Rob RaincockAccompanied by good-luck dog Whitby, Jack Zupko helps residents adjust to university life with essay writing workshops and advice for tests.
Zupko, Chair of the Department of Philosophy, lives in the yellow house beside Linden House in East Campus as the Faculty-in-Residence, where his job is to foster a community for students.
“The main idea of (the Faculty-in-Residence program) is to create a community from different walks of life, so that it’s not all undergraduate students,” he said. “That’s very healthy for a community.”
Zupko builds community by holding office hours once a week to help residents with any problems they may face. He also runs programs on how to talk to professors and what to do if midterms don’t go well. In another popular session, he reads over students’ essays to help them improve their academic writing.
Zupko and his wife love having students as neighbours, he said. This will be their third year in the yellow house in East Campus.
Whitby the whippet, Zupko’s dog, is also in his third year of living on campus. It’s a good life — Whitby has a lot of people to interact with, and he sleeps in the “softest bed in the house,” Zupko said. The dog also enjoys pizza and hamburgers and wears a coat and booties in the cold.
“(Whitby’s) got all kinds of people around him that love dogs and that might’ve left a dog at home,” Zupko added. “I think our dog might remind them of their dog, so he gets petted a lot. Plus I’ve told students that if you pet him he brings you good luck on your exams.”
Zupko is an experienced Faculty-in-Residence, having lived in residences at several schools in the United States while teaching there.
After receiving an undergraduate degree in philosophy from the University of Waterloo, Zupko attended graduate school at Cornell University and went on to be a philosophy professor in the U.S. Zupko returned to Canada to teach at the University of Alberta in 2010 after living in the States for almost thirty years.
Zupko was inspired to pursue philosophy after a short time in an introductory class.
“After two or three weeks I thought, ‘I can’t believe you get a grade for this,’” he said.
Zupko’s biggest piece of advice to residents is to get involved with the university outside of classes through study groups, concerts, clubs, or sports.
“You’re here to earn your degree, of course,” he said. “But so much of the learning part of it — and the best part, in my experience — happens when classes are over for the day, when we get to work with all the amazing people who are right here on campus with us. “
