Last Friday morning and yesterday afternoon, Bigfoot could be spotted traipsing around Emporia State’s campus.
“Bigfoot” is David Westfall, instructor of sociology. He dresses up in a Bigfoot body costume to teach his students either about violating social norms or deviance.
“It’s just a good way, especially at nine o’ clock in the morning, to get students’ attention, and it’s a little bit easier to violate someone’s personal space by sitting on their lap, giving them a big hug or scratching my butt – essentially violating some social norms – in a way that is not offensive in any way so I can get the concept across to them,” Westfall said.
Madeline Meier, sophomore athletic training major, first saw Westfall in the back of the class with another student.
“I was not really shocked he was dressed like that because he had warned us the class before that we shouldn’t miss,” Meier said.
The “Bigfoot” lesson came from Westfall’s family doctor back home in Pittsburgh, Kan. who said that sociology was the one class he remembered in college. One day the teacher said, “Today we are going to talk about deviance,” and then he walked out of the classroom and didn’t come back that day.
“I always thought it was a bit harsh to walk out of a class on a commuter campus, so I wanted to find a way to kind of make that type of impact on people in a different way,” Westfall said. “I come from Pittsburgh and when I saw someone dressed up in a gorilla costume, I thought one day I might have a costume to get this point across.”
Westfall walked around campus to class and entered the classroom wearing his Bigfoot costume. He then undressed (to a T-shirt, shorts and socks) and proceeded to teach class.
“When you put that costume on, you’re not you anymore, you’re that character, and that allows you to violate those norms a little more,” Westfall said.
Lindsey Maxwell, sophomore athletic training major, said once Westfall came in the room, the class took out their phones and started taking pictures and videotaping.
“Afterwards, we discussed the social norms he had broken, which were things like picking someone’s nose, violating personal space, putting someone’s hat on, scratching his butt, and things of that nature,” Meier said. “Overall, I thought it was a good example and helped us understand what we had been learning.”
Teaching students to recite definitions and “ace” tests are not part of Westfall’s plan as an instructor. He said that if that were his goal, then he would have failed.
“My goal is to challenge…their comfort levels, to challenge their expectations of the world, to challenge their understanding of the world and to push them to become critical thinkers,” Westfall said. “It’s my job to give them the tools to do that. If I’m providing them the tools to do that, and I’m having an impact on them in another way, then I see myself as successful.”
Generally for his students, he said he will dress up as Bigfoot once a semester when it’s appropriate, as the topics of social norms and deviances come along.
“As far as just dressing up and running around having fun, you never know when I might get to the urge to go stomp around campus,” Westfall said. “If there’s snow out there, you’ll probably see prints because I love to go out there when it’s colder. I love to feed the mystery.”
