WVU?s top faculty, staff, and student-researchers have gathered tonight for a discussion about what motivates them and inspires them in the classrooms and laboratories. The event is being hosted by President Mike Garrison at his home, Blaney House.

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Welcome to Blaney House, home of the WVU President and site of tonight?s forum with faculty, staff, and students. President Mike Garrison opened this evening’s forum reflecting on some of the influential faculty members he had as mentors while a student at WVU.

WVU senior Matt Delligatti and President Mike Garrison

“I feel I owe a debt of gratitude to the faculty of WVU. My mentors changed everything about my experience here on campus,” said Garrison.

He introduced a number of his former faculty members who are in attendance this evening: Dr Bill French, retired faculty from the Department of English; Dr. Carolyn Atkins, speech pathology and audiology professor; Dr. Robert DiClerico, political science professor; and Professor Vincent Cardi from the WVU College of Law.

To open the conversation, President Garrison asked the faculty members in attendance what they had learned from their students and what they get from teaching.

Some of the responses included:

• April Kaull, 1995 graduate of the Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism—“I have the enviable position of being an adjunct professor now. One of the things I get from teaching is a renewed understanding of what I do in my ?real? job.”

• Dr. Robert DiClerico—“It would be the height of arrogance to assume that if you have 45 minds in the classroom that you aren?t going to learn from those 45 minds. I have had students say things that flat-out never occurred to me. They can help you take yourself to another place in your thinking, or they can tell you something that flat-out didn?t occur to you.”

• Dr. Lisa DeFrank-Cole, Program Coordinator, The Honors College – “People respond more when you treat people on the same level—it?s more of an exchange of ideas back and forth.”

Dr. Robert DiClerico, Eberly Professor of Political Science

Dr. Lisa DeFrank-Cole, The Honors College

Dr. Jonathan Cumming, Assistant Vice President for Graduate Education

Dr. Carolyn Atkins, Professor of Speech Pathology and Audiology

Then President Garrison asked students, “What makes a good teacher?”

Their responses included:

• Phoenicia Keffer, integrated marketing communication student and full-time WVU employee—“Our professors make sure we get the most current, up-to-date professors to teach us and we learn so much. That draws our interest and keeps us interested in the program.”

• Deva Solomon, law student—“The faculty at this U show an enthusiasm for life. I think that is something that is very, very special.”

• Andrea Chuby, elementary education student —“Understanding that all of these people coming to you have different ways of learning is very important.”

• Ellen Culler, graduate student—“Something that makes a good teacher is to be a permanent learner. You have to continually realize there are new things out there to learn.”

Jason Staples, educational leadership doctoral student, commented about his experiences as both a teacher and a student

Foreign Languages professor Michael Lastinger thanked the excellent mentors his daughter had as a student at WVU

James Bailey, junior political science major, who said a mentor is someone who recognizes students are not understanding something and works and works to get his or her students to understand a concept

Raj Shenoy, School of Dentistry student, talked about mentors he has found in the School of Dentistry

President Garrison closed the forum, saying, “It certainly has been my privilege to be here in this room with you tonight. I think we all know what great faculty we have here, but it was my intention to stop and celebrate it, to talk about it, to memorialize it as a University, and I think we should do that more as a University.”

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