DATE: Monday, August 25, 1997               TAG: 9708220020

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B8   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial 

                                            LENGTH:   36 lines

ODU PROFESSORS BEST TEACHERS HONORED

``The most important activity of Old Dominion University faculty is their teaching,'' James V. Koch, the school's president, said Thursday in his State of the University address.

While teaching is a university's primary reason for being, most faculty awards recognize research and scholarship, not instruction. ODU, for example, bestows the title Eminent Scholar on about 25 of its best faculty members.

Now Koch has created a second title, University Professor, for about 25 full-time tenured professors who are regarded by colleagues and students as, in Koch's words, ``exceptionally brilliant teachers.'' University Professors, like Eminent Scholars, will each receive $2,500 a year to support their professional development as they see fit. Each University Professor will hold the title for three to five years and be recognized in the ODU course catalog. The same talented professor could be an Eminent Scholar and University Professor at the same time.

Student evaluations are expected to play a part in selecting University Professors. Faculty will help determine the selection criteria.

``If excellent teaching is in fact the centerpiece of what we do,'' Koch said, ``then it behooves us to spend time debating criteria and identifying those colleagues who best fit those criteria. It is time for us to match our rhetoric with action.''

Koch plans to announce the first honorees during his State of the University address next year.

Taught by certain professors, even calculus is comprehensible. Taught by other professors, it surpasses understanding. Students, especially, will applaud the ODU effort to honor, and thus encourage, good teachers. They are a priceless asset to the commonwealth.

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