed 2nd) and hiking, but his children take up the majority of his time.
“The biggest challenge is the work-life balance of my job and the family,” Gollob said, “because when you love your job as much as I do and you love your family as much has I do, that line blurs together.”
Gollob will be constructing his portfolio for tenure this summer and, at least for his students, the jury is already out.
“I have the privilege of taking more of his upper-division classes,” Greco said. “And even if I had the option of more professors in my major, I would still choose Gollob.”
cferganc@mavs.coloradomesa.edu
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