WAUKESHA –Two members of the faculty and two academic staff at the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha have been named Arthur M. Kaplan Fellows for 2001-02. The faculty and staff enhancement program recognizes outstanding contributions to education made by UW Colleges faculty and academic staff.
The award is conferred to individuals who make “significant and innovative improvement of instruction or of service to students.” The four nominees selected by the campus Steering Committee to be honored this year are: Tina Current, Milwaukee; Carol Fischer and Mike Morton, Oconomowoc; and David Skryja, Waukesha.
An academic advisor in Student Services, Tina Current has raised the level of service in the department. She revised the advising program and issued a new, user-friendly version of the Advisor Resource Guide. She also has welcomed parents to student advising and orientation nights and initiated an orientation program especially for transfer students. In addition, she has refined the training for student ambassadors and added resources to the Exploration Center. By making students aware of the Guaranteed Transfer program and the advantages of earning an associate degree before transferring, she has enhanced educational opportunities for countless students. A psychology and speech communications graduate of the University of Washington-Seattle, Current finished her master’s degree in counseling at UW-Madison just before starting here in May 2000.
Long appreciated for her teaching style, business professor Carol Fischer has promoted student success in her accounting, business, and personal finance courses through both traditional teaching methods and the use of newer instructional technology. In fact, she has helped acquaint many of her colleagues with such programs as PowerPoint and Blackboard and assisted them in navigating the Internet. As patient with her students as she is generous with her time, she evaluates her own success as a teacher by heeding student comprehension of the subject. Students find her courses useful and informative and describe her as “extremely knowledgeable, well organized, enthusiastic, and helpful.” Fischer started her career as an accountant with Arthur Andersen & Co. but switched to teaching in January 1976 when she became UW-Waukesha’s first full-time faculty member in business. She holds both a bachelor’s degree in accounting and an MBA from UW-Madison.
While he has been on campus for only two years, Mike Morton has proven to be a tireless helper for students, especially those with math troubles. As a math specialist tutoring in the Study Center, he counsels students individually and in groups and will give them the kind of attention they need in overcoming personal problems that interfere with their ability to learn. Frequently he is the first to arrive and last to leave, always cheerfully providing assistance to students. He also conducts adjunct math classes that prepare students to take credit classes. Since retiring from the Air Force, Morton has taught physics and calculus in high school, math at WCTC, and tutored here. He earned bachelor’s degrees in physical science and meteorology from San Francisco State University and the University of Utah, respectively, and an M.S. in atmospheric dynamics from University of Michigan.
On the faculty since 1975, associate professor of biological sciences David Skryja exudes a contagious enthusiasm for his subject. He and two other faculty members, one in philosophy and one in psychology, developed an interdisciplinary course, “Sex, Lies, and Immorality,” which has been popular with students since the three introduced it in 1999. He quietly goes about his committee work and community involvement but can be found on campus late at night feeding his mice. Some of his interesting backpack travels to such lands as Tuva in the center of Asia have raised student interest as well. He earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Omaha and a master’s from the University of Wyoming and Ph.D. from Arizona State University, both in zoology.
With each Kaplan fellowship comes a $250 purse, matched by the Friends & Alumni Foundation of UW-Waukesha. The recipients can use the money to further enhance their creative approaches to education.
Former UW Centers (now Colleges) Chancellor Lee Grugel established the award in 1993 on the retirement of Kaplan, who had served the UW Colleges for eight years in the capacities of vice chancellor, provost, and acting chancellor. Kaplan was committed to improving the quality of instruction and service to students at UW Colleges campuses. The awards can be presented at each of the thirteen UW Colleges campuses. |
