History professor announces his retirement

History professor, Scott Phipps, is retiring after about 17 years of teaching at Nicholls State University.

“I’m leaving Louisiana and going back home to Michigan. I want to get in a snowball fight, damn it,” Phipps said.

When Phipps first moved to Louisiana, he was teaching at Franklin Junior High. After five weeks of teaching middle school, the opportunity to teach at Nicholls opened, and he took it.

After high school, Phipps’s original plan was to go to school for architecture. Phipps said that he went into history because he realized he was good at it and that he hated math.

Through teaching history, Phipps has reinvented the way he looks at the world. He said he teaches so students can learn to become better people from learning the ideas of the past.

“For me, the students are the most important thing,” Phipps said.

Phipps said that teaching at Nicholls has allowed him to make a living and be a dad.

He also said he loves his students who try in class and the impact he can make in their lives by teaching history.

“I love humanity, but I hate people,” Phipps said, a statement that he often tells his classes as well.

Money was never an issue for Phipps when teaching at Nicholls; he said he made enough to support him and his children.

He said that for him, knowing students are growing because of him was enough to keep him here at Nicholls.

After about 32 years of teaching, Phipps will be retiring after this semester. His last day will be May 17.