Members of the fraternity Sigma Chi honored 12 professors Wednesday night for their relationship with their pupils. Each teacher receiving the Distinguished Teacher Award was recognized with a plaque and words of praise from the group members and Leon Peterson, a Sigma Chi alumnus.
“What we wanted to do is award teachers that reflect the values of Sigma Chi: friendship, congeniality, integrity, commitment — that sort of general level of character,” said Parley Baldwin, the fraternity’s scholarship chairman.
Sigma Chi collected between 70 and 80 nominations from the members of its U chapter and narrowed the candidates down to 12, based on the quality of a recommendation, or quantity of those received for a professor.
Professors awarded include Cal Boardman, John Costa, Kathryn Cowles, Richard Dunie, Chuck Grissom, Rich Ingebretsen, Dan Jones, Adam Luedtke, Anna Moore, Aaron Poochigian, David Temme and Anne Yeagle.
“You get awards as you go though life. Usually it’s from your peers or colleagues, or some case alumni, but nothing means more to a teacher than when students reach out their hand and say thank you,” said Ingebretsen, a physics professor who was nominated by over a dozen Sigma Chi members.
“I found something from Rich (Ingebretsen) that’s really rare on campus, and that’s why we have all these distinguished teachers here,” said Randy Wood, a junior majoring in German and economics. “We feel like (they) as well as Rich have a personal kindness that’s rare to find on campus.”
Some teachers have expressed that kindness through personal attention, like Jones’ personal phone calls to students who miss class.
Others have by making normally difficult or boring subjects interesting for students, like Moore’s techniques for approaching math, or how Boardman makes his finance students feel like their opinions matter — so much that they shape his own.
The professors couldn’t help but return the praise.
“Two students I had in my class who were Sigma Chi were some of my best students,” said Luedtke, a political science professor.
Grissom, a chemistry professor, also praised the group’s members.
“The students really are fabulous. They’re mature, they’re engaged, they’re interesting students and I enjoy every minute that I have with them,” he said.
The chapter hopes to make the awards an annual event.
“This is the first year we’ve done this,” said Sigma Chi president T.J. Jones, a junior in economics. “We hope to do it next year and from now on, to start a new tradition.”