Teaching from the heart

After 25 years and over 25,000 students, Albey Reiner has given his last lecture on the Biology of Cancer in Mahar Auditorium. Semester after semester, UMass Amherst students have flocked to the course, filling the 500-seat space to capacity. Albey's intimate communication style and connection with the students was as much of a lure as the compelling subject matter (which was expanded in the late 1980s to include AIDS).

Albey reads a classroom full of students the same way one might gauge the reactions of another person over dinner. "If they are getting a little bored with this, then I'll dial it up, say it a little differently, wrap it up and move onto something else," says Albey. "If they are really open and excited about what I'm saying, I can go deeper into it." He equates the lecture with a conversation among friends. "It isn't that different when I'm up there with 500 people and a microphone as when I'm with two people at dinner," says Albey, whose warmth for the students engenderslearning. "When I put so little distance between myself and my students, they're open to learning, I think, at a different level. Students regularly seek Albey's counsel on cancer and death in their own families. "It's a tremendous privilege to be sought out in that way," he says.

The course's success can also be attributed to the balance of perspectives that Albey brings to the subject matter. Albey draws upon both mainstream medical science and non-Western approaches to health and illness. A scientist trained at Harvard, Princeton, and Oxford, Albey has tremendous respect for science, but says "I know that things are true that are not explainable in any way by our current science." He gives the example of occult tumors, which are tumors that clearly originated from another site in the body. However, when that site is explored, the original tumor can no longer be found. Albey's openness to explanations that defy the rational mind is a hallmark of his approach.

Albey seeks to arm students with the knowledge that they have choices, and not just regarding health care. "Often in life you will come against people who claim this is the way. They know, you don't. They're scientific, and they're better," says Albey. "Sometimes you have to trust more than someone's rational view of your situation." He attributes the students' positive response to the course to the fact that they feel respected. "I'm not trying to convince them of my view of anything. I'm trying to give them tools that will help them in their whole life."

The class is continuing on, despite Albey's retirement. "Albey realized that teaching isn't just about conveying information; that the impact we have can be much more meaningful," says Wilmore Webley, who will teach the class in the Spring of 2006. "I will be teaching this course with all the energy and human feeling I can, out of respect and in tribute to Albey. This is his legacy and I feel privileged to be able to carry it on."

Related links
Faculty Bio: Albey Reiner
UMass Microbiology Department