6
University Daily Kansan
Campus/Area
Tuesday, Oct. 15, 1985
High standards mark classes of HOPE finalists
Nita Syndbve
An invitation to teach brought Nita Sundybe, professor of curriculum and instruction, to the University of Kansas 25 years ago, and the challenge of teaching made her stay.
"That is what I have wanted to do well, more than anything else," she said.
Before teaching at KU, she was an elementary school teacher for one year in Mountain Home, Ark,
and for five years in Johnson County.
Sundbye, a 1985 HOPE award finalist, said teaching was a rewarding career.
While she was in Johnson County, she received the invitation to teach at KU as an instructor in the School of Education. So she took a leave of absence for a year to take the position.
"I didn't think I wanted to leave the children, and said, 'But teaching at a university is much more challenging. You live in a bigger world, not just in four walls of a classroom.
"It is fulfilling to see someone else learn something and show interest in a tonic."
Teaching is especially rewarding, she said, when she lectures and a student asks a question that she is just about to answer in the lecture.
"It shows that the students are right with me," she said.
Sandbye stays current with trends in her profession and constantly feeds fresh information into her
"I put myself in a situation where I learn something new," Sundbye said. "It's stimulating and it makes me aware of what it was like to be a student."
"I really push to make the coursework meaningful," she said. "I use a lot of relevant examples."
In the courses Sundiye teaches, her students are placed in the Lawrence public schools to teach and observe children.
Sundbye received her master's degree and doctorate in education from KU in 1956 and 1960. For many years Sundby worked as an administrator in addition to teaching. She was chairman of the department of curriculum and instruction from 1976 to 1980, and assistant dean to the director of teacher education from 1981 to 1983.
Don Green
A 1985 HOPE Award finalist has managed successfully to mix research in his field with his teaching
Don Green, professor of chemical and petroleum engineering, said Friday that he was content in his career because he was allowed the freedom to tackle research projects he enjoyed.
"In industry, you're assigned research projects and you may be able to control the particular direction," he said. "But at the University, you have more flexibility."
The rule that Green has adhered to in his 21 years of dealing with KU engineering students is a simple one.
"I work hard at preparation for each class," he said.
"I don't like to fly by the seat of my pants, so to speak."
"I treat the students with respect and that is how I hope they'll treat me." he said.
Green said his enthusiasm and preparedness might be part of the reason students have nominated him for the HOPE Award five times in the past six years.
Green also has received the Gould Award four times. The award is given by engineering students to recognize excellence in undergraduate teaching.
Computers invade nearly every part of our lives today. They are being used more and more in engineering education.
Engineering educators also wonder whether students who use the computers will learn engineering concepts or merely how to push buttons. Green said,
Unfortunately, Green said, obtaining funds for such programs was a difficult problem he faced in teaching engineering
Is it hard?
"If you do that and people don't know what it is in the computer, they don't know the discipline."
Since 1974, Green has been co-director of the Tertiary Oil Recovery Project.
Green earned his bachelor's degree in petroleum engineering at the University of Tulsa in 1953. He earned his doctorate in petroleum engineering at the University of Oklahoma in 1963.
"It's the third stage of oil recovery," he said. "we use technology to try to get additional oil out of the ground."
Timothy Bengtson
The best teachers that Timothy Bengtson, associate professor of journalism, had when he was in school were enthusiastic in the classroom.
"I try to be enthusiastic in class," Bengtson said yesterday. "I think students appreciate that.
And now Bengtson, a 1985 HOPE award finalist, says his enthusiasm during classes keeps his students attentive.
"If you enjoy going into the classroom, you can expect good things to happen."
Bengtson, who has been teaching at the University for seven years, has been a HOPE award finalist four times and was a semi-finalist last year.
He said KU has a lot of good teachers. HOPE finalists are just luckier.
"The differences are slight between the finalists and all good teachers," he said.
"Advertising is a very dynamic field," he said. "I can be fresh in my approach to teaching."
However, he said, he received satisfaction from teaching on a daily basis when he sensed that students enjoyed his presentations and were learning.
Bengtson, who received the Amoco Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching in the spring, said that award and being a HOPE finalist were highlights in his career.
Bengtson taught at the University of Utah before coming to KU. He has taught at Northwestern University, where he earned a master's in advertising in 1968 and a doctorate in communication studies in 1977.
