November 2005 Stories

Jerry Gray: 2005 Oregon Professor of the Year

Jerry Gray wants everyone to know that all the fuss is a bit embarrassing.

Recently named the 2005 Oregon Professor of the Year, Gray is quite humbled by the honor. “There are dozens of people on our campus who could win this award if they were the University’s nominee,” he says. “I have so much respect for what other people are able to accomplish in their classrooms, and I’m always trying to learn from them.”

At an institution known for its commitment to excellence in teaching, Gray, professor of economics, stands out for “teaching a difficult and demanding subject to a wide range of undergraduates with extraordinary effectiveness,” says Carol Long, dean of the College of Liberal Arts.

Gray is cited for his innovative teaching and his ability to make economics relevant to students’ daily lives. Kaitlin Marousis ’05 says, “One of the clearest examples in my mind was his discussion of Willamette’s parking situation as it related to concepts of supply and demand.”

Students and faculty alike praise Gray for his enthusiasm, dedication and humor, and he is legendary on the Willamette campus for the countless hours he spends outside the classroom and beyond his own teaching schedule to help students learn. During Gray’s recent sabbatical, according to Claire Reinert ’05, a number of students had difficulty in a required statistics class and pleaded with Gray for help. “After taking a poll to schedule days and times, it was decided that the weekend worked best. Jerry, being the person he is, agreed without a trace of reluctance or hesitation. So both Saturday and Sunday morning, a group of us spent numerous hours in a classroom going over the key elements of statistics, which were especially pertinent to those majoring in economics.”

The choice to pursue economics, Gray says, was something of an accident. Needing to register for one more class at the University of Santa Clara, Gray asked someone on his dorm floor what he was taking. “He was so sold on an econ major that his enthusiasm was both odd and inspiring,” Gray recalls, “so I took economics.”

Finding he did well in the subject, Gray thought an economics major would prepare him for following his father’s footsteps and going to law school. It was as a junior, when he returned to the University of Utah for a year to save money, that his professors encouraged him to consider graduate school and a career in teaching. “I thought the idea of teaching was crazy,” he says. “I get nervous speaking in front of groups, so teaching did not seem like a great career move until I came to think of my teaching as a conversation. You really see your work reflected immediately in these conversations. It’s nice to see that light go on. I’ll explain something and a student will say, ‘Why didn’t you say that before,’ and you swear you have said it a hundred times before, but this time it was a new conversation and prompted a new response.”

The Oregon Professor of the Year Award is given by the Carnegie Foundation and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. Seven Willamette University faculty have been awarded this honor: Frances Chapple, chemistry, 1990; Mary Ann Youngren, psychology, 1991; Roger Hull, art history, 1993; Arthur Payton, chemistry, 1994; Daniel Montague, physics, 1995; William Duvall, history, 1998; and Suresht Bald, politics, 2003.

“To my mind and in the eyes of his students and colleagues,” President M. Lee Pelton wrote in his letter of recommendation, “Jerry Gray belongs in this group. He shares his colleagues’ passion for education, and, like them, he has fostered in his students an enthusiasm for learning that is the essence of education.”

“It’s a special honor to be recognized for doing something you care so much about doing well and find so rewarding.” Gray says. “The award is a great gift.”

Nikki Hunter ’02: Journey to Africa Opens Eyes

Willamette grad teaches kids and adults while learning about apartheid and AIDS

Nikki Hunter didn't plan to hitchhike across South Africa, but the Keizer native did it — twice. During her vacation time from serving more than two years in the Peace Corps in Namibia, Hunter traveled all over Africa.

"Africa's not that dark and mean place that it's portrayed as," Hunter said. "You really don't learn much about African history (in the United States)."

Hunter, who graduated from Willamette University in 2002 with degrees in communications and history, always has had a fascination with Africa. "I've always wanted to go to Africa since I was a child," she said.

She and her sister, Lindsay, who worked in a dive shop in Mozambique at the same time that Nikki was in Namibia, plan to return to Africa next spring.

Despite her knowledge and curiosity about history that motivated her to major in the subject, Hunter still was not prepared for the aftermath of apartheid, legal segregation imposed by the Dutch in Namibia. "I'm white. I was seen as rich, more affluent," Hunter said.

Some locals would assume she was an Afrikaner, or a South African of European ancestry, because of her blond hair and blue eyes. Her realization was just one part of the education that guided her experience.

