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May 30, 2001
Contact: Jim Burns / (831) 459-2495, jrburns@cats.ucsc.edu
TWELVE UCSC INSTRUCTORS, TEN TEACHING ASSISTANTS HONORED FOR EXCELLENCE IN THE
CLASSROOM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SANTA CRUZ, CA--In a ceremony at UC Santa Cruz, 12 instructors (faculty and lecturers)
and 10 teaching assistants have been recognized for excellence in the classroom.
This year's Excellence in Teaching Awards were presented by Chancellor M.R.C. Greenwood
and Jaye Padgett, chair of the Academic Senate's Committee on Teaching, at University
House on May 25. They were also announced at the final Academic Senate meeting of
the year today (May 30).
The selections are made by the UCSC Academic Senate's Committee on Teaching. The
winners--and the comments on their certificates--are:
- Professor Frank Andrews of Chemistry: For sparkling enthusiasm
and passionate commitment to undergraduate education, genuine interest in students'
well-being and progress, and tireless listening, helping, and sharing with others
in environments where the best of human nature is brought to the fore, fostered,
extended, and rewarded.
- Lecturer Jeremy Elkins of Legal Studies: For transformative teaching
that leads students up mountains they never knew existed and keeps them excited about
the journey, even at its most difficult, always challenging them to think independently
and analytically, and for nearly single-handed creation of the Legal Studies Program.
- Professor Dana Frank of American Studies: For unfailing dedication to
social justice, democracy, and equality in classrooms where no student is lost or
hidden but all are celebrated, nurtured, and challenged to go above and beyond what
they think they are capable of achieving, and for striving to live and model classroom
ideals.
- Professor Frank Galuszka of Art: For generous spirit, compelling
presence, and profound dedication to the field of art, for a thoughtful, conscious
approach to teaching that encourages students to witness their own learning and that
of others as they link personal disposition and a body of knowledge in the paradoxical
object that is the work of art.
- Assistant Professor Jody Greene of Literature: For unabashed enthusiasm
for the material she presents, a palpable love of teaching, a strong capacity to
convey what is exciting, poignant, and worth exploring in a text, and an approach
to pedagogy as thought experiments, designed to cultivate new knowledges instead
of mastering old ones.
- Lecturer Conn Hallinan of Writing: For passion about journalism and about
teaching, for viewing writing as a profoundly intellectual process requiring new
ways of thinking and looking at the world, and for caring deeply about students'
learning.
- Professor Jorge Hankamer of Linguistics: For infectious energy
and enthusiasm for linguistics, singular dedication to teaching, and a philosophy
of learning that leads students into direct confrontation with linguistic data and
motivates them to solve problems for themselves.
- Professor Charles McDowell of Computer Science: For rigorous, innovative,
enthusiastic, sensitive instruction in computer science and openness and receptivity
to new ideas and better ways to teach in classrooms emphasizing inquiry, experimentation,
interactive learning, and the demystification of computers.
- Lecturer Daniel Palleros of Chemistry: For genuine engagement, fairness,
patience, and warmth, and the rare ability to make a complex subject seem simple
and accessible, for creating an atmosphere of openness where new ideas can flourish,
and for opening doors and letting the students find their way.
- Lecturer Robert Shepherd of Economics: For a passion for students generously
expressed through mentoring and friendship, for bringing life to the subject of accounting
through enthusiasm, commitment, humor, and ties to the real world, for opening doors
to the future and thriving upon students' success.
- Professor Michael Urban of Politics: For generously sharing his passion
for politics, Russian studies, and learning, for leading students into a mysterious
world to solve human puzzles that stretch their intellectual horizons and their own
interiors, and for treating undergraduates as equals in all respects.
- Assistant Professor Karen Tei Yamashita of Literature: For openness and
commitment to students and their own unique talents, for guiding students through
the labyrinth of fiction and fiction writing, and for engaging them in personal epiphanies
about the nature of society, the means for expressing it, and the important work
that literary narrative accomplishes.
Teaching assistant winners were selected by the Graduate Council and received
stipends of $100 each. Recipients are: Sarah Gerhardt, Chemistry; Joshua Gray, Physics;
Jonathan Keesey, Anthropology; Emily Klein, Literature; Wendy Minkoff, History of
Consciousness; Daniel Morgali, Mathematics; Stacy Ropp, Psychology; Robert Sanders,
Linguistics; Rashmi Shankar, Economics; and Joel Wilson, History.
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