2012 Dean's Salute To Excellence Awards

Dr. Janet Bodenman, Communication Studies; Dr. Luke Springman, Languages and Cultures; Dr. Jim Brown, Dean, College of Liberal Arts; Dr. Ted Roggenbuck, English. Not pictured: Dr. Faith Warner, Anthropology. Photo by Eric Foster.

Many faculty members in the College of Liberal Arts are excellent teacher-scholars who contribute greatly to the well-being of our students and the university community. By virtue of their teaching, scholarly/creative work, and service, campus culture is improved and the visibility and reputation of the university is enhanced nationally and internationally.

In 1998 Dean Hsien-Tung Liu established the Dean’s Salute to Excellence award to recognize distinction in the areas of teaching and professional responsibilities, scholarship, and service. Since then, the college has recognized a few select faculty members each year for their achievements, with selection based on performance reviews.

Dr. Janet Bodenman, Department of Communication Studies

Dr. Bodenman recently completed her fifteenth post-tenure year at Bloomsburg University. She is well known as an enthusiastic, rigorous, conscientious and creative instructor and—quoting her department chairperson here—“outstanding faculty mentor inside and outside the classroom.” Her peer observers made particular note of “her ability to create a supportive learning environment, and her confidence and enthusiasm which invite students to participate as active learners.”

In her most recent evaluation period she published one article and presented twelve competitively selected papers at regional and national conventions. Her scholarship is closely integrated with her teaching, mentoring, and community engagement. Within her department she has served on no fewer than eight committees during the evaluation period and has served on fifteen university-wide committees; additionally she has guest-lectured or provided workshops to student groups on nineteen occasions. And she is furthermore very active in the community. The quantity of these activities is matched by the quality and diligence she brings to every endeavor.

Dr. Ted Roggenbuck, Department of English

Dr. Roggenbuck is in his fourth year at Bloomsburg University, and his duties are divided between teaching in the English department and directing the university’s writing center. His student evaluations for last year were stellar. His peer observations were similarly full of superlatives. One observer described the class presentation as “one of the most interesting and thought provoking I have seen at Bloomsburg University.” Another described Dr. Roggenbuck as “an exceptional professor” who “teaches extremely important content while modeling how to listen carefully, communicate clearly and logically, and tutor with compassion and humor.”
As a scholar, Dr. Roggenbuck has been extremely active in a diverse array of projects. He has studied and presented on the topic of student writing with sources and collaborated with Dr. Amy Covill in Psychology in her work on peer review. He also works with undergraduate writing consultants and a teacher at Berwick Area High School on an ongoing project. In his spare time, he serves on the Liberal Arts Curriculum Committee and has presented a redesign of the first-year writing curriculum that will have a lasting impact on the whole university.

Dr. Luke Springman, Department of Languages and Cultures

Dr. Springman recently completed his fifteenth post-tenure year at Bloomsburg University. Dr. Springman is known as a conscientious and reflective instructor who is known for his willingness to explore technology and other innovative teaching strategies. His chairperson and peer observers made special mention of his “integration of culture and language, emphasis on communicative ability, and well-structured lectures.” His evaluation committee describes him as “the pillar of the Bloomsburg University German program,” and he is well known beyond the boundaries of Bloomsburg University as a strong advocate for language study in general and the study of German in particular.

Dr. Springman’s is a successful and prolific scholar. His book on youth culture in the Weimar Republic was published in 2007, and he has continued to write on that and related topics. He has achieved international recognition as an authority on this topic, as evidenced by the number of invitations and requests he has received to reprint and expand upon these topics. Dr. Springman served for many years in the capacity of department chairperson, and he has been active in developing a system-wide consortium to sustain and enhance the study of German. He has served on a wide variety of university and college communities and has been an active participant in APSCUF.

Dr. Faith Warner, Department of Anthropology

Dr. Warner recently completed her tenth post-tenure year. Her passion for teaching is effectively reflected in her student evaluations, which are exemplary, as well as in the observations of her chairperson and peers, who write that her “success is evident whether she is in front of over 200 students in a mass lecture introductory course, guiding anthropology majors through graduate and career preparatory upper level courses, or individually crafting research projects one-on-one with a single student.” Her commitment to mentoring and student success is evident throughout everything she does.

During the evaluation period she offered eight scholarly presentations and two additional posters in collaboration with students. Additionally she published three articles as well as a film on the discipline of anthropology. She is very active in service to her department and has served as interim director of the Frederick Douglass Initiative, as well as working with that organization in a variety of capacities. She has also been a productive member of the college’s Assessment Committee, and she has been asked to serve as chair of that group as well.

It is my great pleasure to recognize these four outstanding Liberal Arts faculty members with the Dean's Salute to Excellence. In a future post, I'll tell you about the very special origins of the glass apples awards each received.