SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher has announced the recipients of the 2014-15 Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Adjunct Teaching, and SUNY New Paltz adjunct faculty member James DeArce ‘00g has been recognized as one of the awardees.
“Adjunct teachers across the SUNY campuses provide consistently excellent instruction and are a key component of our faculty as we seek to increase access, completion, and success among students,” said Chancellor Zimpher. “Those honored with this year’s award have demonstrated extraordinary dedication to their students and an exceptional commitment to quality teaching. Congratulations, and thank you, to all of the honorees.”
DeArce earned his master’s degree in sociology from the College in 2000, and immediately began working as an adjunct in the sociology department. Over 15 years he has taught courses including Sociology of Families, Medical Sociology, Sociological Theory and Social Inequality in the United States.
DeArce has also continually furthered his education. He studied and later taught comparative social welfare in Germany, and also trained in disaster mental health care at Ben Gurion University in Israel through the SUNY New Paltz Institute of Disaster Mental Health. In 2014 he earned a degree in nursing from SUNY Ulster, and in addition to teaching at New Paltz, DeArce works as a registered nurse at Kingston Hospital.
“I’ve tried to share my experiences outside the classroom with my students, and to help them apply core sociological concepts to issues that affect their lives and communities,” DeArce said. “I feel fortunate that my department has given me opportunities to develop new classes and grow as a teacher, and I hope other departments offer similar opportunities to their adjuncts.”
About the Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence
The Awards are presented annually in seven categories: Faculty Service, Librarianship, Professional Service, Scholarship and Creative Activities, Teaching, Classified Service, and Adjunct Teaching.
The Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence are System-level honors conferred to acknowledge and provide system-wide recognition for consistently superior professional achievement and to encourage the ongoing pursuit of excellence. Individuals selected for this honor are role models within the SUNY community.
These programs underscore SUNY’s commitment to sustaining intellectual vibrancy, advancing the boundaries of knowledge, providing the highest quality of instruction, and serving the public good. Through these awards, SUNY publicly proclaims its pride in the accomplishment and personal dedication of its instructional faculty, librarians, and professional staff across its campuses.
More information about the Chancellor’s Awards is available here.
