Paul Christesen '88, assistant professor of classics at Dartmouth, was named the New Hampshire Professor of the Year by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching on Thursday. Each year CASE honors four professors nationally and several Aon the state level for their commitment to undergraduate teaching. They focus on criteria including professors' involvement with students, scholarly approach to teaching and learning, contributions to the undergraduate institution and recommendations from colleagues and current and former students. According to Dean of Faculty Carol Folt, Christesen is known for forming strong relationships with his students and for creating discussion groups and atmospheres that allow students to speak on academic and personal topics. "More than anything else, this award is a reflection of the fact that Dartmouth is an ideal environment for teaching and for learning and a recognition of the outstanding quality of Dartmouth's faculty and student body," Christesen said.
Dartmouth College and the University of New Hampshire received a $100,000 grant from the Davis Educational Foundation in order to support a collaborative effort between universities aimed at meeting environmental health and safety requirements at the local, state and federal levels, according to RedOrbit.com. The three-year grant will fund the New Hampshire College, an organization focused on supporting higher education in the state, and the University Compliance Assistance Cooperative, which includes the 16 member institutions of the New Hampshire College. "UNH and Dartmouth have been sharing resources successfully for more than six years, and with support from the Davis Educational Foundation we can now expand our efforts," Michael Blayney, director of environmental health and safety at Dartmouth, said. The money will be used to conduct audits of institutions to identify areas that need improvement to meet the regulatory standards of the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The long-term goal of the cooperative is to create an environmental management system for all New Hampshire colleges and universities. The environmental management system, in turn, will focus on issues such as lowering the use of hazardous material sources and forming sustainability purchasing guidelines.
Justin May '00 is a new addition to the band Professors of Bluegrass, a six-member group of Yale University faculty and alumni created by former Yale Dean Peter Salovey and fellow psychology professor Kelly Brownell in the early 1990s. Although the band gained in popularity, the departure of several members in the mid-1990s prompted the group break up. With the addition of new and returning members, the group is now reentering the music scene.