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Undergraduate teaching excellence awards recognize outstanding
faculty
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| (Photo) Beverly
Harris-Schenz, center, associate dean of the College of Arts &
Sciences, with David and Tina Bellet. |
Winners
of the David and Tina Bellet College of Arts and Sciences (CAS)
Teaching Excellence Awards “have clearly set themselves apart by
the way they go about their work,”
comments Beverly Harris-Schenz, who, as associate dean of CAS*,
initiated and coordinated the awards program. Four recipients
were named this year, the third year of the award: George
Bandik, Chemistry; Paul Kameen, English; John C. Ramirez,
Computer Science; and Edward M. Stricker, Neuroscience.
Pointing out that CAS is Pitt’s largest undergraduate unit (with
about 10,000 students and 500 tenured or tenure-stream faculty),
Harris-Schenz comments, “Undergraduate teaching in the arts and
sciences is the intellectual cornerstone upon which further
education and professional training are based. We need to
recognize faculty who broaden students’ horizons—who engage
students in thinking critically and seeing the world in new
ways. We’re trying to get students to achieve in classes they
are required to take—to ask questions and avidly read texts in
areas in which they think they have no interest. This requires
special attention and detail. Instructors who can succeed in
undergraduate teaching are very special.”
Harris-Schenz
recalls that when she became associate dean, after more than 25
years of teaching, “One of the charges I set for myself was to
reward teaching while encouraging students to excel
academically. At research universities like Pitt, it is
especially important to showcase excellent undergraduate
teaching. While the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award
cuts across all of the schools at the University, including
graduate programs, this separate award helps to showcase
excellent undergraduate teaching in the College of Arts and
Sciences.”
Pitt
alumnus David Bellet, who, with his wife, Tina, made the
endowment which brought the annual award to fruition, commented,
“In shining a light on excellent teachers each year with an
award and recognition dinner, we hope to acknowledge their
superb skills and inspiration, their devotion to students, and
encourage the entire faculty to be open to innovative teaching
ideas.” Bellet received a B.A. from Pitt in 1967. A
professional investor with Crown Advisors, which invests on
behalf of institutional and family clients from all over the
world, Bellet notes, “I had a number of professors who opened
my eyes to learning for the sake of learning.”
The
Bellets’ desire to acknowledge the importance of good teaching
through an endowment coincided with Harris-Schenz’s goal to
institute an undergraduate teaching award. Dean John Cooper of
CAS was instrumental in helping to bring them together and
assisted in developing the award.
Harris-Schenz
observes that college teaching is more challenging now than it
was when she started teaching at Pitt in 1974: “Universities
today are more diverse than when I was a student and beginning
teacher. Today we have a much wider range of students; we’re
challenged to find ways to engage students who come from diverse
backgrounds and who bring different levels of preparation while
at the same time maintaining high standards. We’re charged with
making the discipline and content accessible and reaching
different groups of students. These people [the award winners]
find ways to do that. It’s very important to see and share how
truly excellent teachers are able to address a range of
students.”
The
faculty who win the Bellet award “have taken what they do to
another level. We try to identify people who are doing
excellent teaching on many fronts, not just in the classroom.
These people are involved in activities that influence students,
colleagues, and departments beyond the classroom walls.”
The
recipients, selected by a committee of students and faculty,
receive a $2,000 stipend and $3,000 for the support of
teaching. A highlight of the annual awards is a dinner to
celebrate teaching excellence. This dinner brings together
about 250 people, including department chairpersons, those
involved in the selection process, and past and present winners
of campus teaching awards.
In
addition, the Bellets want to encourage students to recognize
and reward excellence in teaching just as they have done.
Therefore, the Bellets have also supported Apples for
Teachers—awards that provide graduating seniors a means of
recognizing faculty members who have had a significant impact
upon them.
*Harris-Schenz on August 1
resumed her position as associate professor in the Department of
Germanic Language and Literatures.
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