Ren taught a section of freshman calculus and was a year away from completing his Ph.D. A fifth-year graduate student, he attended high school in Shanghai and majored in mathematics at Colgate College, where he graduated as valedictorian of the class of 2004 with a 4.15 GPA. His students and some colleagues in the graduate program were alerted of the news by an e-mail from the University. They met yesterday morning, along with two counselors from the Student Counseling and Resource Service, at the hour that Ren would normally be teaching calculus to a room full of undergraduates. The news came as a shock to many members of the Math Department, according to people who attended. “The first thing is, it was really very quiet at first,” Constantin said. “So we just sat there, and slowly people shared some stories. Mostly we were in a state of shock, and some people were quietly crying, and I saw some people’s lips moving, maybe it was a prayer. There was a lot of quietness. A counselor offered some words, and grad students told some stories about Ren that lightened up the atmosphere a little bit.” In the Math Department, Ren was known as a talented and passionate teacher with an affection for urging students to understand the underpinnings of complicated concepts. He was reputed for stirring bleary-eyed undergraduates to attention during morning classes with his fast-paced, high-energy teaching style. When he taught his calculus class the distance formula in October, he went beyond the simple mandate that students memorize the equation, bounding across the classroom scribbling pictures on the board to illustrate why the formula was true. Many former students characterized Ren as approachable and funny, and his course evaluations brim with student praise. Typical comments said Ren “genuinely cared about our comprehension” and thanked him for his willingness to offer help outside of class. “He was absolutely first-rate,” said Paul Sally, director of undergraduate math studies, in a written statement. “The students just loved him. He spent hours galore with them.” According to professors in the Math Department, Ren possessed a keen understanding of how students learn. He helped Sally edit a math book aimed at high school students and worked with him to teach gifted Chicago Public School students. “This guy was salt of the earth,” Sally said. “He worked hard and was extremely bright and helped his students immensely. What more could you ask?” |
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