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Professors, teaching assistants honored by UNC students for teaching excellence

CHAPEL HILL -- Students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill honored three faculty members and six graduate student teaching assistants yesterday (April 22) for excellence in undergraduate teaching.

The winning faculty members of the 2003 Student Undergraduate Teaching Awards were Dr. Todd Austell, research assistant professor of chemistry and director of general chemistry laboratories; Dr. Thomas Stumpf, associate professor of English; and Dr. Harry Watson, history professor and director of the Center for the Study of the American South.

The teaching assistants winning awards were:

• Dr. Elmarie Bodes, a postdoctoral student in toxicology from South Africa, who teaches physiology; 
  
  
• Megan Mercedes Echevarría, a doctoral student in Spanish from McLean, Va., who teaches Spanish language and culture; 
  
  
• Natalie Fixmer, a second-year master’s student in communication studies from Waukesha, Wis., who helps teach gender communication; 
  
  
• William Mackin, a sixth-year doctoral student in biology from Atlanta, Ga., who teaches biology;  
  
  
• Jorge Joaquin Muñoz Ogayar, a doctoral student in Spanish from Spain, who teaches Spanish; and 
  
  
• Jenne Powers, a doctoral student in Russian literature from Midlothian, Va., who teaches Russian language.

Student body president Matt Tepper recognized the winners at the annual Chancellor’s Awards ceremony. Each faculty member received $5,000 and each teaching assistant $1,000.

The Student Undergraduate Teaching Awards are the only teaching awards directed and funded by students. In 1989, students voted to increase their fees to fund the awards.

Students submit nominations to a 10-member student awards selection committee. Committee members visit finalists’ classes unannounced, interview students randomly and interview the finalists to choose the winners.

"The student undergraduate teaching awards are a unique opportunity for students to recognize outstanding professors and teaching assistants," said Charlene Wong, a Greenville, N.C., junior who chaired the selection committee with Michael Brinkley, a sophomore from Winston-Salem. "We had more than 100 great nominations submitted this year, which made choosing only three professors and six teaching assistants a difficult task."

The committee chooses recipients who promote the value of undergraduate teaching by their example; demonstrate concern for each student through interaction and approachability inside and outside the classroom; create meaningful learning experiences; and maintain high expectations of students.

Austell studied chemistry as an undergraduate at UNC, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1987. He earned his doctoral degree in analytical chemistry from UNC and joined the university’s chemistry faculty in 1998. Austell serves as an academic adviser and program manager for junior and senior chemistry majors. His research interests include chemistry education, academic advising and laboratory curriculum development.

Stumpf earned his bachelor’s degree from St. Louis University and his master’s and doctoral degrees from Harvard University. With the English department since 1965, Stumpf studies authors Defoe and Mandeville and the study of classical influences on neo-classical literature.

Watson, at UNC since 1976, studies the antebellum South, Jacksonian America and the history of North Carolina. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Brown University in 1971 and his doctorate from Northwestern University in 1976. Watson directs UNC’s Center for the Study of the American South and co-edits "Southern Cultures," a quarterly journal published by the center and UNC Press.

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Contacts: Students Charlene Wong, 919-914-5480, cawong@email.unc.edu and Michael Brinkley, 919-260-7392, brinkmic@email.unc.edu

News Services contact: L.J. Toler, 919-962-8589, laura_toler@unc.edu