Dr. Laux's Road to Happy Talk

In his 26th year at Slippery Rock University, professor, Dr. James Laux, succeeded in bringing the first happiness class to the university, but this was not granted without opposition. Based on Tal Ben-Shahar's successful "Positive Psychology" class, Dr. Laux first proposed "Happy Talk" in 2007. His class was rejected for several years, and on the year of his retirement, it was approved, and garnered the interest of over 90 students.

Despite having taught a similar class called "The Pursuit of Happiness" at Hiram College, Laux only taught between 5-26 students. On the enormity of Slippery Rock's Happy Talk class, he said that he was glad he could reach as many students as he did, though he does regret the loss of class discussion that comes with a smaller class.