SAS's top teaching prize goes to no one

And the winner is . . . Nobody. Five educators nominated for last year's Ira Abrams Award for Distinguished Teaching endured several months of nervous anticipation between their nominations late last fall and decision time in April. But at least each of the potential winners could look forward to receiving both the School of Arts and Sciences highest teaching honor and a $1,000 prize. Only it didn't happen. After one lunchtime meeting, the selection committee recommended that no one receive the honor, saying they could not accurately judge the nominees based on the materials they received. Then the nominees hesitantly drummed their fingers through the summer, hoping the committee would meet again to select a winner. That didn't happen either. "We were supposed to reconvene this summer but apparently no one called me and we didn't," Committee member Madeleine Joullie said last month. "I'm available to do it and I've been available to do it all summer, but no one called me." "I don't know what's going on," the Chemistry professor said. Then everyone gave up. "I think it's a dead issue," Mary Cartier, the SAS dean's executive assistant, said last month. And as slightly embarassed officials probably explained to the nominees, it wasn't a reflection on the candidates themselves. There were extenuating circumstances. The school switched deans, the student representative graduated and the professors on the committee -- Joullie, English Professor Peter Conn and History Professor Bruce Kuklick -- were on vacation or away doing research for a large part of the summer. All of which is probably small consolation to the nominees, whose names have been kept secret. "Let's regard this experience as a momentary lapse and a goad to doing it right in the future," SAS Dean Rosemary Stevens said Friday. Former SAS Dean Hugo Sonnenschein declined to comment on the award last week. Sonnenschein was dean during the committee's deliberations, but said last spring he had only "casual contact" with the group. He is now provost of Princeton University. The committee's student representative, Lara Nicolayevski, is no longer at the University either. "If I was there I would love to help," the College alum offered from Los Angeles. The major problem, she said, was that the group had received disproportionate amounts of material on each nominee. She said it became impossible to choose a winner fairly when the committee had received "200 pages on one and 50 on the other." But Nicolayevski said selecting a winner "shouldn't be done to get it over with" and that the committee's decision not to recommend a winner was a "gutsy stance." "I was pleased with the committee's stance last spring because it really made me realize how much thought is going into teacher evaluation," Nicolayevsky said last week. She added that if no changes in the system are made, the award may not be given out again this year. "I think it's inevitable, unless someone makes sure that it doesn't happen," she said. "I guess this was the first time that it was so unbalanced. We had to face it -- we had to deal with the fact it wasn't working." Stevens, however, said the lack of a name on the Abram's plaque for 1991 is not a reflection on the quality of teachers in SAS. "I hope this gap will move us to put teaching as a center of pride," Stevens said. "I think on balance we have good teaching in the Arts and Sciences." Stevens, who was previously chairperson of the History and Sociology of Science Department, said it was "a great pity" only five professors were nominated for the award. "The committee is dependent on there being nominations for this honor," Stevens said. "Most of the departments did not submit candidates last year." "What we've got to do this year is publicize it better and make sure it works," she said. But although Stevens called the lack of nominations "shocking," she chalked up this year's failure to name a winner as "a learning experience." "I think the school can survive," she said. Nominations for next year's Ira Abrams award will be solicited later this semester.

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