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The David J. Prior Award was created in 2012 to recognize senior-level undergraduates whose academic careers and future goals have been shaped by the transformative power of the liberal arts and sciences experience at a COPLAC institution. Each student's reflective personal essay highlights one or more of the following features of COPLAC's student-centered approach to teaching: emphasis on active learning, ethical reasoning, interdisciplinary approaches to knowledge, community engagement, critical and reflective skills, and connections between liberal learning and informed, active citizenship.
The legacy of David Prior - his career-long commitment to superior undergraduate teaching, his desire as a consortium leader to make the outcomes of an education at our public liberal arts institutions widely recognized, and his deep concern that all students, regardless of financial circumstances, have equal access to a high-quality education anchored in the liberal arts and sciences - is the inspiration for this award.
Micaela Reiss is a senior History and Anthropology student at Truman State University. She has enjoyed being a member of the Truman community as a leader in the astronomy club, the Cultural and Societal Honors society, and the Historical Society. After graduation, Micaela intends to pursue a Master of Arts in Museum Anthropology, in order to further her understanding of the museum as an interdisciplinary space.
Read her essay here.
Ava Weber, University of Minnesota Morris (read their essay here)
The COPLAC Board of Directors, in memory of the contributions of Charles Dunn to the advancement of the consortium and to student success in the public liberal arts sector, had established an annual faculty award in his name.
As President of Henderson State University for twenty-two years, and as a COPLAC President (2000-2001) and Board member for ten years, Dr. Charles Dunn placed student well-being and academic success ahead of all else, affirming Henderson State University's reputation as the "School with a Heart."
Charles Dunn understood that members of the faculty play the essential role in advancing this mission. Therefore the COPLAC Award recognizes a faculty member whose commitment to student success goes "above and beyond" the classroom and office, the traditional roles of teacher, academic advisor, and mentor. She/he will have demonstrated, over the course of many years, extraordinary attention to students as individuals who sometimes face unique challenges, both on and off campus, that may compromise their academic performance.
Examples of student-centered service "above and beyond" are myriad and include: hosting an undergraduate who would otherwise be alone for the holidays, stepping in to assist with transportation to the airport or for a medical appointment, or extending a gesture of friendship when a loved one has been lost. The review committee seeks to recognize a COPLAC faculty colleague who consistently practices the vision of a public liberal arts campus as a community dedicated to learning on a human scale.
A member of the faculty at the University of Minnesota - Morris since 2002, Jenn Goodnough is an Associate Professor of Chemistry and Chair of the University of Minnesota Faculty Consultative Committee. Prior to becoming a faculty member at UMN-Morris, she completed her doctoral work in analytical chemistry at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She earned bachelor degrees in chemistry and mathematics at St. Francis University (PA). She has been honored with the UMN Systemwide John Tate Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Advising (2013), Vickie R. Courtney Award for Outstanding Service to University Senate Governance (2020), and most recently the UMN-Morris Alumni Association Teaching Award (2023). She has a research program which actively engages undergraduate students including three dozen students (now alumni) who have formally presented their research, many at American Chemical Society national meetings.
Dr. Goodnough is a gifted relationship builder. She has understood that the relationships are the key to supporting students' success both as undergraduates and as they launch into life. Student lives are interwoven into their time at Morris and Dr. Goodnough leverages her relationships to help students navigate their life/class/work balances. Given the connections between chemistry and food, it is no surprise to find food woven into the way Dr. Goodnough creates the basic building blocks of those relationships with her students in the classroom (throwing chocolates to demonstrate kinetics) and, more importantly, outside (hosting Thanksgiving dinners and end-of-year picnics).
Dr. Taylor Elsey, Georgia College & State University