When the students of GEA 1000, Section 2238 returned from spring break, they were supposed to learn about climate change.
Instead, many of them learned their teacher had been shot.
Nearly one month after 35-year-old graduate student and teacher Kofi Adu-Brempong was shot and arrested, his former students in GEA 1000, Geography for a Changing World, are still adjusting to the news.
“It was kind of a hard transition after he left,” said UF freshman Jennifer Torres.
Torres did not know what had happened to her teacher until UF President Bernie Machen sent a mass e-mail to all UF students ten days later on March 12 explaining the incident.
“I didn’t believe it,” Torres said of the e-mail. “I was shocked.”
Even though Adu-Brempong is no longer teaching GEA 1000, the class of 177 students has continued working through the syllabus without him.
Graduate student Keith Yearwood, who has replaced Adu-Brempong, has taught the class before.
To make the transition as smooth as possible, the original syllabus, grading policies, class material and office hours have remained unchanged, Yearwood said.
The two teachers have similar teaching styles, Torres said. Both have a humorous, eclectic quality, she said.
Adu-Brempong and Yearwood are good friends, Yearwood said, as the two used to share a small office in the geography department.
“I used to kid him all the time,” Yearwood said.
Yearwood has not been able to visit his friend at Shands at UF, as Adu-Brempong remains under the custody of the Alachua County’s Department of the Jail.
About 10 students have written get well cards to their bed-ridden teacher, he said.
“The students are concerned about their grades, but they’re also concerned about [Adu-Brempong,]” he said. “The Monday after spring break, there was standing-room only in here.”
Nearly all 177 students crowded into Room 100 of Williamson Hall that day to hear geography department head Peter Waylen explain what had happened.
Many of the students expressed anger that it took 10 days for UF administration to explain what was going on.
Even though he received an explanatory e-mail from the department of geography the morning after the shooting, Yearwood was also upset that UF took so long to respond.
If former UF quarterback Tim Tebow had been shot, Machen would have released a statement in less than 24 hours, he said.
The delay occurred because investigators needed time to get a feel for what happened before an official statement was released, Machen said in a phone interview.
An in-depth investigation is being conducted by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and is not likely to finish before the end of the semester.
Between now and the end of the semester, Yearwood is scheduled to talk about deserts, dams and acts of God.
Whatever he teaches, Yearwood tries to keep it light.
