Most of the major turning points in life happen by accident, said Kenneth Holum, who becomes chair of the University Senate today.
It was chance that he was stationed in Washington when he joined the Navy, and he ended up spending the rest of his life here. It was chance that he was assigned his specific office in Francis Scott Key Hall when he began teaching at the university, and he ended up marrying the woman whose office was next to his. It was chance that he could only take history classes at the university because of his schedule, and history ended up being his profession and passion.
“There’s a very important element of seeing open doors and going through them,” he said. “That’s why I decided when [current Senate Chair] Bill Montgomery called me and asked me to become senate chair, I should probably say yes.”
Holum, a history professor who has served on the University Senate since 2005, will take over as chair today. The Senate is a legislative body that consists of faculty, staff and undergraduate and graduate students.
The Senate next semester will likely debate a prayer read at graduation, the university’s strategic plan implementation, plus-minus grading and the Good Samaritan” policy to reduce punishments for students who call ambulances for their friends under the influence of drugs or alcohol – all of which were brought up in this year’s session but never resolved.
While Holum stressed the Senate is about “shared governance” and seeking opinions from the entire campus community, he does have a pet project in mind. He said he hopes to push forth a plan to address the way faculty are honored for excellent teaching.
“The university needs a much more coherent system of rewarding good teaching,” he said, adding that a plan to better reward professors for good teaching would be in line with the strategic plan. “Other schools have more substance in their rewarding of good teaching. Why shouldn’t we be like them?”
Friends and colleagues of Holum say his laid-back, friendly personality will be an asset in his new position.
“Students many times are scared or intimidated to talk to a faculty member, but he’s very friendly and approachable,” said Roberto Munster, an undergraduate senator on the executive committee. “Every time I’ve interacted with him, he’s been responsive to my concerns.”
Holum, 68, was born in a small town in South Dakota. His father was a local politician, so he and his younger brother had the responsibility of taking care of the family farm, which Holum still owns and visits every few years.
After his small-town education – his grade school had one room, and his high school only enrolled 140 students – he dreamed of becoming a professor. But those dreams were put on hold when Holum decided to sign up for the Navy, calling it his “duty.”
“All the other young men looked forward to getting assigned to war ships circling the globe, but I got orders to go to [Washington] D.C., so my first two years of my military career were in the Defense Department,” he said, laughing.
Finding his administrative duties “rather boring,” Holum enrolled in the university’s German department. He could only take night classes because of his daily work schedule, but the university didn’t offer any German classes at night.
In fact, there was only one course he could take, a graduate-level class in Roman history, taught by one of the university’s most famous teachers. He became obsessed with ancient Mediterranean history, eventually earning his doctoral degree from the University of Chicago and then coming to work at this university in 1973.
Holum met his wife, Marsha Rozenblit, at work in 1975 and married her in 1982. They were both single and had offices next-door to each other.
Holum has been excavating the ancient city of Caesarea in Israel since 1989. He has also served as director of the graduate, undergraduate and honors programs in the history department in addition to his Senate involvement.
Rozenblit said the way he ran and organized the digs in Caesarea spoke well to his leadership style. There was one colleague of Holum who was “difficult to work with” she said, but he still managed to cooperate with the colleague and not lose his temper.
“Many times he would tell me about this person, and I would say, ‘Why don’t you yell at them?’ and ‘Why don’t you scream at them?’ and he would say, ‘What good what that do?'” Rozenblit said. “He’s really good at getting people to work together, but in an intellectual way.”
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