UCSC Review Winter 1996

Professor, writer, and staff member receive annual alumni awards

An English literature professor and a Newsday reporter have won the Alumni Association's annual Distinguished Teaching and Alumni Achievement awards for 1995. An employee of the Board of Studies in Sociology won the university's first-ever Outstanding Staff Award.

Professor Michael Warren, a fellow of Cowell College; Laurie Garrett, author of The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance; and Susan Curtis, the lead assistant for the Sociology Board, were honored February 3 for their achievements.

The three were nominated for the awards by students, alumni, faculty, and staff, and were selected by the UCSC Alumni Association Council.

Michael Warren

Warren, who joined UCSC in 1968, teaches his courses--many of them large introductory lecture classes--with a sense of humor, a love of his subjects, and a great desire to see his students learn. He strives to make Shakespeare's plays and other literature understandable, exciting, and accessible.

Warren especially enjoys teaching lower-division undergraduates. "It is a chance to reach students early, to give them a foundation for interpreting all kinds of literature, and particularly the works of earlier writers," he says.

Laurie Garrett

A profile and photo of Laurie Garrett appear elsewhere in this issue.

Susan Curtis

Curtis, the lead assistant for the Sociology Board, joined the board nearly two decades ago and says people are a priority for her. "It's hard for me to close the door on someone, to put them off."

In a letter recommending her for the award, current Sociology Board chair Craig Haney described Curtis as the board's "institutional memory" and "the very best source of wisdom, thoughtful judgment, calming stability, and emotional support on the board."