Deanna M. White, lecturer III in English, classics, and philosophy, and Neil
Maurer, associate professor of art and art history
Distinguished Achievement Awards: Deanna M. White and Neil Maurer
(April 30, 2002)--Deanna M. White, lecturer III in the Department of English, Classics, and Philosophy in the College of Liberal and Fine Arts, is the winner of the 2002 President's Distinguished Achievement Award for Core Curriculum Teaching.
Since coming to the university in 1981, White has been one of the most dedicated, consistently strong faculty in the freshman composition program. She is a lecturer in the English, classics, and philosophy department.
In recent years, she has made the same significant contributions to the university community-at-large, teaching in both freshman seminars and in the learning communities, which she helped to pioneer at UTSA during 1997-1998. She now teaches in the department's technical writing program, as well.
She cares about her students -- not just about their academic status, but also about their total well-being.
While the following may seem an unusual example to cite as part of a nomination documenting her worthiness to receive a core-curriculum teaching award, it bears mentioning as testament to the depth of White's concern for students. It was just about a year ago that the university was forced to evacuate and close Chisholm Hall, due to a mold problem in the facility.
White's students who lived in the residence hall had repeatedly shared with her the problems they were observing. She ultimately went to the residence hall, photographed the environment and shared her photographs with the administration.
This same level of concern is evident in her teaching, from the carefully designed course syllabi to her use of innovative classroom technology, such as Web CT.
She is also willing to assist other faculty in incorporating this technology into their own teaching. White is always open to new ideas. In 1998, she and colleague Gail Jones received a grant from the core curriculum committee to develop readiness assessment tests for writing and to conduct a workshop about the tests.
White receives consistently strong student evaluations in her courses, while at the same time maintaining the rigorous standards set by the core objectives. Her classes regularly fill to capacity, but not because they are perceived as being easy. Rather, students know that they will be given an opportunity to achieve there.
White is held in great respect by her peers in the program, who regularly seek her out for advice and help in their own teaching. She is always generous with her time, yet remains modest and collegial. She is an ideal choice for the President's Distinguished Achievement Award in Core Curriculum Teaching.
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Neil Maurer, associate professor of photography in the Department of Art and Art History in the College of Liberal and Fine Arts, is the winner of the 2002 President's Distinguished Achievement Award.
Maurer has had a long and successful career as an educator and a photographer. After joining the UTSA faculty in 1978, he worked to expand the photography programs for both the bachelor's and master of fine arts degrees.
Over his 23-year tenure at UTSA, his reputation as a creative photographer has grown both nationally and internationally. Last fall, the U.S. State Department supported an exhibition of his work in Quito, Ecuador, publishing an extensive illustrated catalog and tour.
He gave radio and television interviews as well as lectures at the University of Ecuador, all in Spanish. Since Maurer's photographic images incorporate texts from a number of prominent contemporary Ecuadorian poets, they were invited to take part in the exhibition program.
In 2000, a grouping of photographs from the Ecuador exhibit were shown at the UTSA Satellite Space in the Blue Star Arts Complex in San Antonio. That same year, he was invited to exhibit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, as part of "The Festival of Light," an invitation that had resulted from his successful participation in Foto-Fest, a national photography biennale that takes place in Houston.
The festival director organized a two-person exhibit at the biennale, pairing him with the Spanish photographer, Chema Madoz.
Again in the year 2000, Maurer held a one-person exhibition at the University of the Incarnate Word gallery at the Center for Spirituality in the Arts. A published catalog of his work accompanied the exhibition.
Maurer'sworks are in the collections of many prestigious museums in Denmark, Belgium, Finland, Ecuador and, of course, the United States, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Smithsonian Museum, the Library of Congress, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the San Antonio Museum of Art and Austin's Harry Ransom Center.
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TODAY'S HEADLINES:
Poster
for 31st Annual Texas Folklife Festival unveiled at ITC
Academic
enrichment summer camps offered at Downtown Campus
Distinguished
Achievement Award: Daniel A. Engster
Distinguished
Achievement Awards: Robert J. Bayley and Mark T. Leung
Distinguished
Achievement Awards: Jahan G. Eftekhar and Lars Hansen
Distinguished
Achievement Awards: Su Zhou and Dhiraj K. Sardar
Distinguished Achievement Awards: Deanna M. White and Neil Maurer
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© The University of Texas at San Antonio, 2002