BGSU faculty, advisers awarded for excellence

Three faculty members with a combined tenure of nearly 70 years at the University were honored for their teaching and service Oct. 21 at the 15th annual Faculty Recognition Dinner.

Faculty weren’t the only ones recognized at the dinner, though—staff from the Office of Academic Enhancement were presented the President’s Award for Academic Advising of Undergraduate Students by Faculty and Staff.

Award-winning faculty were:
• Michael French, Division of Teaching and Learning, who was named the University’s Master Teacher for 2003 by the Student Alumni Association.
• Benjamin Muego, political science and Asian studies, and John Hoag, economics, who shared the Faculty Distinguished Service Award.

Master Teacher
French, who returned to the classroom full time this year after 13 years as director of BGSU’s Martha Gesling Weber Reading Center, received what is considered one of the highest honors for faculty because students choose the recipient. A $1,000 cash award comes with the Master Teacher honor.
His graduate-student nominators wrote that French is “the definition of an individual putting his heart and soul into teaching. As a teacher of both undergraduate and graduate courses … he spends hours on technologically sound lessons, always being certain to include the latest tools and methods in his instruction.

“The expectations he holds his students to are extremely high,” they added. “So high, in fact, that there is not a moment when you are in his presence when he is not challenging you and your knowledge of reading.”

French, who holds a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, joined the BGSU faculty in 1989 as an associate professor and reading center director. He has also served as graduate coordinator and assistant chair in the Department of Educational Curriculum and Instruction. Author of various books and journal articles on literacy, he has obtained numerous grants supporting schools in the community, Ohio Reads and the America Reads Challenge.

Michael French, center, with members of the Student Alumni Association, which nominates and presents the Master Teacher Award.

Faculty Distinguished Service Award
Muego and Hoag will each receive $500 as co-recipients of the Faculty Distinguished Service Award. The award recognizes continuing quality contributions to the University, whether in the faculty governance process or to the learning environment, University relations and/or other areas that advance BGSU’s mission.

Muego, who joined the political science faculty full time in 1982 after two years as a visiting assistant professor, was chair of Faculty Senate in 1993-94 and again last academic year. In that position, he was the faculty’s representative to the Board of Trustees, the President’s Advisory Council, the BGSU Foundation Inc. and the Ohio Faculty Council.

He was Faculty Senate vice chair in 1992-93 and 2001-02, and has served three years as secretary to the senate and the President’s Panel. An ad hoc Committee on the History of Faculty Senate is among several of which he is now a member.

Muego, whose Ph.D. is from Southern Illinois University, was Fulbright Professor of Political Science at the University of the Philippines-Visayas in 1986-87. His current adjunct professorships include a position in Southeast Asia studies with the U.S. Foreign Service Institute, which honored Muego with its Distinguished Guest Lecturer award in 1997-98.|

The BGSU Firelands faculty member is the author of two books and more than two dozen book chapters and articles on political and regional security issues in Southeast Asia.

Hoag, chair of the economics department since 1993, came to Bowling Green in 1972 after earning his doctorate from the University of Kansas.

An author of two textbooks and more than 20 refereed journal articles, he is a current member of the College of Business Administration Executive Committee, the University Council of Chairs and Directors Steering Committee, the Student Assessment Achievement Committee and the University Program Review Committee.

Hoag received the College of Business Administration Faculty Service Award in 2001, as well as the Provost and Faculty Senate Faculty Mentor Award in 2002.

Benjamin Muego, political science and Asian studies (left), and John Hoag, economics, were joint winners of the Faculty Distinguished Service Award.

President’s Award for Academic Advising of Undergraduate Students
The academic advising honor carries a $5,000 cash award for the Office of Academic Enhancement. Lisa McHugh Cesarini is director of academic enhancement, whose awardees also include Renee Clark, Tom Gorman, Barbara Laird, Mary Lynn Pozniak, Brynn Pullano, Nicole Schwab and associate director Mary Beth Skelly.

They serve the needs of distinct student populations through three advising programs—Pre-Major Advising, the University Program for Academic Success and Advanced High School Programs, including the Post-Secondary Enrollment Options and High School College Credit programs.

“Throughout my three-year-stay with the program, I was mentored, guided, listened to and encouraged to explore many different academic areas of interest,” wrote one student, summing up her experience with the office.

“Through this program, I was able to contact other offices, instructors and programs about what they had to offer at BGSU. Thanks to the countless visits and sessions, I am well on my way to graduating in May 2004.”

Staff in the Office of Academic Enhancement were honored for their service to students. They are, left to right, Tom Gorman, Barbara Laird, Renee Clark, Lisa McHugh Cesarini. Mary Lynn Pozniak, Korine Steinke. Jessica Clifford, Nicole Schwab and Brynn Pullano.