Ripon College Days

Media Credit: Photo courtesy Office of Marketing and Communications One-on-one instruction. Professor of Communication Jody Roy provides counsel to junior Liz Molitor. [Click to enlarge]

From a pool of nearly 300 nominees from all of the undergraduate institutions in Wisconsin, the 2005 Carnegie Foundation selected Associate Professor of Communication and Chair of the Department Jody Roy for the Advancement of Teaching Wisconsin Professor of the Year. The education honor was announced this week by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).

"It is always nice to be recognized for your work and I am honored to receive such a prestigious award," says Roy. "I value the fact that this award is about teaching because teaching is why I came to and why I stay at Ripon College. Students matter at this institution and I want to be part of that."

The United States Professors of the Year program, created in 1981, is the only national initiative specifically designed to recognize excellence in undergraduate teaching and mentoring. Campus provosts and academic vice presidents nominated the various candidates for the honor, and current and former students, colleagues and peers from other institutions sent letters of support.

"Jody is an excellent teacher and mentor. She is most deserving of this recognition," says President David Joyce. "This honor highlights Professor Roy's dedication to teach students and her commitment to infuse academics into the life of community. Professor Roy embodies the Ripon College tradition of student/faculty engagement."

Dean of Faculty Bill Schang also emphasizes Roy's connection with students. "Jody's impact on and involvement with our students is widely evident, and to hear former students praise her and tell how she has influenced their lives is truly exciting," he says.

"In my four years at Ripon College, no other professor has challenged me like Jody Roy," says senior Christy Olson. "She has high expectations of herself and students, alike. She is always capable of injecting energy, personal experience and what seems like endless knowledge into lectures. Jody is always looking for ways to broaden the opportunities available to her students."

Roy began at Ripon College as an assistant professor in 1992. She has written two books entitled "Love to Hate: America's Obsession with Hatred and Violence" and "Rhetorical Campaigns of the Nineteenth-Century Catholics and Anti-Catholics in America." She is currently working on her third book, which considers hate crimes and how they affect young men.

Roy has also been active in the campus community by founding and serving as executive director of Students Talking About Respect (STAR), Inc., a national, nonprofit anti-violence organization that merged with Students Against Violence Everywhere (SAVE) earlier this year.

Roy also established the Ripon Forum on Ethics and Oratory. The forum allows students to conduct the Ripon Forum on Ethics and Oratory Youth Summit in April each year.

Roy has been honored for her teaching on multiple occasions. She has received the May Bumby Severy Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Weaver Award given by the Wisconsin Communication Association to an outstanding college educator in Wisconsin, the James R. Underkofler Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching from the Wisconsin Foundation of Independent Colleges and Alliant Energy and the Jeane Robertson Outstanding Professor Award from the National Speakers Association.

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