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ABOUT CAMPUS
ILLUSTRATIONS BY JOHN OQUIST
Friending your professors
University faculty decide where to draw the line for socializing with students on Facebook
Secondhand
history
A decades-old bookstore
prepares to pick up shop
In 18 years, Jeffrey Pickell, owner
of Kaleidoscope Books and Collect-
ables in Ann Arbor, has amassed a
dusty historical archive ripe with
University nostalgia, 1960s memora-
bilia and 16th century artifacts.
Soon, though, Pickell will redis-
cover all of his store's items one by
one as he packs up for a smaller loca-
tion much farther from campus than
Kaleidoscope's current hiding place
between Mr. Greek's and Urban Out-
fitters at the State Street and Liberty
Street intersection. Pickell said the
upcoming storewide excavation was
prompted by his landlord's decision
to double the price of rent. It's "new
gentrification," Pickell said. He said a
cookie shop is taking the store's place.
Though in no way as much of a
student staple as its leggings-ped-
dling and food-frying neighbors,
Kaleidoscope has offered a between-
class escape for the curious since its
opening. Rackham student Elizabeth
Everson snuck into the store to pick
up three books from an old children's
series for her mom for Christmas.
Everson had witnessed her mother's
descent into nostalgic euphoria after
her mother saw the books in the
store's window display during Home-
coming weekend.
At his post behind Kaleidoscope's
front counter, Pickell almost disap-
pears entirely among the clutter of
Nixon bobble heads, Joe Camel col-
lectibles and decades-old concert
posters. Pickell spends the bulk of
each day at his hobby shop, swapping
news with regulars and acting as tour
guide for the store's twisting mazes
of bookshelves and cabinets. Pickell
said he doesn't take vacation days off
except for his son's birthday, which
happens to be on Christmas.
In the nearly two decades it has
graced State Street, Kaleidoscope has
been "a shop for collectors and nos-
talgia buffs who want to feel positive
about something in a complex and
frustrating world fraught with adult
problems," Pickell said.
Pickell has a philosophy behind his
dedication to knickknacks: There are
two kinds of people in the world - col-
lectorsandthepitiablerestofhumanity.
The collecting-inclined are people who
can connect to an inanimate object.
They look at a used children's book
and see a childhood friend. The other
half of the population, Pickell said, sees
objects as simplyutilitarian.
Books in Kaleidoscope range from
50 cents to $5,000 - the latter being
a first edition Bible from 1570. The
organization of the store's book-
shelves is a far cry from the Dewey
Decimal system. The fiction section
means a dozen stacks of books on the
floor grouped as "horse story" fiction.
Pickell is most proud of his well-
developed collection of hardback first
editions. He has the first editions of
nearly every Philip K. Dick book, as
well as former Michigan Daily edi-
tor and famous activist Tom Hayden's
first book, "Rebellion in Newark,"
which Hayden signed when visiting
Kaleidoscope last year.
"'ohshit, a hard cover copy!' Direct
quote," Pickell said of Hayden's dis-
covery of the rare book in his store.
Hayden's visit was of particular
interest to Pickell, who was himself a
member of Students for a Democratic
Society, the student activist group
Hayden founded. Always willing to
delve into the annals of history, Pick-
ell will throw in a first-person per-
spective on SDS's slide into violent
radicalism alongwiththe vintage Jimi
Hendrix poster you're trying to buy.
Sprinkled among the books is an
array of random odds and ends only a
seasoned "nostalgia buff" like Pickell
can make complete sense of. One cor-
ner, though, holds a display no Univer-
sitystudentcould miss - Pickellboasts
the largest collection of Michigan foot-
ball and basketball memorabilia in the
country. The highlight of the collec-
tion is a program from the first football
game played in Michigan Stadium,
against Ohio Wesleyan in 1927.
