Lancy named Professor of Year
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) named David Lancy, professor, the 2001 Utah Professor of the Year.
He was selected from 384 faculty members nominated by colleges and universities throughout the country, according to CASE.
“I had many reactions,” Lancy said. “At first it was disbelief when the letter came. It didn’t sink in. There was also some sadness that I’ve not kept in touch with some of students that I would like to share this with.
“It’s so great. As word has gotten out, people have been really nice to call and write. It’s like having a birthday,” he said
Lancy said he started his teaching career in 1986 when he taught economics and psychology to African students in Liberia. He later taught in Pennsylvania.
“My German classroom backed up to a railway siding so vocal versus silent recitation was determined by the passage of trains out back,” Lancy said. “I loved it, and a pattern was set- teaching has always been for me a high-risk occupation.”
Lancy came to Utah State University in 1992 and began teaching Introduction to Anthropology. He said he quickly learned that students did not like working in groups and set out to remedy the problem. Lancy soon came up with a pedagogical approach that was published in College Teaching.
David is always asking himself, “How can I engage my students,” said Stan L. Albrecht, executive vice president and provost.
Lancy said he started bringing props, such as an inflated Egyptian mummy case and a timeline that stretched clear around the Quad, to his Introduction to Anthropology course with the hopes of engaging his students.
“His teaching style is advanced and diverse,” Melissa Weber, a student in his class, said. “It makes learning so much easier and gives us more assets to draw from.”
Frances B. Titchner, history professor said, “[Lancy] is curious about everything and he brings the same intensity and rigor of inquiry to his classes that he brings to research.
Out of these classes has grown an interactive CD-ROM called Whose Mummy Is It?'”
She said he enlisted the help of students and took them to Egypt to do on-site photography.
A comment posted by one of his students on his on-line discussion forum said, “The Whose Mummy CD is really a big hit at our house. My 18-year-old high school senior is enjoying it very much. In fact I have to fight him for it to do part of the assignments with it.”
Lancy is also the director for the Honors Program at USU. Titchner said he worked out many of the problems and made some much needed changes in the department.
Jeff Williams, a junior in anthropology, said, “Dr. Lancy has always been a very approachable person. He doesn’t set the air that he is above us and he’s not out to set himself up as a man, that’s commendable.”
Jenn Cummings, a student in his class said, “He’s willing to correspond with us over e-mail and help us out individually.”
Jess Harker, another student, said she was nervous about taking Lancy’s honor course at first but was quickly put at ease.
“Dr. Lancy is so friendly and willing to help if you are struggling. And even when you aren’t, he is totally willing to just talk about any concerns you may have – in class or outside of it. And once he gets to know you a bit, he is totally willing to look out for things that may interest you,” she said.
“David is truly a great friend, researcher, teacher and colleague all around,” said David Debry, a member of the team that put together Whose Mummy Is It?; “His energy, wisdom and knowledge has helped me and many other students accomplish our goals. His main ambition in line is to help education and his students, and he works tirelessly at it.”
Harker said, “What makes him so effective as a professor is that he is so enthusiastic about what he is teaching. He loved learning it himself, and loves learning more about it, and wants the world to share the knowledge he has found.”