The DePauw, October 24, 1997

              THE
WNW.newspaper.depauw.edu RoyO. W
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OBITUARY
Retired Engli sh professor
Kathl een Steele dies at
67.
Page 3
Friday, October 24, 1997
est Library
Indiana 's Oldest College Newspaper Volume 146, Number 11
Berque wins
national honors
by Jon Fortt
As Dave Berque worked in
his well -o rganized ollice
Wednesday aftern oon some stu ­dents
passed th rough, orfering
the U.S. Professor of the Year
their computer sc ience home­wflrk
and their congratu lations.
A couple of them had forgot­ten
to staple their papers, so
Berque gave them paper clips out
of the right corner of his desk
drawer. The 33-ycar old profes­sor
was re laxed, but he was on a
strict sched ule. Berque said he
hat! ca lculated that to catch his
plane to Was hington, DC, he
would have to leave at exac tly
4: 15 p.m.
The Council for Advanccmcnt
and SUpPOI'! of Educati on
hestowed its hi ghest honor upon
Berque in the Gannet Towcr in
Arli ngton, Va. last night, the only
national award that honors the
hest w ll ege educators. The
Carnegic Foundation for the
Advancement of Teaching pro­vided
a $5,000 cash award.
Berque got the proressor or the
year award ror work with under­graduates.
Thrce other prorcssors were
honored ror work with comllluni­ty
coll ege, master's and doctorate
program students. Colleges in 48
states submilled a total of about
600 cand idates for the awards.
O'ne thing that set lJerque
aparl rrom the pack was a project
hc's been toying with in one rorm
or another si nce he came to
DePauw live years ago. II 's an
elec tro nic blackboa rd, which
transmits a professor's writing on
the wall to students' laptops.
lJerque said the co ncept is horn
in the idea that if students are
spend ing all of their time copying
down notes, they can't interact
and learning suffers.
''I'm a big heli ever in com­puter-
enhanced educati on, as
opposed 10 w mputcr education,"
he said. "The thing that I'm most
proud of wi th that project isn't
the electronic hlackboard itselr,
it 's thut so lIIuny undcrgruduutcs
took pari in that."
Close to students
Fourleen undergraduates
have helped Berque with the pro­ject,
rrom rethinking its purpose
to des igning and programming its
re'llures. One of those students,
junior Mall Ruel, said working
with lJerque isn't like working
wi th his other proressors.
"II 's beller ,tlmn that ," Ruel
said. "It's easy to work for him,
because he's obviously con­cerned
about your general well ­being
as a student, not just your
perrormance in his class."
He said lJerque pays close
attention to hi s students at a level
where he can tell when they
understand the material, or when
they mi ght be having trouble out­side
or his class.
Sa BERQUE, PAGE 8
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PHOTO BY JON FORn
Computer Science Professor David Berque sometimes
uses laptops like this one and an 'electronic blackboard'
to enhance communication in the classroom.
Making a name for DePauw G
Bottoms will bring trustees new
plan to boost academic reputation
by J.K. Wall
DePauw's Board of
Trustees is expec ted, at its
mee ting today, to hear
Pres ident lJottoms's plan for
catapulting the University into
the top tier of liberal arls
schools.
ited BOlloms from initiating
any academic plans berore
now. Fierce competition for
students forced DePauw to
spend more Illoney on finan cial
aid. To do so DePauw had to
spend more of the annual inter­est
rrom the endowment.
Subsequently, the endowmcnt
did not grow enough each year.
"If you comparc' our
endowment to other high qual­ity
universities, we've been
behind," Bottoms said.
end owlTlent. The camp,lIgn
currently has $127 million in
pledges and cash and has an
eve ntual goal or $153 milli on.
The campaign will run until
the year 2000. 1J0ttoms hopes
the goal is met in the next year
so the remai ning yea rs can be
used rai sing money for new
programs.
Bottoms wants to push
DePauw toward the ranks of
schools such as Swarthmore,
Amherst, Carl eton and
lJowduin. To ac hieve thi s end,
Bottoms is recommending to
the board in a report that
DePauw build on certain cur­rent
key strength s. These
include the music school, the
honors and fell ows programs,
sc ience edu cati on, technology
and raculty.
The trustees will beg in to
de ~e lop u. strategy ror
improvement by' PrlOrlllZlIlg
the list. Bottoms said devclop­ment
or the faculty will be a
ve ry high priorit y. Hiring wcll­known
professors away from
other uni versi ti es, giving pro­fessors
more opportunities for
research and more opportuni ­ties
for se nior professors to
update themse lves are somc or
the poss ibilities.
Financial strain has inhib-
At last fa ll 's Board or
, Trustees meetin g, a fund drive
was started to increase the
"We are beginning to be
successrul enough [with the
fund drive], that we're begin­ning
to talk about rai sing
moncy to improve the academ­ic
program," 1J01l0ms said.
SEE TRUSTEES, PAGE 3