August 23, 1999
LAWRENCE -- Two more University of Kansas faculty received surprise classroom visits this morning from KU and Commerce Bank officials as part of the William T. Kemper Teaching Excellence Awards.
More awards will be handed out later today, tomorrow, Wednesday and Aug. 31 on KU campuses in Lawence, Overland Park, Kansas City, Kan., and Wichita. The first 11 of 20 annual awards were handed out last week.
KU Provost David E. Shulenburger along with Jim Martin, president of the KU Endowment Association and Mark Gonzales, community president of Commerce Bank, Lawrence, presented the awards today. The honored professors receive $5,000 each.
This morning's recipients are:
-- SANDRA L. ALBRECHT, associate professor of sociology; and,
-- ANN SCHOFIELD, professor of American studies and women's studies.
Their biographies are below.
A total of 13 KU faculty have now received their awards for teaching or advising of students. Winners announced last week were: Arlene Barry, associate professor of teaching and leadership; Diana Carlin, professor of communication studies; Allen Ford, professor of business; Ronald "Ron" Francisco, professor of political science and Russian and East European Studies; David Holmes, professor of psychology; Jan Kozma, professor of French and Italian; Victor Bailey, professor of history; Stephen A. McAllister, professor of law; Philip Schrodt, professor of political science; James R. "Pete" Shortridge, professor of geography; and Norman Slade, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology.
The "surprise patrol" will make visits to other Lawrence and Edwards campus faculty later today. Four KU Medical Center faculty members in Wichita and Kansas City, Kan., will be honored Aug. 24, 25 and 31. In all, 20 professors will be honored and $100,000 distributed. The W.T. Kemper Fellowships for Teaching Excellence recognize outstanding teachers and advisers at KU as determined by a seven-member selection committee. The committee's members include students, faculty and KU alumni. This is the third year in the five-year award program.
The William T. Kemper Foundation-Commerce Bank, Trustee, established a $250,000 fund for the program. The KU Endowment Association provided $250,000 in matching funds. Established in 1989 after Kemper's death, the foundation is dedicated to continuing his lifelong interest in improving the human condition and quality of life. The foundation supports Midwest communities and concentrates on initiatives in education, health and human services, civic improvements and the arts.
Biographies of today's winners:
SANDRA L. ALBRECHT An associate professor of sociology, Albrecht had a leadership role in the Women's Studies Program for several years. Her areas of teaching include the sociology of gender and work, industrial sociology and conflict resolution. Albrecht's forthcoming book will deal with gender and labor militancy in the airline industry. She is the recipient of several teaching awards, and in summarizing her student evaluations over the past five years, one of Albrecht's colleagues notes that, "in most of her classes, most of her students rated her as excellent."
AN SCHOFIELD Schofield, who came to KU in 1980, is a professor of American studies and women's studies. She has a national reputation for her work on women's and labor history, especially her research addressing the intersection of gender and work. A teaching colleague notes that one of Schofield's strengths as an educator is her ability to see the big picture, to recognize that teaching begins not in the classroom but in curricular coherence and well-planned courses. Because of her well-known dedication to students, she carries an especially heavy load of honors and independent study projects, master's theses, and doctoral dissertations.
Contact: Todd Cohen, (785) 864-8858 or e-mail tcohen@ukans.edu