FACULTY  |  OUTSIDE THE BOX

Problem Solver
Mathematics Professor DeJuran Richardson balances classes, clinical trials, and academic counseling as director of the Learning and Teaching Center.

By Lindsay Beller

image
As LTC director, DeJuran Richarson has taken on issues like plagiarism and copyright law and affected policy change at the College while providing academic support for faculty and students. (Photo by Chip Williams)

As a biostatistician who designs and analyzes the results of clinical trials, Professor of Mathematics DeJuran Richardson does more than number crunch cholesterol levels and blood pressure. Issues often come up that require him to make decisions beyond which statistical formula to use. 
 
This happened a few years ago, when he worked on a clinical trial that studied whether aspirin was more effective than expensive drugs in preventing repeat strokes in African American patients. As evidence mounted in favor of aspirin, researchers had to decide whether to continue the clinical trial — the largest federally funded study of African Americans ever — or stop and publicize the results. They looked at the ethics of continuing the study, whether they learned all they could given the financial investment, and what would be best for the patients before deciding to stop early.
 
Richardson enjoys this part of his research. “It is mathematics but it’s much broader than that,” he says. “There are issues of psychology. There are issues of biology. There are issues of ethics that are involved in the decision making that go along with such pursuits, which is perfect for me because I have this multifaceted personality.”
 
His “multifaceted personality” serves him well in his role as director of Lake Forest College’s Learning and Teaching Center (LTC), which provides academic support for both students and faculty. Appointed in 2005, Richardson, who is also an associate dean of the faculty, does everything from helping professors identify problems and become more innovative in their courses to advising students on their organizational or time management skills through one-on-one conversations, workshops, presentations, and peer mentor and teaching programs.
 
Richardson is the third director to take over since the LTC’s inception in 1998, and Dean of the Faculty Janet McCracken says that he has taken the job to new levels. In addition to hiring a learning support specialist to work with students who have learning or physical disabilities or other academic needs, Richardson is spearheading the evaluation of academic issues like plagiarism and copyright law and recommending policy changes at the College. After a plagiarism incident two years ago, he convened a committee of faculty, students, and staff to look at academic honesty issues and recommend policy changes that were implemented earlier this year. The College is now considering an honor code. “DeJuran Richardson’s vision of what the Learning and Teaching Center can do makes it more important and more expansive,” McCracken says.
 
Many of LTC’s services benefit new students and faculty, says Richardson, who fielded more than 150 requests for assistance last year. For example, mid-course checks allow professors to assess confidentially how their classes are going. Richardson and the professor develop questions that are posed to the class halfway through the semester. He is also exempt from serving on tenure and review committees, so faculty can air concerns or ask for advice without fear of retribution. For students, the LTC coordinates a series of workshops and lectures on academic survival skills, like how to read faster and retain more information and how to give a presentation.
    
Like the clinical trials work, it is a job that forces Richardson to consider the human element. “I couldn’t imagine someone being a director without appreciating the way people’s lives can be made more effective academically and enhanced psychologically and socially,” he says.
 
Twenty years of teaching and research experience prepared him well for this role. He joined the College in 1986 as a post doctoral student but left for the University of Wisconsin in 1989 to gain more research experience. He then taught at Harvard University but returned to Lake Forest in 1993, favoring the small teaching environment over the larger research institution. “Once I got that [research] off the ground, I thought, I have to combine this back with good, effective teaching because those institutions don’t necessarily value that first and foremost,” says Richardson, who was awarded the Lake Forest College Trustee Award for Excellence in Teaching and Research in 2000.
 
Since returning to Lake Forest, he has worked with University of Illinois at Chicago’s department of neurology and Rush University Medical Center in clinical trials like the stroke study, which received international attention after the results were published in The Journal of the American Medical Association. These days, most of his studies deal with neurological disorders and heart disease. He is also working with the National Academy of Science Institute of Medicine to assess the effects of Agent Orange exposure on Vietnam War veterans.
 
But since taking over as LTC director, he has scaled back on his research and teaches one class a semester. While he likes the work, he is also happy that the job rotates every four years. “What’s effective today might not be effective two years from now, so I believe it’s important to have a change of personality and a change of perspective in the directorship,” he says. Plus, he misses the classroom. “I’m glad there’s a time limit,” Richardson adds. “I enjoy teaching. That’s why I came to a place like Lake Forest.” 

Lindsay Beller is the editor of Spectrum.