University Times

Winners and nominees for the David and Tina Bellet CAS Teaching Excellence Award 2000 will be recognized at a dinner April 15 in the Masonic Temple Ballroom.

Iain Campbell, associate professor, biological sciences; Barbara McCloskey, associate professor, history of art and architecture; Gordon Mitchell, assistant professor, communication; and Chandralekha Singh, lecturer, physics and astronomy, have been named winners of the second annual Bellet award.

The winners were announced by Beverly Harris-Schenz, CAS associate dean for undergraduate studies and chairperson of the selection committee. The committee evaluated teaching skills as evidenced by student and peer evaluations and testimonials and by dossiers submitted by nominees, she said.

"Each of these awardees has made unique and meaningful contributions to the quality of undergraduate teaching within the College of Arts and Sciences, and we salute their achievements," Harris-Schenz said. "Although we were happy to be able to increase the number of winners from two last year to four this year due to the generosity of the Bellets, we wish we could honor many more of their colleagues who also are doing a fine job. This awards dinner will be an occasion to celebrate teaching excellence throughout the College of Arts and Sciences," she added.

Each winner of the Bellet award receives a cash prize of $2,000 plus a grant of $3,000 in support of his or her teaching.

The CAS teaching award was established with a $200,000 donation from the Bellet family to recognize outstanding and innovative teaching in the College of Arts and Sciences.

David F. Bellet is a Pitt alumnus and founder of Crown Advisors Ltd., an investment firm with offices in New York and San Francisco. He serves as an independent adviser to several U.S. and international venture capital firms and is a trustee of the Foundation of Teaching Economics.

Tina Brodsky Bellet is a former 4th grade teacher at the bilingual (French-English) Fleming School in New York City. She is a trustee of her alma mater, Lesley College (Boston), and the Horace Mann School in Riverdale, New York.

The Bellets are expected to present the awards at the April 15 dinner.

Bellet award winner Iain Campbell has been a member of the Pitt faculty since 1974. His teaching responsibilities have included undergraduate courses in biology (for majors and non-majors), biochemistry, microbiology (general, medical, and industrial) and introductory astronomy.

A 1984 recipient of the Chancellor's Distinguished Teaching Award, Campbell is one of the founders of the "Help Desk" initiative, which offers undergraduate students tutorial assistance in biology, physics and general study techniques.

He has served as a member of the Preprofessional Advising and Screening Committee at Pitt since 1983. Campbell also is noted for his work in recruiting and preparing students for Marshall and Rhodes scholarships and in recruiting students to study abroad and on Semester at Sea.

Gordon Mitchell has been a member of the rhetoric and communication department faculty since 1995. In his role as director of the William Pitt Debating Union, he is in charge of one of the University's longest-running student groups, consisting of 28 undergraduates and six graduate assistants.

His teaching responsibilities include introductory courses in argument and debate, as well as upper-level undergraduate courses in evidence and special topics.

Mitchell has supervised students working on University Honors College teaching and research fellowships, and often has served as faculty adviser for undergraduate internships.

In the area of community outreach, Mitchell has developed a number of innovative projects to introduce debate skills to students in the Pittsburgh-area public schools, from elementary through high school, and also has sponsored public debates and forums on the Pitt campus.

Barbara McCloskey joined the history of art and architecture faculty in 1992. Her teaching responsibilities include a wide range of courses, including introductory surveys of modern and contemporary art, advanced undergraduate lecture courses in 20th-century art history and an undergraduate research seminar required of art history majors. She also has served as a mentor for students working on the senior or University Honors College thesis.

As a consequence of participating in the Chancellor's Diversity Seminar, she has been instrumental in redesigning aspects of her department's undergraduate curriculum as well as her own courses. She is credited with improving the training of departmental graduate instructors and how they deliver undergraduate instruction.

Chandralekha Singh has been a Pitt faculty member since 1995. Her teaching responsibilities include a variety of introductory physics courses for science and engineering majors as well as preprofessional students.

Singh has focused her attention on developing pedagogy and strategies to assist students who have difficulties learning physics. Her efforts in that area have resulted in obtaining external funding from the National Science Foundation to establish the University of Pittsburgh Physics Exploration Center for Introductory Physics Courses.

She has been a mentor to undergraduate students interested in becoming physics or science teachers, as well as to women and minority students.

Her out-of-classroom activities have included serving as faculty adviser to minority students in the Summer Research Experience for Undergraduate Program, organizing a workshop for elementary school teachers and a workshop for high school physics students in the Investing Now Program.

Other faculty nominated for this year's award were: Kathleen Allen, anthropology; Helena Goscilo, Slavic languages and literatures; D. John Hillier, physics and astronomy; Delanie Jenkins, studio arts; Keiko McDonald, East Asian languages and literatures; Paul Rasmussen, chemistry; Mariolina Salvatori, English; Shannon Smithey, political science, and Franklin Toker, history of art and architecture.

–Peter Hart