She learned while teaching, too. Hunter taught English, advanced-education courses to adults and HIV/sexual-health education at a hostel school in her village of Opuwo. The school had about 300 children. Sometimes in the hostels, children had to sleep three to a bed. "Living conditions for the children were terrible," Hunter said.

Her classes averaged about 40 children. "One hug can make their entire week," she said.

It was an interesting juxtaposition: to teach children in Africa while discussing teaching with her own fifth-grade teacher, Linda Reynolds of Clear Lake Elementary School in Keizer. "I admire her for taking on that task [of teaching in Africa]," Reynolds said. AIDS is a rampant problem in Africa. One of the teachers at Hunter's school died of the disease. "It was such a challenge for her because the rules were so different; students were dying, parents were dying of AIDS," Reynolds said.

In their correspondence, Reynolds confessed that Hunter's situation was unlike her’s. "I didn't quite know what to write back to her. I was looking at my career and what my experience is," Reynolds said. "Connect with kids and learn from them as much as they learn from you."

What Hunter did was to help her hometown of Keizer and her new village of Opuwo connect through books. Reynolds' students sent books to Hunter's class, and they were amazed that their efforts could help. "They were tickled that those books made it far away," Reynolds said.

This story was written by Daniela Velázquez for the Statesman Journal and appeared on November 1, 2005.

© 2005, The Statesman Journal. Reprinted with permission.

Tim Stumhofer: Measuring 37

When Oregonians voted for Measure 37, few knew they were opening a Pandora’s Box of land use problems. Tim Stumhofer ’06 set out to determine how the controversial measure would impact transportation planning. What he found put him on the road to a career that will shape future communities.

“I wanted to look at urban transportation policy in light of Measure 37,” says the Willamette University senior politics major. “In the past, transportation planning has been a key part of Oregon’s strict land use planning. Measure 37 has the potential to undermine a wide range of land use policies.”

Measure 37, which has recently been set aside – at least temporarily – by the courts, mandates that landowners be compensated for any loss of value their property sustains as a result of changes in land use laws. For instance, if someone purchased a piece of property with the intention of subdividing it for development and later land use laws prohibited dividing the land, the government must pay the landowner for the difference in the land’s value. Or they must allow the landowner to divide and develop the land.

To fund his research, Stumhofer applied for and won a prestigious Carson Undergraduate Research Grant. The $3,000 Carson stipend is designed to encourage original research or work outside the classroom. Stumhofer also arranged a month-long internship with 1,000 Friends of Oregon, a Portland non-profit that has played a large part in shaping Oregon’s land use policies.

“The group 1,000 Friends is basically an advocacy law firm,” he explains. “I worked for one of their lawyers. Because there is so much confusion about what property devaluation means under Measure 37, 1,000 Friends wanted me to work on establishing a stronger definition of what devaluation means.”

Stumhofer’s job involved talking with appraisers and state economists and researching property deeds and chains of ownership to find comparable uses for properties. While the work was sometimes tedious, he found his colleagues inspiring.

“1,000 Friends has been a big player in land use planning and working for them was such a good experience. Every day, even casual conversations over lunch were educational for me.”

For his Carson research project, Stumhofer focused on the impact Measure 37 has on planning roadway bypasses and interchanges. “When ODOT builds a road, they try to control the traffic stream at the exits so that it doesn’t become too congested. All of this is guided by state land use planning goals. For my project, I looked at the Newberg-Dundee bypass that the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) currently has in the final planning stages.”

Stumhofer says he discovered that, if implemented, Measure 37 could totally disrupt transportation planning. “Given the current regulations under Measure 37, land owners around interchanges could develop the land as they wished. Ultimately, it’s not a sustainable way to build roads. We’re going to have to put caps or sunset clauses on this legislation or the effects of Measure 37 will be more broad-reaching than you can imagine.”

While the fate of Measure 37 is in the hands of the courts, Stumhofer feels good that his work may contribute to understanding some of the complex issues involved. At 1,000 Friends, he summed up his land valuation work in a comment letter he filed with one of the agency’s attorney’s. The letter may be used in future court cases. “I went home every day feeling like I was doing something worthwhile.”

He hopes his Carson research paper will have an impact too. “The results of my research aren’t a surprise. My goal was to be able to put all this information into a package you could present to someone.”

That research and his experience with 1,000 Friends will certainly have long-term effects on Stumhofer. “Working at 1,000 Friends affirmed my decision to pursue a law degree or a combination law and public policy degree. I’d like to help curb urban sprawl. I’m concerned about the social and environmental effects of sprawling cities like Phoenix and Las Vegas. I’d like to help do something to change that kind of development.”