He also received bachelor's and master's degrees in business from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
When Bengtson isn't working, he said, he spends time with his wife, Kathryn, and sons, Andy, 9, and Patrick, 20 months.
"I just try to give my best," Mason said yesterday. A soft-spoken man, Mason summed up why he loved teaching in one laconic phrase.
"When you share ideas with young people, teaching never gets old."
Gary Mason, associate professor of journalism, was just busy doing one of the things he loves most—his job
"I bring reality back to students from my consulting work and they're challenged by the whole thing," he
"They're on the verge of going out and practicing engineering so they really want to learn."
Garv Mason
He uses a lot of practical examples when teaching, he said, which keep students interested in classes.
Teaching upper level undergraduates is a thrill, Swift said.
Swift received his bachelor's, master's and doctorate in chemical engineering from KU in 1953, 1957 and 1969. He also served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1953 to 1955.
"My students," he said. "Every day is a new challenge. There are never two students alike."
One finalist for the 1985 HOPE Award said that his nomination for the honor caught him by surprise.
"I live on a farm, and I think everything revolves around God," he said. "It's just natural for me."
Religion is important to Mason, he said, and he deals with it every day of his life.
Teaching awards are flattering, Swift said, because he let professors know they're doing all right.
Mason lives near Baldwin with his wife, Sally. They have two children, Sam, 18, and Heather, 14.
In 1980 one of his engineering students won first place in the American Institute of Chemical Engineers national design contest for seniors.
He received the Henry E. Gould Award for Excellence in Ungergraduate Teaching in the KU School of Engineering in 1971 and the Standard Oil Foundation Award for Excellence in Teaching at KU in 1972.
George Swift, chairman and Dean E. Ackers professor of chemical and petroleum engineering, said yesterday that coming to the University of Kansas was the best decision he ever made.
Mason's religious convictions also follow him into the classroom.
"It's like being a coach. You feel you had something to do with it."
Swift, a 1865 HOPE finalist, said teaching gave him the opportunity to work with young adults and the freedom to pursue interests in research.
"That was probably the biggest thrill of my teaching career," Swift said. "I had the pleasure of being his
Awards are important, he said, but teaching is especially rewarding when his students become successful or win awards.
George Swift
Between his Photojournalism I. JOUR 510, and Advertising Photography, JOUR 612, classes this semester, Mason said he had more than 100 students. He does his best to accommodate them.
"I preach in my class all the time about ethics because I think the next generation will have many problems because of the ease of manipulation," he said.
Mason, who teaches photography, said that because of the sophistication of new photographic technology, it had become easier than ever before to alter photographs.
"We have to build a very strong base of ethics and professionalism," he said.
"In my dealings with students, I'm very open with them," he said. "I don't have a closed door ever."
Mason has a bachelor's degree in business and a master's degree in education from Emporia State University. He taught at Emporia State from 1958 to 1963.
"It is nice to get that kind of feedback," he said. Swift shared the Society of Petroleum Engineer's Cedric K. Ferguson Medal with O.G. Kiel in 1963 for a publication on gas well performance.
"It's nice to get that kind of feedback." he said
Lee Young
Some people think that teachers who have come to the University of Kansas from the professional world do so because they want a cushy job.
But Lee Young, William Allen White distinguished professor of journalism, says he works harder now
than he ever did before he came to the University in 1964.
"The trade-off is that you really are, in a sense, an entrepreneur," he said. "You have to observe the regulations of the school you're in, but then you're pretty much free to set your own goals."
Young, a finalist for the 1985 HOPE Award, said yesterday that the long hours were a fair exchange for being his own boss.
The KU campus is a stimulating world of constant activity, he said, and working with students keeps him feeling young.
"No matter how exciting a professional job in jou-
nism is, there is always a period of monotony." Young
Young completed his undergraduate degree in American studies in 1950 at Syracuse University, Syracuse, N.Y., his hometown.
But Young wasn't satisfied with the course of his career. He sold his interest in the publishing firm, and in 1963 he came to KU to talk with the dean of education. The dean referred him to the school of journalism.
"By accident, I ended up over here doing a master's degree and teaching a course," Young said. "It wasn't anything I thought I was going to do at the time."
There has been some concern that students today value their educations only because of the lure of fat salaries after graduation. But Young said his students' attitudes haven't changed that much since he began teaching full time in 1965.
"I suppose there is a certain amount of materialism concerned in it," he said. "But I suppose it's more a concern with getting a job."