The 2002 Regents Teaching Excellence Award recognized the talents of Leonard Gambrell and the effect he had on UW-Eau Claire.

All the campuses in the UW system have an opportunity to nominate one faculty member for this annual award, Gambrell said. The focus of the award is on a comprehensive career of quality teaching performance.

Senior Allyson Clark said Gambrell had the ability to challenge traditional notions that many students take for granted.

“Dr. Gambrell was the first professor in this university that forced me to really think about issues,” Clark said. “And when I gave an answer, he would push me even more to develop an even better opinion. He taught me to think and write critically.”

Rodd Freitag, the political science department chair, notified Gambrell of his nomination in an e-mail message. The letter informing him that he had been selected for this award was sent to the department after he moved away from Eau Claire in late July.

“He presumed that I already knew about the award,” Gambrell said. “(Freitag) sort of included it as a final paragraph of a much more comprehensive e-mail message about developments and events in the department.”

Somehow the forwarding address had been misplaced so Gambrell said he did not learn about the award until several days after the letter had been sent.

Chancellor Donald Mash announced it during the opening meetings for the new academic year before Gambrell even knew that he had won.

The UW System Board of Regents honored the winners of the annual Regents Teaching Excellence Awards on Sept. 13 in Madison.

In order for one to earn this award, a nomination had to be accompanied by a package of information. Gambrell said the package included considerable documentation on his teaching at Eau Claire. It consisted of course syllabi, student evaluations, letters of recommendation from students and comments from departmental colleagues.

Gambrell said it was especially important to respect students, be prepared to challenge them and empower students with the ability to analyze and understand the political world while developing critical thinking skills.

It was very important to maintain and project a certain sense of caring about what students were learning, he said.

Sophomore Anthony Barker said Gambrell focused on critical thinking.

“He tried to teach us a bare minimum of facts,” Barker said, “So that why we can build off of that and think critically; using objectivity”

Gambrell said that there are always different ways to reach different students.

“I think that students recognize when professors care about their work and care about their students.”