University Times

Two Pitt units lead the pack in winning Chancellor’s Distinguished Awards for faculty, which are given annually in the areas of teaching, research and public service.

Including this year’s winners, which were announced by Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg Feb. 9, Pitt-Greensburg has won 12 distinguished teaching awards and one public service award, while the School of Law has bagged 15 teaching, two research and four public service honors. (Awards for teaching began in 1984; research and public service awards were added later.)

What’s the secret to their success?
Frank A. Cassell quipped that he could only take credit for the winners since 1997, when he assumed the Greensburg campus presidency. “Obviously, as a regional campus we put a high level of emphasis on undergraduate teaching,” Cassell said. “But I think there are a few points to be made about why 15 percent of our 80 full-time faculty have won the prestigious teaching award.”

Among the contributing factors, he said, are the academic environment of the campus, an emphasis on multi-disciplinary and across-the-curriculum studies, a high level of scholarly achievement and willingness of faculty to embrace new technology.

“I don’t think you can isolate teaching from the environment,” Cassell said. “A major strength of our campus is our Academic Villages, which promote interaction between students and faculty in non-classroom environments. When we look to hire faculty, we look for teaching experience naturally, but even more we look for that commitment to working with students beyond the classroom.”

The clustering of the curriculum around themes encourages faculty interaction that pushes them to keep up with their own discipline and expands their knowledge into the disciplines of colleagues, Cassell said. “Part of being a good teacher is contributing knowledge to your field, doing research, performing professional dialogue. While our focus is primarily on teaching, teaching success also depends on scholarship, and student and faculty interaction.”

Greensburg faculty are quick to embrace technology innovations, Cassell said. “Whatever they see as tools to improve their teaching, they seize the opportunity to learn,” he said.

“The other common thread I see, as I look over the list of our winners, is that they tend to be campus leaders,” the president said. “One is head of our International House, which is one of our Academic Villages; one has now been named assistant to the president; one heads one of our divisions; one has a leadership role nationally in her field.”

The impressive list of award-winning teachers on the campus serves as a faculty recruiting tool, Cassell added. “In that sense, prospective hires are attracted to our campus when they see that commitment to teaching excellence.”

Pitt law Dean David J. Herring said that the 19 law faculty chancellor’s award winners out of a group of 45 is not a faculty recruitment tool at his school. “But it is definitely a major recruiting tool for students here, especially the teaching awards,” he said.

Winning those awards reinforces the school’s tradition of a strong commitment to teaching, Herring said, which is important to prospective law students who desire more than a legal foundation.

“For example, we have four specialty areas of strength, as well as a strong international focus, both due to our faculty’s expertise,” Herring said. The school is committed to a spirit of community and aspires to conduct its programs at a nationally prominent level of quality, he added.

Herring (himself a 1998 chancellor’s teaching award winner along with Mark Nordenberg, who won the award in 1985 before he became chancellor) said that the student evaluations of teachers are consistently high, one of the primary reasons for the faculty’s success in receiving University-wide teaching awards. Also, the faculty are open and accessible and support each other in their teaching endeavors, the dean maintained.

“Recently, we’ve broken into winning the public service awards, which verifies that we have an active community of lawyers, and that’s something we also want to stress: the law as it benefits society,” Herring said.

“Research, frankly, is harder for us because, generally, we do not emphasize quantitative, empirical research, although that has been increasing among our faculty in recent years,” he added.

—Peter Hart

Pitt-Greensburg’s chancellor’s award winners:

Teaching
• Stephen Murabito, associate professor, English (2004)
• Mary Beth Spore, assistant professor, English (2002)
• Walter Orange, assistant professor, mathematics, (2002)
• Joanne J. Viano, assistant professor, French (2000)
• Richard Blevins, associate professor, English (1999)
• Lillian Beeson, professor, English (1997)
• Anthony Boldurian, professor, anthropology (1996)
• Mark McColloch, professor, history (1994)
• Judith Vollmer, professor, English and director, writing program (1992)
• Ted Zaleskiewicz, professor, physics (1990)
• Nancy Estrada, assistant professor, Hispanic languages and literature (1989)
• Diane Marsh, professor, psychology (1986)

Public Service
• Diane Marsh, professor, psychology (1996)

School of Law’s chancellor’s award winners:

Teaching
• Lu-in Wang (2001)
• Rhonda Wasserman (2000)
• David J. Herring (1998)
• Harry Flechtner (1997)
• Bernard J. Hibbitts (1995)
• Jules Lobel (1993)
• William J. Brown (1991)
• W. Edward Sell (1990)
• Ronald A. Brand (1989)
• John E. Murray Jr. (1988)
• John M. Burkoff (1987)
• Mark A. Nordenberg (1985)
• Herb L. Sherman (1984)
Research
• Arthur D. Hellman (2002)
• Kevin D. Ashley (2000)
Public Service
• Stella Smetanka (2004)
• Jules Lobel (2002)
• Margaret Mahoney (2001)
• Karen Engro (1999)