Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 3, 1991 TAG: 9104030384
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: New River Valley bureau
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Gov. Douglas Wilder will present awards to James I. Robertson Jr., who has won eight certificates of teaching excellence, and William E. Snizek, who has won the W.E. Wine and Alumni teaching awards.
Yeu Pyng Hwu of Wytheville Snizek Community College also will be honored.
"The Outstanding Faculty Awards program recognizes excellent college and university faculty from the state-supported and independent institutions," said Gordon K. Davies, director of the Council of Higher Education. "The competition for the awards is always strong, as it certainly was this year."
Faculty members are nominated for the honor by their schools, and a committee of higher-education council members, business and community leaders, faculty and past recipients makes the selections. This year, 81 nominees from 37 schools were considered.
Robertson's Civil War Institute draws students from across the country. He is the author of 22 books and dozens of articles. The New York Civil War Round Table in 1987 recognized his biography of Confederate Gen. A.P. Hill as the outstanding Civil War book of the year.
His "Soldiers Blue and Gray" was a finalist in 1989 for the Pulitzer Prize in American History. He is working on a biography of Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson.
Robertson, a Virginia native, received his bachelor's degree from Randolph Macon College in Ashland and his master's and doctoral degrees from Emory University in Atlanta. He was appointed by the governor to the State Historic Records Board in 1989.
Snizek, who teaches more than 600 students a year in his sociology classes, received the sociology department's Undergraduate Teaching Award and nine College of Arts and Sciences Certificates of Teaching Excellence.
Last fall, in recognition of his dedication to students, he received the Polished Apple Teaching Award from Mortar Board, the national senior honor society.
He developed the "Sociological IQ Test," which is used by students throughout the U.S., and recently has completed design of a teaching mentor program for Tech.
Snizek received a bachelor's degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He came to Virginia Tech in 1972 after receiving a doctorate from Penn State.
Hwu has taught physics at the Wytheville college since 1964. He was named the college's teacher of the year in 1972, and in 1983 he was awarded the college's first Improvement of Instruction award for starting the electronics technology program. the college presented him with the first Distinguished Service Award for Faculty in 1990.
Hwu received his bachelor's degree in Taiwan and received his doctorate from Tech.
by CNB