Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

Instructional Awards Banquet honors excellence in teaching, advising

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. Fourteen University of Illinois faculty members, one academic professional and five teaching assistants will be honored for excellence in teaching and advising undergraduate students Monday (April 30) at the annual UI Instructional Awards Banquet.

The teaching assistants and four professors will receive the Campus Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, the principal award for undergraduate instruction at the UI, at the banquet in the Illini Union, 1401 W. Green St., Urbana.

The award recognizes professors and graduate teaching assistants who display consistently excellent performance in the classroom, take innovative approaches to teaching, affect the lives of their students, and make other contributions to improved instruction, including influencing the curriculum.

Faculty winners of the award are Stephanie Foote, English; John A. Lynn, history; Roderick MacLeod, cell and structural biology; and Adam T. Martinsek, statistics.

Graduate teaching assistants who will receive the award are Kristine Baxter Bauer, mathematics; Andrew C. Helms, economics; Stephanie M. Hilger, comparative literature; Elizabeth T. Klett, English; and Jon D. Perkins, accountancy.

Faculty members who are selected for the award receive $5,000 and a $3,000 raise; graduate teaching assistants receive $3,500 and a $1,000 increase in their stipends.

Others to be honored at the banquet:

Philip Buriak, professor of agricultural engineering, and Joseph Squier, professor of art and design, will be recognized as Distinguished Teacher/Scholars.

E. Graham Evans Jr., professor of mathematics, and Phyllis Vanlandingham, academic adviser in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, will receive the Campus Award for Excellence in Advising Undergraduate Students, which provides $2,000 to each.

Lori Newcomb, professor of English, will receive the Award for Innovation in Undergraduate Instruction, which provides $2,000 to the recipient.

Michael F. Hutjens, professor of animal sciences, and James A. Levin, professor of educational psychology, will receive the Campus Award for Excellence in off-Campus Teaching. Each will receive $4,000, and their departments will be provided with $1,000 to improve off-campus instruction and develop programs.

Arlette Ingram Willis, professor of curriculum and instruction, will receive the Campus Award for Excellence in Guiding Undergraduate Research, a $2,000 award designed to foster and reward excellence in involving and guiding undergraduate students in scholarly research.

Weng Cho Chew, professor of electrical and computer engineering; Lawrence M. DeBrock, professor of economics; and Sandra Manfra Marretta, professor of veterinary clinical medicine, will receive the Campus Award for Excellence in Graduate and Professional Teaching, which is designed to reward faculty members in professional or graduate programs who normally wouldnt have an opportunity to compete for undergraduate teaching awards. Each will receive $5,000 and a $3,000 raise.

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