PSU Magazine Spring 1998

PSU administrator and alumnus Bob Vieira and his family explored the world with Semester at Sea. By Melissa Steineger ith the sun barely lighting the ship's deck, Bob Vieira Ed.D. '96 glanced up from his paperwork to ee the passengers traggle in to breakfast. Rising, he slowly crossed the lounge to the dining hall, his way impeded by those who topped him to share a joke, offer an opinion, or simply say hello. But then, most of these passengers knew Vieira well-they were students under his charge. "In a sense, I was a combination of a mall-college president and a small– town mayor," Vieira says fo ndly as he recounts his 100 days at sea. Vieira served this past fall as execu– tive dean fo r Semester at ea, a University of Pittsburgh program. He and 650 student plu 60 faculty and staff set sa il from Vancouver, B.C., on Sept. 14 fo r Japan, C hina, Vietnam, India, Egypt, Cypress, G reece, Turkey, Morocco. Vieira, on leave from his job as PSU director of Affirmative Action, was accompanied by his wife and three children. They were part of the 30 family members included in the adventure. As the ultimate authority for the school side of the voyage, Vieira was "basically in charge of 800 li ves as we went around the world ." Most days fo und him immersed in a hectic swirl. Rising by 6 each morning, he strolled briefly on the deck, weather permitting, to breathe deeply the sa lt 16 PSU MAGAZINE SPRING 1998 air and let his spirit stretch out to the distant horizon. After breakfas t, he returned to his office to rev iew the ship's daily e-mail, typically fin al arrangements fo r ports of call, and deal with financial aid issues, and other administrative duties. At 10 a.m. , Vieira-along with all other non-crew-attended the daily "core" class, a mix of history, politics, and culture of the countries the ship wa to visit, taught by faculty experts. Following a late-morning staff meet– ing, Vieira shared lunch with his family-often in the outdoor din ing area where they could watch for the occasional dolphin or whale. Afternoons he returned to adminis– trative duti es. Students often dropped by with concern ranging from prob– lems with a faculty member to home– sickness. "Students need someone they can approach and trust," says Vieira. "I saw being that someone as an impor– tant-and wonderful-part of my re ponsibilities. It was also an impor– tant ingredient in building a sense of community." C reating a community was a key aim of the voyage-one that Vieira and the other faculty strove to deve lop. Toward that end, they had no television, no Internet, n contact with the outside world while on board-except fo r emergencies. The focus was on discovering onese lf and the moment-by-moment reality behind the abstract concept of community. "On most campuses," says Vieira, "you fini sh for the day and go home. On a ship, you see each other in the dining hall , during recreation ... you just never are away from that. If you're interested in getting to know students in a personal way and believe that is important to their deve lopment, this is a wonderful way to do it. There' no faking when you're in such an intense communi ty. Faculty, staff, students– eve ry one of us had to walk our talk."