A Whole New World
Context
How many assumptions can a person make by looking at an unfamiliar place?
What questions would they have, having never been to or inside the place? Before
officially becoming a student at the University of Michigan Dearborn, I had several ideas
and images in my head of what the campus and buildings would be like. When I entered
the University for the first time, it was nowhere near the way I had pictured it. Looking
from an outsider’s point of view, literally, I could only infer so much. I had not a clue of
what the buildings looked like on the inside, how or what was inside each building, or
how any of these buildings were structured. By constructing an interview in my
Anthropology class, I was able to further increase my knowledge and answer these
questions that I had for myself in very little time.
The first big step I took was interviewing Judith Walker, who is one of the few
coordinators in the Counseling and Disabilities Department. Not only was I able to learn
a lot about this department by interviewing Walker, but also I was able to consume a large
amount of information about the overall outlook of the campus. She gave my partner and
I lots of information we probably would not have known in our time at the University had
we not asked. This consisted of information specifically about the Counseling and
Disabilities Department as well as information about the University as a whole. This
information was very useful to us and made us feel as if we were already insiders at UM-
Dearborn.
During the interview with Walker, my partner and I created several pages of
double-entry field notes. Double entry field notes means dividing the page vertically into
1
two halves, making the left side for direct observations and the right side your response to
your observation; meaning your personal reaction, opinions, feelings, and questions about
the data on the left side (Elizabeth, 78). From my personal interview as well as my
classmates, I have learned a lot about the way the campus operates. We were able to
conclude that almost all departments spend a good amount of time on their emails. This
tells us that the University is very reliant on the Internet and technology. This was insider
information that our class as a whole was unaware of. Also we collected more
information from our interviews, we inferred that almost all faculties operate from their
own personal offices. This gave us a good idea of what how the university was structured
and the set up of the different departments.
2