Not far from the Michigan football
homage is another University relic, a
record album recorded by the Univer-
sity of Michigan's Glee Club decades
ago. The album, titled The College
Spirit features a young couple gazing
into the distance with expressions
of inexplicable elation, proving that
some things haven't changed much.
Other things, though, clearly have.
You can spend more than a few min-
utes in Kaleidoscope without running
into an item that sets off a "blatantly
inappropriate" alarm. From "Little
Black Sambo" books to stereotypical
dolls, articles of the pop-culture rac-
ism that permeated American culture
for most of the 20th century now sur-
vive in Pickell's store. But Pickell and
longtime employee Bob Siegert make
a point that it's important to preserve
racist memorabilia so that the lesson
that they were once allowed to exist
isn't forgotten.
"You can see the whole evolution of
civil rights by looking in cases in this
store," said Siegert.
It's just a shame that next semester
students will have to make it to 200 N.
Forth Street to do so.
-JESSICA VOSGERCHIAN
A smoke-filled room
Reigniting the pastime
of cigar smoking
For decades, the hazy atmo-
sphere of Maison Edwards Tobac-
conist has been the stomping
grounds for the likes of musicians,
chemists and actor Jeff Daniels
and Michigan football coach Lloyd
Carr. Patrons come to the store not
only for the tobacco but also for the
people and conversations that take
place under the cloud of smoke.
In an hour on Monday night, reg-
ulars' conversation in the shop cov-
ered more topics than a three-hour
game of Trivial Pursuit. Politics,
history and cigars, of course, were
a part of the discourse.
"The nice thing about this place
is you can have a spirited political
discussion," said Steve Bergman,
tobacconist customer and owner of
the defunct Schoolkids' Records.
But these conversations rarely
turn personal, because everyone
See ABOUT CAMPUS, Page 11B
PHOTOS COURTESY OF JJ PRESCOTT, SCOTT CAMPBELL AND AARON MCCOLLOUGH
(From left to right) Law School Prof. JJ Prescott, Communications Prof. Scott Campbell and English Prof. Aaron McCollough in their Facebook.com profile pictures
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J Westlake wants to see
"Mr. Magorium's Wonder
Emporium," enjoys growing
vegetables and is a second cousin
to gay porn legend Leo Ford. West-
lake is also an assistant professor in
the School of Music, Theatre and
Dance. All this information is avail-
able thanks to Westlake's Facebook.
com profile.
That Westlake, a professor who
is at least too old to claim member-
ship to the online generation, has
a Facebook profile isn't unusual.
Ever since September 2006, when
the previously college-student-only
social networking hotspot opened
its doors to anyone older than 13,
professors and graduate student
instructors have been trickling onto
Facebook. As the trend spreads,
that trickle is becoming a regular
stream.
Facebook's increasing popularity
among the older set, though, means
students and faculty members are
rubbing shoulders through cyber
society in a way they never would
in real life. The foray of the middle-
aged onto Facebook is resulting in
heightened familiarity between
professor and student that both
sides are strugglingto negotiate.
Aaron McCollough, a lecturer
in the English department, joined
because some of his former students
created a Facebook group called
"Aaron McCollough's Street Team."
He wanted to see what the deal was,
and now, over a year later, he's sub-
merged in the Facebook scene.
"Usually I just log in, look at the
feed, see what the most recent sort
of developments are," he said.
The majority of McCollough's
Facebook friends are fellow
poets located around the coun-
try. That's why one of McCol-
lough's favorite functions is the
status bar. He said that it's like a
"really, really brief poetic form."
"A lot of times people say really
interesting things on there," he
said. "It's like, 'What can people fit
on that syntax?'"
McCollough updates his own sta-
tus bar relatively frequently. "Aaron
is so bored with the U.S.A.," one of
his statuses read last week.
McCollough interacts - or "goofs
around" as he describes it - with
other poets on Facebook mainly
through the Facebook mail feature.
