Former political science lecturer Phil Gussin selected for third annual “˜My Last Lecture’ Award
Daily Bruin File Photo
Phil Gussin was chosen as the speaker for the third annual “My Last Lecture” event. Gussin received more than 2,000 nominations.
Today, 6:30 p.m.
Schoenberg Hall
Hear more from Lorden Fok on his campaign and relationship with Gussin above.
By Emily Chu
April 25, 2012 1:12 a.m.
Correction: The original version of this article contained an error. Phil Gussin’s three brothers were also teachers.
Told he had been elected as this year’s speaker for the “My Last Lecture” event, Phil Gussin, standing on the stage of his political science class, had to swallow down tears.
An organizer of the event, Wesley Wong, had just woven through a crowd of students lined up to talk to him at the end of his winter quarter class to deliver the news. Overhearing Wong’s message, his students burst into applause.
Gussin is the third recipient of the award, which is hosted by the Alumni Scholars Club. He received more than 2,000 nominations.
The lecture event poses the question, “What would you tell your audience if you had but one lecture to give ““ your last lecture on this earth?” to an inspiring professor selected by the student body.
This will, in fact, be Gussin’s last lecture at UCLA for the foreseeable future.
Gussin was a lecturer in political science at UCLA until the end of winter quarter, but now teaches full-time at College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, where he was offered a tenure-track position.
He plans to speak about his life, but he is also keeping much of his speech a surprise. He says he wants to give the audience something to look forward to.
Wong, a fourth-year neuroscience student and the vice president of the Alumni Scholars Club, was the one who gave Gussin the news.
She sat in on Gussin’s class after he was chosen as this year’s lecturer, partly out of interest and partly to make sure he deserved the nomination.
“He’s a really engaging professor. He asked the audience to answer his questions; he knows people by name,” Wong said. “It’s something you don’t really see on a lot of college campuses.”
Gussin’s journey to becoming a professor was particularly unusual. He was a plumber for a decade before returning to school.
When he arrived at UCLA as a graduate student, he said, he felt out of place.
The idea that he didn’t deserve to be at UCLA was always in the back of his mind. This feeling stuck with him as he transitioned from student to professor, he said.
Growing up in a family of teachers ““ his three brothers have all worked in the profession ““ Gussin found his niche as an educator, even before he became a professor.
As a plumber, he would tutor Spanish-speaking workers in English during lunch breaks.
It was through teaching that he found he belonged at UCLA, he said.
As much as teaching is instinctive for him, it is important for him to maintain a philosophy of learning, not teaching, he said. More than anything, he wants students to take something away from his classes, academic or otherwise.
“My job is to teach in a way that students learn. … It’s a two-way street,” he said.
Throughout his years of teaching, Gussin said he remembers particular instances when he realized he was teaching students lessons that applied inside and outside the classroom.
He recalls one particular student whom he caught cheating on a final. He failed that student, but was shocked to see that student’s name on the roster the following quarter.
“He sat in the front of the class. He said, “˜Thank you for a valuable lesson,’ and shook my hand when he turned in his final,” Gussin said.
Wong said Gussin won the My Last Lecture Award by a wide margin, although the exact margin has not been released.
Lorden Fokk, a fourth-year political science student, led a campaign to encourage greater voter turnout, and in the process let students know Gussin would soon no longer be lecturing at UCLA.
As a member of the Regents Scholar Society, Fok was part of a program that matches up faculty and students. During Fok’s first year at UCLA, he was assigned to be Gussin’s student mentee.
Fok said Gussin has played a major role in his life, academically and personally. He considers Gussin a friend, not simply a professor, he said.
His relationships with his students reinforce his passion for teaching, Gussin said.
Whatever he speaks about in his last lecture at UCLA, he said, his passion will come through.
“On my evaluations, students often say kind, thoughtful things about what impact I’ve left on them in these classes. I want to let the students know how fulfilling they’ve made my life,” he said.
