The Distinguished Teaching Awards are given to University faculty who show a mastery of their subject matter, intellectual rigor, lively curiosity, a commitment to research and a passion for teaching. Awardees receive $5,000.
Stanley Chernicoff - Geology
As a political science major, Stan Chernicoff didn't take a science course until his senior year at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. Even that was cut short when classes at many universities were called off after 1970's Kent State University shootings in Ohio.
But he was intrigued enough to continue his geology studies as a graduate student at the University of Minnesota, even while trying to balance his studies at Minnesota's law school. After two years of that arduous pursuit, science won. He gave up law, devoting his attention to a doctorate in geology.
Stanley Chernicoff
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"I was not a science-oriented person in any way," he says. "I felt more comfortable with the law school students but I had made this decision to focus on science. As an undergraduate, I had meticulously avoided the buildings where science was taught."
Something from that first science course at CUNY resonated. Chernicoff didn't just want to learn geology; he wanted to share it with countless students who, like him, were leery of science.
"I think one of the reasons I connect with students in my classes is because I was them. And in some ways I still am," he said. "You have to find a place where kids with a science background aren't bored and yet you don't scare the kids with no background."
Chernicoff has connected with literally tens of thousands of UW students since he began teaching geological sciences in 1981. As a senior lecturer, he is renowned for learning — and remembering years later — the names of most of the 400 or more students who pack his lecture halls most quarters. His idea is to create, within the large and sometimes-impersonal university, a small-college feel that invites students to interact with him, maybe even drop by his house from time to time.
"He truly cares about the individuality of each student and tries to make his large lecture classes seem as intimate as seminars," said Terry Swanson, also a geological sciences senior lecturer.
Department chairman Darrel Cowan lauds Chernicoff's handling of introductory courses for non-geology majors. "He has enabled the department and University to reach a noble if not often-stated goal — to expose students to the natural sciences in an engaging and inviting way, and thereby advance teaching and learning in the liberal arts and sciences."
In the last couple of years, Chernicoff has applied the same values as assistant athletic director for academic services. He senses a chasm in understanding between the athletic and academic worlds, one he wants to bridge.
"On most campuses there is a disconnect where the two worlds clash, or at best there is an uneasy detente," he said.
On football Saturdays, he likes to take 15 to 20 faculty members inside the athletic program, meeting with the coaches, many of whom also have academic backgrounds. The faculty members watch the game from the sidelines and see close up the physical demands on the athletes, which Chernicoff hopes will help them to be a bit more understanding if an athlete happens to nod off in one of their classes the next Monday.
But he also wants the athletes to have a better understanding of the faculty. He notes that many of the student-athletes come from high school programs in which they were all-conference or all-state performers, and that many are striving to become All-America at the college level. He tells them their professors already have reached that level, simply by being on the faculty at a school like the UW, and should be accorded respect. "Every faculty member is an All-American and, in some sense, All-World," he said.
Clay Schwenn has a rare perspective for Chernicoff's contributions, a ringside observer first as an undergraduate psychology student taking Geology 101 and now as a counselor with Student Athlete Academic Services. He speaks glowingly of Chernicoff's "open-door policy that goes beyond office hours," and his support of students that even includes showing up at their sporting events and awards ceremonies.
"I see that he does not attend perfunctorily, and I am continually amazed at how he manages to keep himself fresh for the crush of kids that come around," Schwenn said. "In short, he is the person our parents hoped we would meet when they sent us off to college."
Vince Stricherz, News & Information
University Week
The faculty and staff publication of the University of Washington
uweek@u.washington.edu
May 25, 2000