‘Doc’ Lyle McNeal wins excellence in teaching award
Known as “Doc” by his students, professor Lyle McNeal’s hands-on approach to teaching and his total dedication to his students have made him the kind of teacher he is today.
Mark Healey, department head of the animal science department, says McNeal’s character has led the way for him to become one of two recipients of a national teaching award.
McNeal, a professor in the animal, dairy and veterinary science (ADVS) department at Utah State University, received the Excellence in College and University Teaching in the Food and Agricultural Sciences Award in November. The award is sponsored by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges. Nominees are chosen based on four areas: Their ability as classroom teachers, use of innovative teaching techniques, service to students and to their profession, and scholarship.
McNeal said he uses a hands-on approach to teaching because that’s how students really learn – by doing.
McNeal takes his students on field trips all around the western United States, giving them opportunities to work with many different animals, Healey said.
“The real fun of teaching in our field is getting outside at the farms and ranches, working – getting dirty and cold and bloody and sore. Kids remember that,” McNeal said.
In addition to his on-the-farm teaching method, McNeal is known for his attitude toward students, Healey said. Students come to see McNeal for help with problems ranging from class and advising matters to personal problems. Anytime McNeal is in his office, he’s got his door open and has students talking to him, Healey said.
“It’s more than just being a professor,” said Tammy Spackman, academic adviser for the ADVS department. “He’s their mentor and their friend.”
McNeal said he has an open-door policy with his students, even allowing them to call him at home whenever they need help.
“It doesn’t end here, it starts here,” McNeal said, in reference to his relationship with his students. “These students are hopefully my eternal friends.”
Although McNeal loves teaching and animals, he said his real love is the American West. He has a special love for the American Indians, a feeling that developed as he saw how Native Americans were treated in his youth, he said. He remembers going to a movie with a friend who was Native American, he said, and that his friend wasn’t allowed to sit in the same section as him or buy candy at the theater. He described seeing a Native American woman giving birth in a corner of a hospital parking lot after the hospital wouldn’t admit her because of the color of her skin.
Those experiences and an admonition from his grandfather to “do something good for the Native Americans,” made his time working with the Navajo Indian’s sheep meaningful for him, he said. In the 1990s, McNeal used his knowledge to help keep the Navajo’s sheep from becoming extinct. He said it meant a lot to him because sheep are so spiritually important to the Navajos. Because of his work he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Navajo Nations, becoming the only white man to ever receive that honor, he said.
Although the “sheepman” teaches 12 months out of the year, he does a lot more than just teach, Spackman said. He is the adviser of the sheep club on campus and was influential in getting it started last year. He is also in charge of the internship program for the department. Because he knows so many people in the animal industry, he is instrumental in helping students get involved in an area they want to be in after they graduate, she said.
Another thing McNeal is involved in is judging animals at state and county fairs all over the West, Spackman said. While he’s judging he talks to students, she said, and encourages them to come to USU, making him one of the department’s best recruiters.
“I know for a fact there are a couple [of students] that are here now because of Dr. McNeal,” Spackman said.
McNeal said receiving the national award is a reflection not only on him, but also on the great teachers and faculty at USU.
“It was an honor to represent Utah State,” McNeal said.
-anihan@cc.usu.edu