"Some days will be heavy Face-
book days if I get one of those weird
things that's almost like IM-ing, but
it's not IM-ing," he said, referening
to Facebook messages.
McCollough said that his contact
with colleagues at the University on
Facebook is a bit sparser, but it still
exists.
He said sometimes he and other
professors and lecturers compete
via each other's Facebook applica-
tions, like completing movie quiz-
zes or playing a rousing game of
Scrabulous.
Many of McCollough's other
Facebook friends are people at the
University - 15 or 20 of them are
his current or former students.
"I don't 'friend' students, to me
that seems like it might be a little
weird - I don't know why," he
said. "But students have 'friended'
me. It doesn't bother me. I always
accept."
After receiving a friend request
from a student, McCollough said
he skims the profile but usually
doesn't find anything he considers
too crazy.
"If I see something on there that
I think is stupid, I just think 'Oh
that's stupid, they might regret that
one day,' "he said.
McCollough thinks there's an
untapped power to use Facebook
as a tool to bridge the gap between
professors and students.
"I think that (Facebook) feels
safe in a way. Maybe it shouldn't,
but it does," he said. "People feel
a little more comfortable asking
questions that they need answered.
That's why I think that it has poten-
tial as a mentoring tool."
He hopes that if students are
comfortable using Facebook to
interact with their professors,
they'll be more inclined to come to
office hours.
McCollough said the main harm
in professors and students interact-
ing on Facebook is excessive famil-
iarity, but that if the site is used
properly, it shouldn't be a problem.
Professors, he said, shouldn't join
the site if they think they could lose
respect from their students.
"If an adultcan't manage to wield
the respectable amount of authority
over students, then that adult prob- and make observations," he said.
ably shouldn't be on Facebook," he Campbell later clarified: "When
said. I say I poke around, I don't mean I
LSA junior Geoff Chiles, who is poke people," he said. "Would it be
a student in one of McCollough's creepy?"
Introduction to Poetry classes, said The answer is probably yes.
McCollough mentioned he had a Campbell said the glimpse into
Facebook account at the end of class students' private lives via pictures
one day, so he looked him up. and profiles doesn't change his per-
Chiles said that his perception of ception of them.
McCollough improved after brows- "I haven't seen actually anything
ing his Facebook profile. He learned that's outrageous or entirely inap-
that his professor was "a pretty cul- propriate in terms of my relation-
tured guy" and had graduated from ship with a student," he said.
a prestigious fine arts school, The one of the biggest drawbacks
Univesrity of the South in Tennes- of Facebook for professors, Camp-
see. bell said, is confusion about how to
"He plays Xbox, I saw. He likes to navigate all the site's features and
use his treadmill," Chiles said. options.
Chiles, who is a residential advis- "I think there's a lot of ambiguity
er in Bursley Residence Hall, said he about what things mean," he said.
wasn't concerned with how McCol- While Campbell doesn't friend
lough would perceive his own Face- anyone or write on walls, he
book profile. exchanges messages to keep in
"I try to be as professional as I touch.
can and keep as many embarrass- Like McCollough, Campbell said
ing pictures or comments toa mini- that as professors become more
mum, soI wasn't too apprehensive," active on Facebook, it could benefit
Chiles said. the classroom experience.
The most recent post on McCol- "I think it's a way you can maybe
lough's wall is from Chiles. "I was help to erase some of the status dif-
just interviewed by a fellow student ferences between professors and
who writes for the Daily about stu- students," he said.
dent-to-professor Facebook interac- Chiles agrees that the presence of
tion. We're celebrities now, Aaron." professors and other older adults on
Scott Campbell, an assistant Facebookhasgrowntothe pointthat
professor in the communications it no longer engenders a "creepy"
department, has a paltry five wall factor. Of course, professors using
posts, no tagged pictures and only Facebook isn't weird on its own, the
logs on about once a month. way they use it might be.
"I'll occasionally poke around See FACEBOOK, Page 11B