Everywhere in classrooms students are falling asleep, text messaging friends on cell phones and drawing pictures in their barely used notebooks. Night classes are even worse.
Sitting in class on a Wednesday evening at 7 p.m. is rough, and students will do practically anything to get them through the almost three hours of educational torture that is night class.
Mark Adler's class however, is another story. Every student is actively paying attention, and even laughing, as a middle-aged man with silvery gray hair and bright blue eyes stands in front of 40 or so pupils while speaking on a student's cell phone in his socks.
For Adler, who teaches Applied Marketing Techniques through the Millard Fillmore College on Monday and Wednesday evenings and Principles and Techniques of Advertising for the Department of Communication on Tuesday evenings, this is nothing new.
Originally from Long Island, Adler came to UB as an undergraduate pursuing a degree in geography, and continued on at the university to receive his MBA in conjunction with a program in international business.
After working in different marketing jobs in places like Washington D.C. and Manhattan, he moved back to Buffalo in 1987. He is currently the vice president of client services for Flynn and Friends, a local advertising agency.
The people of Flynn and Friends are no strangers to UB. The agency's president and creative director, Mitch Flynn began teaching here in 1990 and one of his former students, Barbara Keough, is now the vice president of operations for the organization.
In 1996, Flynn asked Adler to help him out by teaching marketing for small business classes, and now, 10 years later, Adler is teaching three nights a week to classes that well exceed their 30 or so person limit.
"I like the interaction with the students," Adler said.
Adler frequently incorporates real world projects for real life businesses such as Blums, Bangs, the Alumni Association, and the Athletic Department into his teaching curriculum.
What sets his class apart, however, is that unlike any other marketing class on campus, MFC 274 is offered through Millard Fillmore College, a subset of UB that caters to non-traditional students, usually adults pursuing professional certificates or degrees of higher education.
Because Adler's class is offered through Millard Fillmore, it is open to any major, unlike other marketing classes on campus that are restricted to communication majors and those enrolled in the School of Management.
His students range from early childhood education majors to psychology majors to those seeking an engineering degree.
"He's not so structured," said Dana LoGrippo, a senior communication major enrolled in Adler's class. "You know that when you have to go, at least you'll be having fun."
Adler's class also focuses heavily on networking, in which he encourages each student to get to know as many people as they can, in hopes that it will lead to open doors down the road and maybe even a job after graduation.
For a final project, Adler is forcing the entire class get to know one another by finding out each other's names, hometowns, favorite food, movie, and activity, and finding three things each person has in common with one another.
"I enjoy the motivation he uses to push us to network," said Justin Ruchefsky, a senior fine arts major. "I think that's his whole motivation in class."
There are also other unique aspects of Adler's course that set it apart from many others on campus; no textbook, and the occasional field trip.
"There's no one book that's useful enough to make you waste money," Adler said
He also said that field trips are a great way to show how marketing works in people's everyday lives.
"I like the field trips because you get to get out of class," LoGrippo said, whose class recently took a trip to the Boulevard Mall to discover how the mall markets itself and also to the Bulls Basketball game to explore marketing tools used to promote the sporting event.
As for the rest of his time in class, Adler's fun personality makes the classroom atmosphere more laid back than a typical lecture or recitation. He's been known to answer cell phones that students don't turn off when they enter the room, and take off his blue and white reversible tongue sneakers to teach in his socks.
Adler works hard to combine an amusing learning atmosphere while simultaneously teaching students the skills they need to succeed in business. LoGrippo, along with her peers, appreciates the actual experience she receives in the marketing field.
"You can apply what you know to real situations," LoGrippo said.
