David Trechter
Agricultural Economics Professor
College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences
Why did you choose to come to River Falls?
My wife and I had been living in Washington, D.C.; I worked for Congress and she worked in a think tank. When we had kids, we started looking for an academic position in a place that would be good for raising a family. As luck would have it, there was a job open at UW-River Falls and I was fortunate enough to snag it!
What are three characteristics of a successful student in your class?
First, successful students are curious. The best find things to think and ask questions about even if my lecture is not as exciting as I might like it to be! Second, successful students make sure they get their tuition dollar’s worth. They come to class, they pay attention, they ask questions, they do assignments. Third, successful students develop excellent time management skills. College is and should be lots of fun. Networking (hanging out with friends), playing broomball, and all the other extracurricular activities are a vital part of the college experience. Successful students are efficient with their time so they can be prepared for class and have fun outside of class.
What is the most rewarding part of your job and why?
There are many great things about being a college professor. It is wonderful to have a job in which you get to learn new things all the time. I love working with a data set and trying to figure out what story it is trying to tell. Probably the most rewarding part, however, is watching the growth in my students. The transformations that some students go through during their college years is fantastic to watch. River Falls has many students who are first in their family to go to a university, which means that they may not have a clear idea of what this experience is all about. It is so great to see a student come in as a freshman who is, perhaps, a bit nervous and unsure of their abilities, and, by the time they are graduating, see someone who is confident, competent, and ready to go out and make a difference in this world.
Where is your favorite place to go in town and why?
Probably my favorite place is the pathways along the Kinnickinnic River below the second dam. You can access the paths from lots of places but the easiest is from the southwestern end of Glenn Park. Going to Glen Park from campus also allows you to go across the swinging bridge at the end of Cascade – another favorite place. I also like the Whole Earth Co-op because it is quirky and has a real sense of community.
What is something you wish someone told you about UWRF before you first arrived?
I’m not sure I would have wanted to know but I’ve always been surprised by the lack of a spring season in River Falls. It goes from bone-chilling cold to mud season to summer. There isn’t really spring. In contrast, spring in Washington was great – cherry blossoms, azalea bushes, not so many tourists etc.!
What is something you wish someone told you about college before you went?
I went to a larger school than UW-River Falls (University of California at Davis), so my experience was different than students coming here. What I wish our incoming students would understand is that most of the professors here want to see our students succeed. They shouldn’t be afraid to come see us during office hours or whenever they are feeling lost. The distance between professor and student is much less here than at UC-Davis but I’d like it to be shorter still.
Did you always know you wanted to be a professor? Why or Why not?
No. It wasn’t something that I had thought about at all. Both my parents were high school teachers and I had no intention of following them into education. Even when I went on to graduate school for my PhD, I really didn’t think about being a professor all that much. I had intended to work in international development. My sense is that most people’s career path is rather twisty. Mine certainly was.
Why did you decide to teach at UWRF and how has your experience shaped you into who you are today?
I decided to teach at UWRF because I eventually convinced my department to offer me a job! The convincing was no easy task. They declined to interview me the first two times I applied and only when I told them that I was going to be in the area and it would cost them nothing to talk to me did they agree to give me an audition. I guess the audition went pretty well because I’m still here and now am department chair. How has my experience shaped me, hmmm. I think the truth is that when I first started teaching, I was pretty awful. I didn’t have realistic expectations, I didn’t understand how to pace a class, I didn’t have a clear picture of what might help undergraduates learn. It was frustrating for my students and it was frustrating for me. I didn’t enjoy that experiences and was determined to get better. So, I sought input from others in my department and across campus, I had people critique my teaching, and got feed back from students. Slowly, overtime, things got better. I don’t know that I’m a great teacher but I’m pretty sure I’m a great deal better than when I started! So, sometimes lack of success is a good motivator.
Tell us about a unique classroom experience.
I had a sabbatical in Western Australia during 2002. While I was there I worked with a professor who had a course in supply chain management that entailed, among other things, following an agricultural product from inputs to the final consumer and talking about agribusiness management issues along the way. I thought it was a really interesting way to introduce students to some of the key challenges they will face in an agribusiness management career while, at the same time, exposing them to career paths they may not have thought about. So, when I came back, my colleagues and I developed a similar class for our students. This class entails 5 field trips and 5 guest lectures by agribusiness managers during the course of a semester. We start out with things that most of our students are familiar (agricultural input supply, a farm, a farm banker) but eventually get to things they probably never thought of as something they could do with a degree in agribusiness management (large scale loan syndication, information management, managing an upscale grocery store). It is a fun, highly interactive class that I love to teach.
What place/park/event do you think everybody should see? Why?
I never really learned how to ice skate with any degree of confidence. So, I am really impressed with the UWRF hockey team. They almost always have a good team, they play a fast, clean style of hockey and the students really get into the games. Definitely a must see event.
Tell the story of an out-of-classroom encounter- either social or academic with one of your students. How did this strengthen the student-faculty relationship or present the student in a new light?
One of my advisees was having tremendous financial challenges and it looked like she might have to drop out of school until she could get things back on track economically. She is an exceptional student and I didn’t want to see her have to stop out. So, my wife and I offered her a free place to live for a semester. By having a UWRF student under our roof, I gained additional insights into the pressures today’s students have to deal with, the way they study and socialize, and other little things. It wasn’t an entirely “peaches and cream” experience but I’m glad we did it. I continue to learn lots from that student!
What was your first job out of college?
I passed the Foreign Service Exam when I was a senior in college and was invited to join the diplomatic corps during the fall after my graduation. I spent 7 months in Washington, D.C. learning French and then was posted as a Vice Consul to Douala, Cameroon in western Africa for a bit more than 2 years. It was a wonderful and life-changing experience.
If you were a student how would you be involved on campus?
I’d probably be involved in intramurals and student clubs. I have always loved sports and I like the camaraderie associated with our student clubs.
If you could change any part of your job what would it be and why?
In Harry Potter the “pensive” allows Dumbledore to take ideas or memories out of people’s heads. I’d love to have a pensive so that I didn’t have to give, and more importantly, grade exams. I never give true-false or multiple choice tests. They are always essay or data/chart exams. Grading is a drag.
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