Giving a teacher an apple as a token of appreciation might be considered strange at Saint Louis University, but the Student Government Association did just that on Monday night during the third annual Faculty Excellence Awards.
Twenty five teachers were honored with the award–and received an apple statuette engraved with a lamp–during a dinner and ceremony in the St. Francis Xavier College Church Ballroom.
Anne Lampe, Arts and Sciences senator, told the audience that the teachers who were chosen have “served as living examples of Jesuit ideals in and out of the classroom.” Teachers, their families, a few students and members of the administration attended the ceremony.
Students were given the opportunity earlier this semester to nominate their all-around best teachers from SLU by submitting an essay to SGA via e-mail. More than 100 nominations were received. An excerpt from one of each teacher’s nomination essays was read aloud before each teacher went to the stage to accept the award.
Lampe went on to describe the winning teachers as “advisers, mentors and friends” who “make being a student at SLU a wonderful experience.” The snippets from the students’ essays also appeared on the certificates presented to the teachers.
“I think it’s nice … that instead of just complaining, this award really recognizes what students are looking for,” said Stephen P. Wernet, Ph.D., a professor and award recipient in the School of Social Service.
“A number of graduate students filled out the form, which means a lot,” Susan Tebb, Ph.D., dean of the School of Social Service, explained.
Award recipient William Brennan, Ph.D., also of the School of Social Service, said that he has received positive feedback from students before, but not on a regular basis.
“Once a student wrote on the board, before I came into class, ‘Dr. Brennan is a great teacher.’ I was really surprised at that. When you’ve been teaching as long as I have, you think you’re getting across to the students, but you’re never really sure.”
“I was very pleased, and I really appreciate the efforts of the students in orchestrating this. It’s nice to know that what you do is appreciated,” said Barrie Bode, Ph.D., a professor of biology.
Provost Joe Weixlmann, Ph.D., chatted with students after the ceremony.
“It’s especially significant to the faculty that this came through the students’ process, and that students did the selecting,” he said.
He went on to say that he was impressed with the students’ efforts to personalize the awards and tell its history. “It made the whole ceremony live.”
Lubna Alam, academic vice president of SGA, said, “You usually only hear about a couple, but there are so many excellent professors who are worthy of being noticed and honored.”
The awards were created three years ago with some encouragement from the provost’s office. Commuter Senator Matt Love said that the awards began when Kathy Humphrey, vice president of student development, suggested that, rather than complaining about the negative aspects of teaching at SLU, the students reward the teachers who have impacted them in a positive and profound way.
Lampe said that a committee of students decided which nominees would receive the award by removing the nominated teachers’ names from the essays submitted by students, then ranking them according to the quality of the nomination.
