Professor John Gonsler came to one Morningside class on Tuesday to speak about his journey to working in higher education.

Gonsler, currently an associate professor of criminal justice at Morningside University, has been teaching for just under a decade. However, this wasn’t his original plan after graduating high school.

A member of law enforcement in Flint, Michigan for two years, Gonsler switched to being a correctional officer because he was not satisfied at the sheriff’s department. His stint as a CO was also brief, working for only six months before resigning. Gonsler spent a considerable amount of time recounting his horror stories from working in a prison.

Gonsler then went to Ferris State University, located in Big Rapids, Michigan. However, after only one year, he transferred because he “fucking hated it” at the university.

After his short stint at Ferris State, Gonsler transferred to Michigan State and was able to complete a bachelor’s degree in anthropology in only one year. In order to accomplish this, he had to take classes throughout the summer months.

Immediately after getting his bachelor’s degree, Gonsler went on to attain his Master’s degree in criminology and criminal justice at Indiana State University. During his time working on his degree, Gonsler became penpals with someone a majority of people might be afraid to receive mail from: Theodore John Kaczynski, the Unabomber.

“I might be the only person in America to happy to receive mail from the Unabomber,” Gonsler said of his communications with Kaczynski. The two exchanged five letters to each other before Kaczynski stopped responding.

After graduating with a Master’s degree, Gonsler went on to become an associate instructor at Indiana University for a couple of years. However, he decided it was time to move on.

Gonsler applied to become a full-time professor at 33 different schools in 2020: Morningside was one of two that was in the process of starting a criminal justice department.

When he came to visit Morningside, Gonsler said he could tell the school wants the new criminal justice to succeed and that “everyone seemed great and onboard. When I started talking to the people here, it made my decision pretty easy.”

Gonsler is now in his second year teaching Morningside. When asked what his favorite part about being a professor was, he stated he really enjoyed teaching the introduction level criminal justice class as he was able to meet and speak with students outside the major.

After he was finished speaking, Elizabeth Obermeier said, “I thought he was interesting and kept your attention, although whether it was because of his colorful language or because of his content is up for debate.”

Gonsler is currently working towards completing his PhD in criminal justice through Indiana University. He hopes to have this completed by the end of the year.

Before I left for class this morning, I spoke with one of my roommates about what his plans were for today.

Brenick Hoppe, an accounting major here at Morningside, was sitting at the table eating banana bread and working on an assignment due at noon.

Hoppe had just gotten a haircut yesterday, so I complimented him on his nice cut.

I asked him what he was planning on doing today. Hoppe told me he had a class later and then practice after that. He also said he probably wouldn’t see me until tonight as I was really busy today as well.

I set out on my mission, walking out of the library and heading towards the Olson Student Center. On my way there, I encountered a man sitting on the bench by the fountain, with his eyes closed and looked to be enjoying the beautiful day.

I tapped him on the shoulder a couple of times and introduced myself and what I was here to do. Surprisingly, he wasn’t upset that I interrupted his peaceful afternoon snooze.

He introduced himself as Sam Petersen, a senior political science and business double major. He also said it’s been a stressful day, and he just needed a minute to sit down by himself.

I then asked him for what I was searching for: a favorite Morningside memory.

The question seemed to catch Petersen off-guard. He sat there for a bit, seemingly lost in thought. After a bit, it seemed as if he settled on an answer.

“I would have to say going to the 2018 Football National Championship game in Daytona Beach, Florida.”

Petersen, at the time a member of the Morningside marching band, was invited to go and black at halftime of the game.

“It was fun because we got to see the football team win the national championship, and I was able to show off my trombone skills at halftime.”

After this, we parted ways, and I was on to get my next victim.

I had class in Lewis Hall next, but before going to class I went downstairs to use the restroom. This is where I found the next person.

Just as I am heading downstairs, I encounter someone walking out of the restroom. I stopped him, introduced myself, and stated I needed to ask him a question.

Again, he didn’t seem to be angry that he was stopped just after using the restroom. An outgoing person, he introduced himself as Alex Freeman, a junior business and political science double-major.

After some small talk, I posed my question to him: tell me your favorite knock-knock joke.

Freeman initially laughed at this, thinking I was joking. I assured him I was in fact not joking, even showing him the paper with the words “knock-knock joke” appearing on it. He couldn’t believe it.

“I for sure thought you were going to ask me something serious,” Freeman explained, stifling a few giggles.

After spending some time thinking, he initiated the joke.

“Knock knock.”

“Who’s there?

“Ach.”

“Ach who?”

“God bless you.”

Now it was my turn to laugh. I was trying to follow the joke, but the ending entirely caught me off-guard.

After telling him what a good joke he had and sharing a couple more laughs, I parted ways and went up to my class.

One student attending Morningside University had much to say about his freshman year and the effects COVID-19 had on it.

Caden Schulte, a mass communications major from Sioux City, Iowa, was only a freshman in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

“To be honest, I didn’t really make a lot of life changes,” Schulte said about how his life was different because of the disease. “I’m more of an introvert, and I stay at my house a lot anyways. COVID forcing me to stay home wasn’t a big change.”

Schulte so far has been one of the lucky ones, having never caught the virus so far. He has had tested twice, both times negative, and been quarantined both of those times.

Being a snapper on the football team has brought its own set of unique changes to his life as well.

“I was going to play on a lot of the junior varsity football games in a normal year, but because of COVID, we only had two of those games,” Schulte explained. “Since the travel roster was cut down, I never got to go to away games.”

In addition, Schulte wasn’t even able to attend some of the home games.

“The stadium capacity limit forced me to miss even the home games that we had. I never got the experience of being a full-time student in that sense, I guess.”

Living only a few blocks from campus, Schulte has been a commuter in his tenure at Morningside so far.

“I don’t think there has been a big difference from my experience than from those who lived on campus. I guess people on campus had to wear a mask while I didn’t when I was at home.”

Moving to the topic of masks, Schulte had a few thoughts on their effectiveness.

“I wasn’t big on masks. I’m not really sure they do a ton and were more of a hassle than anything else. I would always forget them and have to run back to my car and grab one before class.”

In the end, Schulte held a positive outlook on his first year at Morningside.

“I missed out on a few of the typical freshman experiences, but I was able to meet a lot of people through the football team. It was a great time.”