Hugh Jenkins, professor of English, accepted the eighth annual Stillman Award for Excellence in Teaching on Feb. 17, and called on faculty and students to help preserve what he called the “heritage of free inquiry” against “religious bigots, moral bullies, and intellectual terrorists.”
At issue now is preserving the heritage of free inquiry and the ideals of a free society that have lived for more than two thousand years,” he said at Founders Day convocation. “The intellectual privileges we have here at Union and at similar institutions are vital in sustaining the basic rights of our society as a whole.”
Jenkins, who joined the College in 1992, earned his bachelor's degree from Carleton College, and his master's and Ph.D. from Cornell University. His research has concentrated on 17th-century English literature including English country-house poetry; the poetry, prose and drama of Ben Jonson and John Milton; and the dramas of the Jacobean stage.
College Marshall Ruth Stevenson said her English department colleague “[leads] the students to respond with knowledge and delight to the works of those passionate, contentious, gorgeously literate writers, and, what's more, [leads] them to develop for themselves cogent, imaginative thinking and clear, elegant style.”
Jenkins gives daily quizzes, imposes a “grammar tax,” and writes miniature essays on student papers that are, in themselves, “persuasive models of independent thinking and cogent analysis,” Stevenson said.
She cited Jenkins' “infectious enthusiasm and curiosity” in the classroom, for example, using a real skeleton to stage scenes from “The Revenger's Tragedy.” “[He] leads the students to the comprehension of the heart (and bones!) of the matter, the dramatic interactions of human wishes, human institutions, and human limitations,” Stevenson said. “He makes the texts an integral part of his students' aesthetic and intellectual life.”
Quoting from student nominations, Stevenson said Jenkins “is 'amazing,' that he is 'fantastic,' and, simply and gleefully that 'Hugh rocks!'”
The award was created by Abbott L. Stillman '69, a former trustee, to pay tribute to the central mission of the College: teaching. Nominations are solicited from the sophomore, junior, and senior classes. The faculty on the Committee on Teaching review material submitted by the nominees and forward the recommendation to the Dean of Faculty. Other finalists this year were Teresa Meade, history; Robert Lauzon, biology; and Terry Weiner, political science.
Seguin makes his own March Madness
While most folks in Elliot Seguin's hometown of East Lansing, Mich., were celebrating Michigan State's arrival in the NCAA hoops “Sweet 16,” the Union senior swimmer made a splash at a pool in his backyard.
He became Union's fourth men's swimming and diving athlete to win a national championship with a victory in the 100 freestyle at the 2005 NCAA Division III Swimming & Diving Championships at Hope College in Holland, Mich. His winning time of 45.32 seconds was .42 ahead of runnerup Brad Test of Johns Hopkins.
On the way to nationals, he also won state titles in the 100 and 200 freestyle events.