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Letter from the |
June 16, 2006
Dear alumni and friends,
What is the value of a college education, and how can we judge the quality of a particular academic program? University administrators, faculty, students, and the media frequently ponder those questions. As alumni of the Penn State German and Slavic programs, how do you assess the value of the education that you received in our department? In our data-driven world, the criteria used for evaluating departments are usually the caliber of the faculty as measured by the number of publications and the amount of research grants awarded. However, if you would ask the average undergraduate student, I am convinced that the emphasis would lie elsewhere.
What most people remember from their college experience is not the articles published or the research dollars spent by their professors, but the quality of their teaching and advising. A great teacher and adviser can make a huge difference in a young person’s life. While these are crucial factors for the value of an education, they are hard to quantify and sometimes are lost among other indicators used to rank and evaluate research universities.
While the German and Slavic faculty at Penn State have certainly done well in the publishing domain (see “new books by our faculty” on our Web page: <http://german.la.psu.edu>), I am particularly happy to report that two members of our department have received awards this year for the quality of their advising and teaching.
Dr. Barton Browning was the recipient of the College of the Liberal Arts Outstanding Adviser Award for 2005-06. Since joining the German department in 1969, Dr. Browning has advised an average of thirty to forty German majors and minors every year. In addition, he has been the sole adviser for the College’s Business/Liberal Arts minor, which he helped develop in the early 1980s and which has grown steadily under his leadership to a current enrollment of more than 700 students. His institutional memory has made him an extremely valuable asset for the German Department and the College. Most importantly, he has shown a genuine concern for the well-being of our undergraduate students. In the words of one of his current advisees: “He shows an incredible amount of dedication to his students . . . he shared a genuine interest in my goals for the future and was quick to lend whatever help he could give me in achieving them.”
Unfortunately for us, Barton Browning will retire at the end of this academic year after thirty-seven years of distinguished service to Penn State, including a term as chair of the University Faculty Senate. He will be greatly missed, and, I am sure, fondly remembered by a great number of recipients of this letter.
Fortunately for us, Professor Bettina Mathes will join us from Humboldt University, Berlin. She will hold a joint appointment with Science, Technology, and Society (STS) and thus further strengthen our interdisciplinary collaboration with other units in the University. Her areas of specialization are early modern culture, science, and arts; gender studies; the Faust figure; DEFA-films (East German studio films); the history of psychoanalysis; and Islam in Europe. This fall she will teach an undergraduate class on the Berlin Wall as well as graduate seminar on early modern literature and culture.
The other member of our department who received an award this year was Rebecca Zajdowicz, a Ph.D. candidate in German Literature. She received the prestigious teaching award of the Graduate School for best graduate student instructor. Dr. Hülya Ünlü, our German program director, calls Rebecca “remarkable in every aspect of foreign language instruction.” She has a friendly yet authoritative, non-intimidating yet no-nonsense approach to her classroom presence. The student comments on her teaching have been uniformly exuberant. A student calls her “one of the best teachers I’ve had since being at Penn State,” and another one writes: “Rebecca rocked!” A third one comments: “Rebecca was a great teacher. I suggest giving her a Ph.D. and letting her teach forever!”
Barton Browning’s advising and Rebecca Zajdowicz’s teaching exemplify our department at its finest, and I am proud to have them as colleagues and students.
As always, let me end this letter with an invitation to join us this fall at our annual celebration of the German cultural heritage in Pennsylvania. This year’s events will focus on the culture and music of the Moravian Church and feature a choral performance at Eisenhower Chapel. As alumni, you are particularly welcome to attend this special event. The exact date and more details about the program will be sent to you in late summer. Updated information will also be available on our departmental Web site.
On a personal note, I will be on sabbatical leave this fall. Dr. Richard Page, associate professor of German and linguistics, will serve as acting department head during my absence. But, of course, I will always be happy to hear from you. Please send your news, comments, and suggestions to my e-mail address at ajw3@psu.edu.
My best wishes for a successful year to all of you!
Adrian Wanner
Department Head
