MAILED: June 11, 2001
EAU CLAIRE - Three University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire professors are
representing the university this year as nominees for the 2001 U.S. Professor
of the Year award.
Each year the Council for Advancement and Support of
Education names a U.S. National Professor of the Year, an award that
recognizes instructors for their commitment and dedication to undergraduate
teaching and to acknowledge the role of faculty in encouraging students to
remain connected with their alma maters after graduation.
Academic institutions make the nominations. UW-Eau
Claire Provost Ronald Satz recently nominated Scott Hartsel, professor of
chemistry, Charles Tomkovick, professor of management and marketing, and
CeCelia Zorn, professor of nursing.
“If the role of a professor is to motivate students
to learn and to reflect deeply on their subject, then I believe these three
members of our faculty are very deserving of the Professor of the Year
award,” Satz said. “They exemplify the outstanding teaching that occurs
across our campus.”
Hartsel has been a member of UW-Eau Claire’s
chemistry faculty since 1988 and is an extraordinary classroom teacher, a
creative and supportive mentor and productive scholar, chemistry professor and
department chairman Jack Pladziewicz said.
“He is energetic, knowledgeable, skillful and
persuasive in both written and oral communication, and his work has had a
profound impact on the students with whom he has worked,” Pladziewicz said.
Hartsel has been exceptionally active in
faculty/student research. He has worked with more than 30 undergraduate
research collaborators and published several papers co-authored by students.
He was one of the first UW-Eau Claire faculty members to be awarded a National
Science Foundation travel grant, which provided funding for him and an
undergraduate to conduct research in Paris.
Tomkovick, who received top teaching awards at both the
departmental and college level during his first two years of teaching, has a
teaching record that reflects UW-Eau Claire’s motto of excellence. He won
UW-Eau Claire’s most prestigious teaching award the first year he was
eligible to receive it. The students he’s had in class consider him a very
effective teacher and say he displays great enthusiasm in the classroom.
“Given that Chuck is known as a tough grader with high
standards, these undergraduate student assessments of his teaching are simply
remarkable,” Satz said.
In addition, Tomkovick has served as the official adviser
to nearly 500 marketing and business administration majors. His student-faculty
research collaboration is another example of how he contributes to the
educational environment of the College of Business. His most recent
collaborative effort resulted in his mentored student winning the top student
research award in the College of Business, publishing four articles with him and
parlaying this into a marketing position with Xcel Energy in Minneapolis.
“Chuck is a teacher who takes his students in, holds on
to them for awhile, and lets them go as better people,” said Chris Dahl from
the class of 2000. “These lucky students are better educated and, more
importantly, better prepared to succeed in life at both a professional and
personal level.”
Zorn has been a member of the nursing faculty at UW-Eau
Claire since 1980. She is known as an exemplary classroom teacher who actively
engages students in the learning process. To keep up her clinical skills, she
continues to work part time in the critical care/neuroscience unit at a local
hospital. She has received teaching awards at both the school and university
level, including the university’s most prestigious excellence in teaching
award.
Her recent sabbatical focused on using the humanities to
help students learn nursing. Her papers and presentations give a glimpse of
other methodologies she has used, including using art and storytelling in
nursing education. As a scholar she gathers data about the effectiveness of the
teaching strategies she uses.
“Dr. Zorn is truly an outstanding educator,” Satz
said. “She is a caring person who is serving her second term as chair of the
nursing faculty organization, a tribute to the high esteem in which she is held
by nursing faculty colleagues.”
“Integrity First is a Core Value that is the foundation
of Dr. Zorn’s dedication toward others,” writes former student Theresa A.
Dachel, now a captain in the U.S. Air Force. “Her unconditional personal and
professional characteristics have eased the students’ worries, tensions and
fears about nursing school, college and life. It is with her integrity that
students trust her, listen to her, learn from her, respect her and remember her
words of wisdom.”
In addition to the U.S. Professor of the Year award, CASE
also names a Professor of the Year from each state. As nominees for the national
award, Hartsel, Tomkovick and Zorn have automatically been nominated for the
Wisconsin award.
Pladziewicz was named Wisconsin’s Professor of the Year
in 1993, and psychology professor William Frankenberger received the honor in
1995.
-30-
JW
[Administrative Offices]
[News Bureau]
Janice B. Wisner
UW-Eau Claire News Bureau
Schofield 201
(715) 836-4741
newsbur@uwec.edu
Updated: June 11, 2001
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