Gary D. Fuchs is a senior professor at DeVry University in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences where he specializes in modern history. At DeVry University’s Kansas City campus, he teaches Contemporary History, Vietnam and the 20th Century Experience, Principles of Ethics and Political Science, among others.

 

After receiving his master’s degree in history from Central Missouri State University, Professor Fuchs began his career at a junior college-college prep school teaching social sciences and history. After ten years, he left his post as professor, division chair and assistant football coach and accepted a position at DeVry University to teach general education courses. Two and a half decades later, he continues to share his knowledge with DeVry University’s students.

 

Professor Fuchs is on the threshold of his 35th year as a college professor, with 24 of those years as an instructor for DeVry University. Last year, he won both the Ron Taylor Award and DeVry Diamond PRIDE award for excellence in teaching and student recruitment. He remains active in several societies and associations, including the American Historical Association, Organization of American Historians, Society for Military History, Western Front Association and Great War Society.

 

-       Foresees higher education for most working and middle class students becoming more career-centered, with less emphasis being placed on traditional broad-based education

 

-       A forthcoming challenge will be to instill the liberal arts values in students who do not fully appreciate its significance in their personal and professional lives. Online learning and limited personal contact courses will continue to detract from an impassioned learning experience between student and teacher

 

-       College professors will need to embrace electronically mediated courses in which the personal connections between faculty and students will be relatively rare. This poses challenge because many professors have conventional teacher training and thrive on the human connections that the classroom environment provides.