Bucher’s Last Lecture to reflect on relationships

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Jake Bucher, associate dean of the School of Professional and Graduate Studies.

Story by Sarah Baker, Editor

Jake Bucher, associate dean of the School of Professional and Graduate Studies, will deliver the spring 2016 Last Lecture, entitled “Sorry, Not Sorry” at 9 p.m. on Wednesday, March 30, in Rice Auditorium.

When Student Activities Council asked Bucher to give the Last Lecture, he was more than happy to accept.

Lecture topics are mostly the choice of the faculty member, leaving a wide range of options. Last semester, Professor of Communication Studies Susan Emel lectured about thinking more about thinking. In another recent Last Lecture, Rev. Ira DeSpain discussed living life in moderation and balance.

The wide range of possible topics stumped Bucher as he looked for a topic, but he found inspiration from the original Last Lecture made by Randy Pausch.

“[Pausch] structured his last lecture as a message to his kids when he couldn’t be around. So I was kind of inspired by that. . . I watched the lecture again after I had a couple of my own kids and it hit me on a different level. It is a pretty daunting thing to think about if I can’t be there for my kids, what would I want them to know?”

Bucher said that it is still difficult to describe the topic of “Sorry, Not Sorry” but it is supposed to be a reflection of life, relationships and how people interact with one another.

Bucher usually teaches a Wednesday night class so he has been unable to attend any of the past lectures except for one. This year he says that he will let students out of class early so they, and he, can attend the lecture.

Bucher is in his ninth year working at Baker and still finds it interesting that, since he graduated from Baker in 2002, he gets to be the one giving a lecture instead of being lectured to.

Bucher’s lecture will be less than a half-hour long.