Faculty, Staff Receive Bruce. B. Stewart Awards

Guilford presented the Bruce B. Stewart Awards for Teaching Excellence and Community Service to faculty members Jeff Jeske and Eric Mortensen and to staff member Norma Middleton at the college’s Spring Awards Convocation on Wednesday, April 9.

The cash awards for teaching and advising excellence (faculty) and community service (staff) honor one tenured faculty member, one junior/non-tenured faculty member and one staff member. In addition, the Bruce Stewart Scholarship is presented to first-year students based on financial need and merit.

Jeske, the Charles A. Dana Professor of English, joined the Guilford faculty in 1986. In addition to teaching courses in literature, writing, journalism and film, Jeske is the faculty adviser to The Guilfordian, the college’s award-winning student newspaper. He served on the curriculum revision committee that established the college’s current curriculum, and edited the college catalog for several years. Jeske has twice won Guilford’s Excellence in Teaching Award.

Mortensen is an assistant professor of religious studies, focusing on East Asian religion and comparative religion. He has applied for and won grants that funded student and faculty research trips to China and Nepal, and also advises students wishing to study abroad in Asia. He served on the committee that oversaw Guilford’s Year of Spirit and Spirituality (2005-06), and was instrumental in the development of the Center for Principled Problem Solving, which opened last fall. He received one of the Center’s pilot project grants for “Building Bridges,” a program to build relationships between faculty and athletics teams.

Middleton, who joined Guilford’s staff in 1973, is the college registrar. In this capacity she interacts with every member of the academic community, coordinating course registration, processing grades, maintaining academic records and certifying students for graduation. The registrar’s office also monitors academic policy and communicates these procedures to students, faculty, staff and alumni.

The annual awards were funded by a $1 million gift from trustee and Guilford alumnus Bill Soles, his sister and alumna Jan Soles and their father, the late W. Roger Soles. The Soles' gift honors alumnus Stewart, a 1961 graduate who has served his alma mater as chair of the Board of Trustees, provost and director of the Richardson Fellows Program, among other roles. Stewart recently retired as head of school of Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C.

April 9, 2008