Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 5, 1991                   TAG: 9104060404
SECTION: FOUNDERS DAY                    PAGE: VT-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

HOWARD RECEIVES WINE AWARD

Her colleagues point to her impact in the classroom, where she generates enough excitement in her subject to influence students to enter her field of study.

The recipient of the accolades and a 1991 William E. Wine Award for teaching excellence is Jeanne B. Howard, associate professor of urban affairs and planning in the College of Architecture and Urban Studies.

The recognition for teaching excellence is not Howard's first. In 1976-77, 1978-79 and, most recently in 1987-88, she received the Certificate of Teaching Excellence in her college.

"These awards, both at the college level and now at the university level, are a reflection of the students' appreciation for the energy and enthusiasm she brings to teaching," said Dean Charles W. Steger.

Howard, who joined the CAUS faculty in 1975, teaches courses in "The City in Contemporary America," "Urbanization and Planning," "World Cities" and "Introduction to Futures."

According to D. Eugene Egger, assistant dean for academic affairs, the courses "have consistently been full and have received the highest student rating of courses offered by the urban affairs and planning program."

In addition to Howard's teaching awards, she has been selected four times as an instructor for the University Honors Program; has served as a faculty member in the Governor's School for the Gifted, the Governor's Magnet School for Science and Technology and the Governor's School for the Technical Arts; has taught in the Tech Elderhostel program; has directed CAUS summer programs in London; and has co-directed and directed university international studies in the Soviet Union.

She also was an invited lecturer in the Not-Your-Average-Lecture Series, sponsored by the Virginia Tech Union, and has been a featured speaker at conferences throughout the nation.

George W. Thorn, director of the graduate program in arts administration, said that most students come to his program with somehwat limited and narrow perspectives about their environment, future and change. "I require all incoming students to take Jeanne's futures class in the first semester. Jeanne absolutely challenges thier thinking and serves as a non-arts global context for their work," he said.

Howard has been invovled in a project on planning for cities in wintertime, and received a grant from the Canadian government to develop a course on "The City in Northern Climates." She also is co-authoring a book, "Winter Cities in Comparative Perspective," which will examine various approaches to urban development from a comparative standpoint, using Canada, the United States, the Scandinavian countries and the Soviet Union as cause studies.

Howard holds a Ph.D. from the University of London, where she concentrated on comparative and international education and Slavonic and East European studies. She received a Master of Arts in Soviet and East European history and an undergraduate degree in European history, both from Florida State University.