David Gruber Awards for Excellence in Teaching and Advising

2011 Recipients
(Announcement sent out by Marlene Fried on May 17, 2011.)

It is my pleasure to announce the recipients of the first annual David Gruber Awards for Excellence in Teaching and Advising. There are two Gruber Awards of $10,000 each. One prize is for excellence in teaching, including classroom teaching and individual and group independent study supervision. The other is awarded for excellence in advising, including divisional supervision and general mentorship. This year, 15 individual faculty members received a total of 139 nominations from the Hampshire community. The selections committee consisted in a group of six students - one representative from each of the five schools, and one at-large Community Council representative. As specified in the gift agreement, the committee forwarded the top nominations in each category to me and I made the final selection.

Robert Seydel is the first recipient of the Gruber Award for excellence in teaching, and Jane Couperus is the first recipient of the award for excellence in advising. The committee noted that "Robert received a flood of passionate and detailed nominations. He exemplified in all ways the wisdom, creativity, dedication, and innovation in teaching that Hampshire prides and cherishes in its faculty." Jane was described as "enormously dedicated to each and every one of her advisees from Division I through Division III even while carrying one of the highest workloads at the College. This begins with the fact that she spends significant amounts of time with each student."

Effective teaching and advising are core values at Hampshire and are as distinctive as the College itself. In delivering their recommendations, the selection committee noted that "we found multiple faculty members who deserved this award. With that in mind, we would like this award to be viewed as showcasing one example of excellence out of many, versus as an award for the 'best' professor." The committee also requested that the other nominees be kept in the pool for next year.

I want to thank those who submitted nominations, the selection committee members, and Renee Freedman who facilitated the process.