Farmington Faculty


Jim Melcher, Ph.D.

Associate Professor - Political Science

Ph.D., University of Minnesota
B.A., University of Wisconsin-Madison

Humor in the Classroom: Inspiring Students — Setting High Academic Expectations
Imagine a college professor combining the energy and humor of Robin Williams with the keen insights of a gifted and respected academic — that's Jim Melcher. And his students wouldn't want him any other way.

In addition to being a gifted academic, Jim Melcher (one of Farmington students' most popular faculty members) is also a talented impersonator and often infuses his highly entertaining lectures with dead-on impressions of politicians, news broadcasters, pop icons and others.

But Jim Melcher sees a method to his madness in using humor in the classroom. He has long used his unique brand of humor and sharp mind as highly effective devices to help students learn, putting students at ease in the classroom, helping them to become actively engaged in the classroom, enticing them to be more interested in the subject matter and also helping them to better retain what they've learned.


Classroom Fun — With a Purpose
Jim explains that as a student many of his favorite professors, those from whom I learned the most in political science and other fields, were professors who brought humor to their teaching. He came to appreciate this both as an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin with Booth Fowler and John Milton Cooper (the latter regularly used impersonations of Franklin Roosevelt in his lectures) and later in graduate school at the University of Minnesota.

Jim has implemented his own brand of offbeat humor to his teaching as well, and student reaction has been overwhelmingly favorable. Many of Jim's students know he playfully cites the old slogan of Highlights magazine, "Fun — with a Purpose," as his teaching motto. But even beyond his own experience, there have been many scholarly examinations of the use of humor in the college classroom that have noted both student appreciation of humor and other benefits of it.


Of Elvis and Nixon
In his Congress and the Presidency class, Jim Melcher has introduced the class-favorite "Thursday Prop." The Thursday Prop can be most anything related to the American presidency in mass culture, and he displays a prop at the start of class every Thursday. He lets students examine the object at the end of class, and it seldom fails to elicit a reaction — usually one of laughter — from his students.

The props come from Jim's rather eclectic collection of U.S. Presidential artifacts: a life-size cutout of Bill Clinton, the 1960's election game "Mr. President," a small pewter statue of Herbert Hoover, a sheet of stamps featuring James K. Polk, an "X-Presidents" comic book based on the Saturday Night Live skit (in which Presidents Ford through Bush Sr. have superpowers and fight villains), an "Ohio: Mother of Presidents" postcard, a small box of M&M's with the presidential seal and signature, a 1960's ashtray honoring President Johnson, a magnet depicting the meeting of Elvis Presley and Richard Nixon in the White House, a linen wall hanging/dishcloth depicting the presidents, to name just a handful.

The props help illustrate the fascination the American public has with all things Presidential and it accomplishes two things: It gives the students a tangible demonstration of this phenomenon in American politics and, because these items so frequently seem "over the top," provides valuable humor in teaching that sometimes even spurs students to recall other examples that they have seen.

Jim said it was these sorts of things that interested him in the Presidency in particular and American politics in general, and he is hopeful that these oddball items may help motivate his students' interest in the Presidency as well.

Order in the Court: Legal Case Studies and Political Realities
In his Constitutional Law classes Jim Melcher routinely sets up mock trial formats top help students explore real-life constitutional issues and to see the issues from both sides.

For instance he recently ran a mock Supreme Court debate where students explored the 2000 "Boy Scouts of America and the Monmouth Council vs. James Dale" case where students argued for — and against — the notion that a Boy Scout Troop should be compelled to retain a Scout Master who acknowledged to be gay. In this mock trial, Melcher's law students investigated the real-case subject. One group of students took the position of the Boy Scouts of America, another group took the position of James Dale and the State of New Jersey Supreme Court and a third group assumed the role of the U.S. Supreme Court. Jim found his students conducted a tremendous amount of research into the landmark case, as well as developed their own opinions about the court case.

Other real-world legal issues his students have discussed in a similar manner include: organized prayer in public schools, the U.S. decision to not sign the Kyoto Treaty, the laptop computer initiative in Maine schools, and more.


Outside the Classroom: Innovation and Excitement — Putting Theory into Practice
Outside the classroom, Jim Melcher serves the campus as an advisor for the UMF Political Science Club, a non-partisan student organization that promotes political awareness, invites guest speakers to come to Farmington and hosts public political debates and discussions.

Jim is also involved with "A Rising Tide," a Portland-based non-partisan nonprofit organization established to encourage and empower young people in Maine to affect positive community change through the political process. The organization provides free, high-level training to students, teaching them critical political skills such as how to run political campaigns, how to help keep candidates on message, how to work with the media, and more.

Jim routinely brings members of the organization to UMF to work with students, in class and outside of class, and encourages his students to become involved in various political campaigns throughout the state of Maine. Jim feels this encouragement to perform civic leadership is vital to the students and to the state of Maine.


A True Academic — Areas of Special Interest
Jim Melcher said he caught the political bug as a six year-old boy in Madison, Wisconsin when he became keenly aware of the Nixon-Humphrey Presidential election in 1968.

By age 13 he was handing out Jimmy Carter for President literature outside University of Wisconsin football games. So from an early Jim Melcher has seen politics as something that is fun, not castor oil (his words). He has tried hard to instill in his students this sense of "politics as fun."

It should also be emphasized that Jim's political science classes are noted for their respect for all political points of view and his students are well known for their ability to think for themselves, something that makes Jim especially proud.

Jim Melcher teaches a very wide range of political science classes at Farmington: Intro to American Government to Constitutional Law, Public Opinion, Interest Groups and Parties, and more. But Jim's special areas of academic interest are comparing Electoral College reform and in particular examining how Maine and Nebraska count the electoral votes in Presidential elections.


Respected in the Field — Noteworthy Accomplishments
Jim Melcher has published a number of articles in political science journals: Comparative State Politics, American Review of Politics, The Journal of Economics and Politics, etc.

Jim is also highly sought by the mainstream media for his keen political insight and regularly appears as a political analyst on: National Public Radio (NPR), Maine Public Radio and Wisconsin Public Radio, as well as in the print media: The Bangor Daily News, The Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram, The Sun Journal, The Kennebec Journal, Down East magazine, to name just a few.

In addition, he is a member of the American Political Science Association and has presented at its national convention as well as at the New England Political Science Association convention.


Outside of Academia — Personal Interests and Activities
Outside of his work at UMF, and when he is not following politics for fun, Jim Melcher serves in the vestry of St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Augusta where he is cantor in the church choir.

Jim is also involved in the national Book Crossing project. (The Book Crossing projects facilitates book-swapping among strangers by releasing a beloved or unwanted book "into the wild" and tracking its travels as finders and new readers of the book log into the organization's Web site.)

An avowed fantasy baseball and fantasy football geek, Jim also enjoys hiking the area's hills and mountains with his wife. Jim and his wife reside in Augusta, Maine.


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