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Professors test knowledge of LSRs and St. Michael’s culture
Honors Program hosts ‘Are you smarter than a St. Mike’s student?’

By Maura Bannon
Staff Writer

Students trekked through the snow to the McCarthy Arts Center on Thursday, Feb. 28 to watch “Are you smarter than a St. Mike’s student” organized by the Honors Program.

At 7:00 p.m. people poured in, scrounging to find a seat and eagerly waited to watch professors test their smarts.  The crowd hushed as hosts Ashleigh McCrory and Jon Anderson began speaking.

The event mimicked Fox’s popular game show “Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader.”

There were eight faculty and staff competitors: classics prfessor James Conley, professor George Ashline of mathematics, professor Peter Harrigan of fine arts and theatre, professor Reza Ramazani of economics, Professor Declan McCabe of biology, Professor Jim Hefferon of mathematics, English Professor William Marquess and Counselor David Kells.

Five students were picked from the audience and sat in desks on the right of the stage.

As McCrory held a hat in the air, Anderson, dressed in a retro purple suit, pulled names to determine which professor would start the game.

“Professor Conley, you are our first victim,” Anderson announced.

The crowd applauded with excitement as Conley walked confidently to the stage. Two students cheered extra loudly for him.

“I want to thank both of my fans,” Conley said, making his way to the podium on the left of the stage.   

Faculty members chose which student would to sit next to them to help answer questions. They then chose a category from the projector screen related to the liberal arts curriculum or St. Michael’s culture.

“We actually asked professors from different departments to submit questions to us,” junior honors student Molly Roy said. “But unfortunately not all of them got back to us- so we had to come up with some of the questions ourselves.”

Conley chose science for his first question.

“What is the basic building block of life,” McCrory asked. 

Conley hesitantly answered “amino acids,” but when Anderson announced the correct answer was “the cell,” Conley feigned shock and fell face first to the floor.

Conley’s incorrect response eliminated him from the game, but before exiting the stage, he proclaimed he was not smarter than a St. Michael’s student.

“I was embarrassed I answered my first question wrong, but that’s okay because I was among colleagues, and the commentary was good. I need to know my sciences better,” Conley said.  

When Ashline wasn’t sure about the answer to a philosophy question, he peeked onto sophomore Gabrielle Mailloux’s paper. 

“According to Kierkegaard, what is sickness unto death,” Anderson asked Ashline referring to the 19th century philosopher. “Is it despair, wickedness or the plague?” 

Ashline trusted Mailloux’s answer: despair.

“You are correct,” Anderson said, handing Ashline a sheet of stickers.  Professors were awarded stickers and apples for correct responses.

“I think the prizes fit the hilarity of the evening,” Conley said.

When Professor Ramazani didn’t know the four main types of precipitation, he chose to “ask a colleague.”  He saw a little girl in the audience and asked her for her answer.

“But she’s not your colleague,” Anderson said. 

Ramazani replied, “Well, for all I know she could be!”   

After two questions, contestants chose another student to help them.

To win, contestants had to correctly answer 10 consecutive questions and then answer a final 11th question. No faculty members won, but McCabe was the closest, reaching question nine.

He lost when asked a philosophy question.

 “The last question about ‘The Leviathan’ was really difficult, and I don’t think anyone knew that answer,” Mailloux said.

McCrory, who is also a junior member of the honors program, was surprised that no professors beat the students.

“I thought one of them would win, but to be honest, not all of the student panelists knew the answers either, so it was a fair loss,” she said.

Hosting the event was rewarding, McCrory said.

“Being able to joke with the professors and not have them take the game too seriously was my favorite part of it,” she said.

Conley enjoyed participating and thought the evening was rewarding, he said.

“I wasn’t expecting to win, but I thought I would have done better,” Conley said. “But I make a fool of myself regularly, so I didn’t mind. I thought the event was fun all the way around for all of us here.”

Senior Tom O’Rourke said it was a pleasant change to see the faculty at a social event. 

“It was nice to see professors outside of the classroom, and it was funny to see a different side of their personalities,” he said.

The Honors Program collected $43 in donations for the American Cancer Society.

“We picked this charity because a month ago we had a meeting and took suggestions. (It) had the most votes,” Roy said.

Since the event was so successful, the Honors Program will have more events in the future, Roy said. It is planning an event on April 17 but hasn’t decided the theme.

“We might have a faculty variety show or St. Michael’s ‘Family Feud’,” Roy said.

The event was free because it was the Honors Program’s first event this year, and it wanted large turnout. The next event might charge a $1 or $2 entrance fee, with funds going to the American Cancer Society.

Sophomore Victoria Calogero said giving money to the American Cancer Society brings good karma and she would definitely attend another event.

“I liked this event and I would pay a dollar to get into another one like this since it is for a good cause,” Calogero said.

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