Three professors awarded for excellence

NEW PALTZ — Three professors from the State University of New York at New Paltz have received Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence this year.

Elaine Hofstetter, an associate professor of Secondary Mathematics Education, has received a Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Faculty Service. Hofstetter’s selection for this honor recognizes her effectiveness and commitment to quality over her 18 years of service to New Paltz.

Tom Olsen and Pauline Uchmanowicz, who are both associate professors in the English Department, have received Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence in Teaching. This award recognizes those professors who perform superbly in the classroom and who garner the respect of their colleagues, students and campus president.

Hofstetter, who is the coordinator of graduate and undergraduate secondary mathematics education, has previously received an Excellence in Leadership Award and an Educator of the Year Award. Also, as the assistant dean of accreditation for the School of Education, she led the school in the preparation for national accreditation over the last two-and-a-half years — a process that involved extensive collaboration with the Liberal Arts faculty, public school teachers and administrators and alumni and current students.

Hofstetter has served as Secondary Education Department Chair (1993) and Summer Chair (1993, 1996-2003). She has served on such faculty groups as NCATE Coordinator of the Professional Education Unit, Ten County Mathematics Educators Association, Association of Mathematics Teachers of New York State, and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

Hofstetter came to New Paltz in 1986. She received her bachelor’s from SUNY Buffalo and her master’s from the Teacher’s College at Columbia University.

“I am honored to receive the first Chancellor’s Award for Faculty Service here at SUNY New Paltz,” said Hofstetter. “Most important, I thank my students for their desire to help me learn, their desire to learn from me, and their commitment to our program.”

Olsen has previously received a Research and Creative Project Travel Award, and a Multimedia/Instructional Technology Development Award. In 1998, he was the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Fellow at Yale University, and before that he was the Presidential Fellow at Ohio State.

Olsen has a book coming out this fall, titled “The Commonplace Book of Sir John Strangways 1645-1666.” He has also published articles, encyclopedia entries and book reviews in the field of early modern studies.

Olsen teaches English Literature and Shakespeare at New Paltz, where he joined the faculty in 1997. He received a cum Laude bachelor’s in English from Yale, a master’s in Elizabethan and Jacobean studies from the University of Kent in Canterbury, England, and a Ph.D. in English from Ohio State University.

“For me, this award is mostly about the institution recognizing that teaching and interacting with students, both undergraduate and graduate, really is our core mission,” said Olsen. “It’s also about working in a congenial, supportive department that took the time and effort to nominate me.”

Uchmanowicz, who is also the director of Writing Across the Curriculum and a member of the University Writing Board, has previously received the University Graduate Fellowship from the University of Rhode Island in 1992 and a University Research Grant Program Award from Wayne State University in 1996. In addition, she received a SUNY New Paltz Athletes Faculty Appreciation Award in 2002.

Uchmanowicz’s scholarly publications include articles in “College English,” “Writing Program Administration,” and “Writing on the Edge.” Her poetry and essays have appeared in Ploughshares, Crazyhorse, New American Writing, Z Magazine and elsewhere. She is a regular feature writer for local magazines such as the Chronogram, Upstate House, and Catskill Region Guide. In addition, she is also a food columnist for The Woodstock Times.

“I am honored to receive a teaching award and thank all of the students who have helped me learn and grow as an instructor during my eight years at SUNY New Paltz,” said Uchmanowicz. “I also appreciate support of my departmental colleagues and our current and former chairs, as well as that of the college administration.”