Campus Connection

UW-L receives third Regents' Teaching Excellence award since 2012

[caption id="attachment_39571" align="alignright" width="899"] The Mathematics Department consists of more than 30 teacher-scholars who are dedicated to excellence in education.[/caption] The UW System Board of Regents has selected UW-La Crosse’s Mathematics Department to receive the Regents' 2015 Teaching Excellence Award for academic departments and programs. Only one department in the UW System receives the award annually. The award recognizes exceptional commitment and effectiveness in teaching. It will be presented Friday, April 10, at the Board of Regents meeting at UW-Waukesha. “We’ve always felt that we have a great department that is very student-centered,” says Rebecca LeDocq, math department chair. “Recently, the UW-L student organization Students Advocating Potential Ability recognized us as the most accessible department at UW-L, so it’s great to have this external validation coming from both sides — our students and our colleagues.” This is not the only time UW-L’s teaching staff has received the Regent’s award in recent years. UW-L’s Biology Department earned the Regents’ teaching excellence departmental award in 2013 and UW-L Mathematics Professor Jennifer Kosiak won the Regent's individual teaching award in 2012. Also, UW-L faculty have been named “Wisconsin Teacher of the Year” for three of the last four years by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. Those professors are Greg Wegner, History; Victor Macías-González, History; and Scott Cooper, Biology. “It’s no exaggeration to say we have some of the most talented and dedicated teachers in the world here on the UW-L campus,” says UW-L Chancellor Joe Gow.