William Huet

About me

My name is William James Huet (but please call me Bill).
    I was born in Chicago, Illinois but at a young age my family moved to the small town of Huron, South Dakota. I attended Augustana College in Sioux Falls, SD and graduated in 1981 with a B.A. in psychology and a strong minor in political science. I next applied to and was accepted at the University of South Dakota School of Law. I graduated in 1985 with a Juris Doctorate and passed the Bar exam in that same year. While in law school I took advantage of a joint degree program to obtain my Master's in psychology jointly with my law degree, also earning that degree in 1985.
    I then applied to and was accepted into USD's APA-approved clinical psychology program to work on a Ph.D. in clinical psychology. I completed four years in that program before leaving on my one-year internship at Atascadero State Hospital in Atascadero, CA.   Atascadero is a California's primary maximum security facility for the criminally insane. The client population at Atascadero includes those persons declared incompetent to stand trial, inmates convicted of felonies and sent to a regular prison who have developed significant mental health problems, persons found not guilty by reason of insanity and individuals who have been civilly committed but are too dangerous to be housed in other facilities. Atascadero was also home to SOTEP (Sex Offender Treatment Evaluation Program) a decade long multimillion dollar project to determine if (and under what circumstances) sex offenders are treatable. Some of you may recognize Atascadero as the inspiration for the fictional mental health facility that Sarah Conner was committed to in the second Terminator movie (the actual hospital is nothing like it's fictional counterpart).
    After completing my internship I was hired in 1990 by a hospital in Sioux Falls to create, design and run the sex offender treatment program at the state prison. After creating and establishing the STOP (Special Treatment of Perpetrators) program I became the intake interviewer for the prison; that job required that I interview and prepare a report on every adult male offender entering the South Dakota prison system. During my tenure at the prison I interviewed thousands of inmates convicted of everything from DWI to rape to serial killing (yes, we have serial killers in South Dakota). I left the prison in 2001 after accepting full-time employment as a professor at CTU-Sioux Falls campus.
    I began teaching college courses as an adjunct in 1990 and while working as an adjunct taught for a variety of universities and technical institutes in eastern South Dakota. In 2000 I was hired as a full time instructor at CTU-Sioux Falls (between 2000 and 2001 I worked part-time at the same prison while they searched for a successor).
    I have taught history (especially Western civilization), general psychology, social psychology, abnormal psychology, forensic psychology and introduction to criminal profiling. I was also the Subject Matter Expert (SME) for three online courses: social psychology, criminal profiling and crime lab management.
    I married in 1985 and my wife is currently a vice president at CitiBank (and she had nothing to do with CitiBank's ten billion dollar losses). We live (along with our two beloved Basenjis, Nala and Hercules) in Sioux Falls.

Activity

William Huet

Blog Comment

Throwning down the gauntlet

A reply to Barham and Clement. Mr. Barham wrote: "Are you so sure that your past educators did not deftly adapt to your learning style and that is why they had a great impact on you or that you yourself have not found success as an educator because you do this intrinsically?" He raised an interesting point but I think that the opposite is true; I learned how to adapt to my teacher's styles and learn from them instead of the other way around.

He also stated: “Perhaps you would prefer that the students were all the same; Orwellian automatons,… >>>

William Huet

Blog

Throwning down the gauntlet

When I was in law school, no one ever asked me (or cared) what kind of learner I am. Ditto for when I was getting my Ph.D. Yet somehow I got through both law school and my clinical psychology program. I never had an employer ask me what kind of learner I am still I have been gainfully employed for the last 20 years. In 20 years of teaching both full and part-time I have never asked my students what kind of learners they are and yet somehow I was nominated for "Teacher of the Year" by my university and… >>>

William Huet

Discussion Comment

The extra credit paradox

"Students who really need extra credit rarely seek it and students who do extra credit work rarely need it." It always seems that "A" students are far more willing to do extra credit work than a borderline student whose grade might actually go up if they completed some extra credit. Why? Motivation. "A" students are motivated to do the work and other types of students often are not willing to do more than they have to, even if it means getting a lower grade. As a result, I no longer offer extra credit.

William Huet

Discussion Comment

Students from developing nations

Students from developing nations may have considerably different expectations about their professors than American students. For example, they may not think that you were hired as the result of a competitive process or that you are particularly qualified to teach. If they come from countries where nepotism or bribery is the norm, they might think that you are their professor because your uncle got you this job or that you are paying a kickback to the Dean that hired you. For this type of student, convincing them that you are in fact qualified to teach might be your first task.… >>>

William Huet

Discussion Comment

Youtube in the classroom

Trust me when I tell you that there is probably a Youtube video over virtually every conceivable subject. Using a video to highlight your teaching is a technique that fits well with traditional students. Even bad videos can be educational--you can have your students research how they are wrong or use them as examples of bias, pseudo-science or slanting.

William Huet

Discussion Comment

Name cards

Using name cards and assigned seating for the first class is helpful for learning students' names. Just be sure to tell them that they will be able to pick their own seats after the first session!

William Huet

Discussion Comment

Always maintain boundaries and never enter into a dual-relationship

You are not their friend, buddy or therapist and nor should be their employer, supervisor or subcontractor. I believe in religiously avoiding having any sort of dual-relationship with my students if humanly possible. I am their teacher and nothing more. Being in any type of employment or social situation with a student is undesirable as it creates the potential for a dynamic that "no good shall flow from"--avoid them altogether and you'll both be happier. Example: A fellow professor hired a student (and their team) to paint her house. The professor was unhappy with their work. The student later claimed… >>>

William Huet

Discussion Comment

Never call it cheating

Some "cheating" is innocent and reflects novice students' lack of familiarity with the need to properly attribute sources or a misunderstanding of the requirements of needing to do original work. Calling them a "cheater" is counterproductive. Even those who blatantly cheat will be reactive and hostile to the term. Diplomatic word usage is strongly advised until you can determine if they erred out of ignorance vs. out of malice.

William Huet

Discussion Comment

Selling the move

"Selling the move" is a professional wrestling term that refers to the need to make the act convincing in order to keep the audience engaged while not actually harming your opponent. In teaching, the term means to convince your students that the subject matter is worth caring about and being involved with; this task is particularly crucial for general education classes like history that students are only taking because they have no other choice. Remember that just because you might love the subject matter, it doesn't mean that they do.

William Huet

Discussion Comment

Using humor to enforce deadlines

I like to send students who miss deadlines humorous "threatening" emails reminding them to get their work turned or that they will face some wildly improbable but unpleasant consequence as a result. Frequent mention of specially trained ninjas, flying monkeys or the Inquisition (because nobody expects the Inquisition) is usually sufficient to get their attention (or at least a laugh or two).

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