Statistics has a reputation as one of the toughest subjects a business student will ever take, full of interval estimates, hypothesis testing and other concepts that rarely show up in everyday conversation. Despite that reputation, or maybe because of how he handles it, Dr. Alan Chow of the University of South Alabama has been voted Best Local College Professor, an honor decided by area alumni, students and educators.
Chow is an associate professor of marketing and quantitative methods in the University of South Alabama’s Mitchell College of Business, where he teaches courses in business statistics and analytics. He holds four degrees and has published research on volatility measures in equity returns and alternative methods of statistical comparison, work that sits firmly in the realm of advanced quantitative analysis.
Most people can rattle off mean, median and mode without much trouble, but Chow’s courses go well beyond that, moving into territory that trips up even strong students. He said he has learned to meet that difficulty head-on rather than pretend it away.
“I try to take a topic that’s not most people’s favorite and make it, maybe not enjoyable, but at least endurable,” Chow said. “A lot of students ask: ‘When will I ever use this?’ And my answer is: ‘I teach this material because, at some point in your career, you’re going to need maybe 10 percent of it, but you won’t know which 10 percent until you actually get there.'”
To get students through that uncertainty, Chow leans on humor and reframes the subject as applied mathematics rather than abstract math, a distinction that matters to business students who often arrive on campus assuming they are simply not math people. Small shifts in framing, he has found, can change how willing students are to engage with difficult material.
Chow came to academia after a career in industry, joining the University of South Alabama faculty in 2003. He is a second-generation professor, following his father into teaching statistics, and said that background shaped his approach to the job early on. Building relationships with students and understanding what each one actually needs, he said, matters as much as the material itself.
“You really have to be thinking about the students and their success, and success in my classes doesn’t always mean making an ‘A.’ For some people it’s making a ‘C’ and continuing on,” Chow said. “It’s important to realize that everybody is trying to make it through this. As long as they’re doing their share, I’m willing to do mine and work with them any way I can.”
That philosophy has carried over into mentorship outside the classroom, where Chow has worked with students navigating not just statistics but the broader challenges of a business degree. Colleagues and former students point to that willingness to meet people where they are as a defining trait, one that likely factored heavily into his selection for the award in its debut year.
Chow’s father taught at what is now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and the family has long-standing ties to Louisiana State University, where Chow earned two of his four degrees. He said he grew up cheering for the LSU Tigers and still does when the Baton Rouge school isn’t facing off against his current employer.
“Occasionally, we’ll play LSU in baseball or basketball and people always ask me who I’m going to be pulling for,” Chow said. “I always tell them: ‘South Alabama gives me a check every month, and every year LSU asks me for one.’ That will square your allegiance up quickly.”
These days, Chow said his loyalty is squarely with the South Alabama Jaguars, regardless of the opponent. For a professor whose job is convincing skeptical students that hard, unglamorous work pays off down the line, it is a fitting stance, and one that has clearly resonated well beyond his own classroom.