OTICA WINNER ANN MARI MAY:Being a good teacher is a lot like being a good student. (Photo: Richard Wright) |
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(Editor's Note: With this issue, the Scarlet highlights winners of this year's systemwide awards.)
For Ann Mari May, being a good teacher is a lot like being a good student.
As one of the winners of this year's systemwide Outstanding Teaching and Instructional Creativity Award, May believes learning is equally important to all members of a classroom, regardless of who's in charge.
"If I don't learn at least as much as the students in a semester, I haven't done my job," says the associate professor of economics. But you'll never hear May complain about her self-assigned homework. "The best part of this job," she says, "gives you the luxury of being able to learn something all the time."
It's a philosophy she puts into practice by assigning her students projects that involve active research beyond the traditional trips to the library.
"Students learn better when they experience a topic, as opposed to just reading about it," she explains. So May's students can often be found interviewing community members to discover how issues such as occupational segregation, white privilege and salary inequity hit close to home.
"They read about it, then go into the community to see how it actually functions," she says. Her students are often surprised "to see how the statistics that they read about in the abstract are an accurate reflection of the reality around them, which they took for granted before they actually stopped to look at it."
May says the projects keep the classroom and the coursework fresh - even to someone as familiar with the material as she. The examples the students use, or the ways in which they approach a subject often color her own perspective.
"Every semester I think about something differently because of the projects that they've done," she says.
In addition to their educational value, May favors the projects because they boost students' confidence in their research and critical thinking skills. After a few years of reading expert opinions on topics in the library, she says, students limit themselves to integrating and restating what someone else has said on a topic, rarely formulating their own beliefs.
"They never feel empowered to provide their own ideas or perspectives - that (what they think) could be the least bit interesting or valuable," she says. "We sort of wrench that out of them by the time they're seniors, so it is wonderful to see undergraduate students doing research."
Knowing of May's enthusiasm for the classroom, it's surprising to discover she didn't always want to be a teacher. While in graduate school at Colorado State University, she aspired to be manager of a brokerage firm. When an unexpected vacancy in the economics department arose, May was asked to step in as the instructor of two macroeconomics classes with 200 students each. It was a life-changing move.
"It was a one of the best experiences," she says. "My students actually gave me flowers at the end of the class." It hasn't happened since, she admits with a laugh. But for May, teaching - and the learning that coincides with it - is the ultimate reward. The stimulation of leading a classroom fuels her passion for the profession.
"It's the immediacy of (teaching). It's the intensity of it. And it's never gotten old," she explains. "I can feel absolutely horrible physically and walk into the classroom, and it requires such concentration that everything else goes away."
Clearly, May loves teaching, and winning the OTICA is a testament to her commitment in the classroom. It's important to reward good teaching, she says, and she appreciates the honor.
"To be recognized by your peers is the best kind of recognition you can get," she says. "And to be recognized for something you value the most is the best, too."
-Amy Cyphers, Public Relations
The Office of the Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs is sponsoring a two-day diversity workshop for deans, directors and chairs April 16 and 17 with two speakers from the American Council on Education.
Reginald Wilson, senior scholar for ACE, will direct a workshop on diversity issues. Deborah Carter, deputy director of the ACE office of minorities in higher education, will direct a workshop on gender equity. They will discuss the current status of affirmation action and diversity programs, present model programs from other universities and talk about the role of faculty and staff.
Evelyn Jacobson, associate vice chancellor for academic affairs, said the goal of the workshop is to provide information about ways to create a diverse curriculum and diverse workforce and student body.
"We are in the middle of a diversity initiative and becoming more aggressive in trying to enhance our campus diversity," Jacobson said. "Our goal is to create a learning community that reflects both our multicultural society and individual differences among citizens. We need to create a climate that is welcoming and supportive for all, and these workshops will help those who are most responsible for this action to occur."
Wilson was named senior scholar at ACE in 1988; he originally joined the council in 1981 as director of the Office of Minority Concerns. He will join the University of Texas-Austin next fall for one year to teach as a visiting professor. He was president of Wayne County (Detroit, Mich.) Community College for 10 years. The author of many books and reports on minorities in higher education, he began ACE's Annual Status Report on Minorities in Higher Education in 1982 and has remained its co-author, along with Carter. He holds bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from Wayne State University in Michigan.
As ACE's deputy director of the Office of Minorities in Higher Education, Carter is responsible for developing strategies and programmatic activities designed to increase and advance minority and women's leadership and achievement in higher education. Prior to assuming her present position, she was senior research associate in the Division of Policy Analysis and Research at ACE.
She has been active in shaping leadership forums and minority and affirmative action initiatives for the council. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland-College Park, a master's degree from Howard University and a bachelor's degree from California State University at San Diego.
The meetings are open only to deans, directors and chairs. For more information, contact Jacobson at 472-3751.
- Kim Hachiya, Public Relations
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education have scheduled a partnership review of the university's policies and procedures to prevent racial harassment April 13-17.
The partnership review is an approach OCR has developed to provide its expertise to institutions to help them strengthen their policies and procedures. According to an OCR document, "The partnership review approach recognizes that federal, state and local education agencies, as well as parents and other interested parties share a common goal of providing equal opportunity and access to high-quality education for all students."
"This review is not based on any specific complaint or concern," said Linda Crump, director the university's Affirmative Action and Diversity Office. "The Office of Civil Rights selects a type of discrimination or harassment as the focus of their partnership audits for a given year.
"This year, the focus is on racial harassment and we are one of the institutions they are working in partnership with to determine if the policies and procedures we have in place are ones that are likely to get to the issue of racial harassment," she said. "And if racial harassment is found, do our policies and procedures provide for some type of recourse and prevention from recurrences. (OCR's) focus is on students and that students have equal access to programs. (OCR representatives) have great expertise. And because they're willing to share ideas with us, we're willing to accept any insights they can provide."
Crump said the review teams usually meet with specific groups of individuals. "They'll meet with groups that have direct involvement in the university's policies and procedures, the groups that provide education to prevent any type of racial harassment, select student groups and community groups," she said.
The review team will have opening and closing sessions with the people ultimately responsible for the university's compliance with civil rights laws - Crump, Chancellor James Moeser and the vice chancellors. The team also will meet with community groups on April 13. None of the meetings on campus are open to the public, per OCR regulations.
"I think they're trying to work with universities to examine policies and procedures to prevent harassment," Crump said. "The focus is, 'Let's all get together and make sure we create the best environment we can.'"
-Tom Simons, Public Relations
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