CSULB professor wears many hats

By Wes Woods, On-Line Forty-Niner

Thursday, October 29, 1998

Bifocaled Cal State Long Beach psychology professor Alan Lowenthal has paid a price for politics, including valuable time spent helping his students.

While currently taking a leave of absence from teaching to run for State Assembly, the thin 57-year-old Lowenthal has his work cut out for him. According to some of his students, the psychology professor, with his many obligations, has bitten off more than he can chew.

In additions to teaching psycology, Lowenthal is a member of the Long Beach City Council and an alternate member of teh California Costal Commission.

"I didn't get a lot of student teacher interaction," said Anh Thu Thi Williams, who attended his abnormal psychology class in 1991. "Because he was so busy going to committees, public office, and he's a teacher. He was absent for class and they had substitutes showing films. I do understand it's pretty difficult if you have two duties or two jobs at one time."

"He was well prepared, his lectures were OK, but he just kind of went off on tangents," said senior psycology major Adriana Garcia, who took his coures in the spring of 1998. "It was more on his campaigning than the lecture. But if you wnet to his office hours, he helped you out. It kind of seemed like he was scatterbrained."

Williams agreed that she learned a lot as well.

"He really wnats you to learn. I remember I studied my butt off for his class, and learned immensely. And that's the kind of thing you want if you're a serious student.

Lowenthal admits poloitics has taken time away from his love of teaching.

The last few years I've haad less time to enjoy spending time with students. The positive part is that I can bring to the classroom real life experiences now and share with students and get them involved in projects they couldn't get involved in any other way, Lowenthal said. "Sometimes I feel very split between being on the council and also being a professor."

Lowenthal said he is only supposed to be a part-time councilman.

"But when you're running a city this large, as all of us are on council, it becomes very demanding," he said.

He said his day ends with finishing late work from CSULB, the city council or now, running for State Assembly.

He does not feel he is special, however.

"There are a lot of other people besides political figures who work very hard. Engineers, doctors, laborers, working people. I don't think I'm unique in how hard I work," he said.

Political science instructor Ronald Schmidt worked with Lowenthal when both were on the board of directors for the East Long Beach neighborhood section. He can attest to Lowenthal's long hours.

"We spent a lot of hours together working on the project and I got to know Alan very well," Schmidt said. "He's a very positive thinker, in that he tends to see the good in other people and tries to find ways to work with them to get things done, instead of focusing on criticizing."

While on the campaign trail, however, he says he has missed teaching at CSULB.

"It's my life's work. I've been so successful [with politics] because of all the experiences of working with students," Lowenthal said.

If he loses, he said he will be back at CSULB with no regrets.

"To me it'll be successful even if I lose. I have hundreds of volunteers. I have wonderful support from the community. I love doing that," he said.