Professor Clay Sets the Mold

Last night a bunch of the interns, some recent graduates, and Clay Clemens, a WM government professor and chair of the department went to see Wall-E (unbelievable movie by the way) at Newtown, a new development near campus.

Like many other students who have never had Clay as a professor, I still know exactly who he is. Present at every football game, concert and most of the student events, he is the epitome of an active and involved professor. He is the host of July 4th barbeques and the favored speaker of a heartfelt speech given for the graduates every spring at the Candlelight Ceremony. And in the end, not having him for a class has not deterred me from getting to know him better than any student who has. He knows our accomplishments well enough to congratulate us, our embarrassing moments well enough to joke about them, and our goals and aspirations well enough to guide and mentor us.

He is the advisor to multiple student organizations and more students than I could imagine. He is incredibly generous and understands the concept of “starving college student”well (Probably from his days here as an undergraduate). Just last week he invited five other students and myself to dinner at Berretts, a nice seafood restaurant adjacent to campus, so we could catch up and he demanded that he foot the bill. Last night, in an effort to get to know the summer interns better, he treated us all – about eleven in total – to Panera before the movie.

While my professors have been great – setting up brown bagged lunches with students, arranging to get coffee and talk, or even putting me in touch with part of their family in Spain when I went abroad – Clay’s commitment to the entire student community is unparalleled. He sets the mold for the ideal professor.