You might not realize this from where you sit, but it’s darn challenging for professors to learn 50-75 new names and faces every semester. And that’s without dealing with jet lag complications!

One of the ways I expedite learning students’ names is practicing. (Some might call this “cheating.” I call those people “haters.”) I download everybody’s “mug shot” from Banner, and run through the faces like flash cards, gradually learning to associate a name with a face.

It used to be that all Banner students had a mug shot, period. (I think it’s the pic that appears on our EagleOne card.) But for the past few years, I’ve noticed that there are plenty of gaps where for some mysterious reason no picture is registered with you in the Banner system. We actually aren’t too bad — 15 out of 18 have pics, for both CPSC’ers and DATA’ers..

So why am I telling you this? Because you can earn another easy and valuable +1XP by providing me with a mug shot (meaning, a portrait of you looking fairly normal doing something interesting (or not) but most importantly: your face fully visible on the portrait. It can be a silly snapshot or your prom dress from high school: I just need a face to go with your name, man.)

For students who already have such a Banner mug shot, you have already been proactively awarded the aforementioned +1XP on the scoreboard. If not, you can still claim this point if you follow these three directions:

1. Make sure you’ve entered your name and a super clever and secret alias on the class scoreboard.
2. Once you’ve done that, and you believe you have a perfectly good picture in Banner for you, and I just need you to send me an email with subject line “DATA 419: Stephen, get the Banner mugshot” and I will download and add it to my collection, then award you the point.
3. If you don’t have a mug shot in Banner at all, I feel like the best way is to contact the Registrar about taking a snapshot of which they evidently forgot.
4. Finally, if you don’t want to futz around with Banner and the Registrar, just send me an email attachment of a recent photo that shows your entire face and all outwardly distinguishable appearances. For this email, use subject line “DATA 419: Stephen, here’s a mug shot for me!”

When I receive any of the above emails, I will do my best to get their point awarded and their picture & name added to my little black book.

Oh, and one other thing: this is due before class on Thursday of this week. It’s not a hard task, it’s just remembering to do it.