Wednesday, March 28, 2007

An Excellent Choice For COLS Dean

UW Oshkosh Provost Lane Earns announced yesterday that Dr. John Koker has accepted an offer to become Dean of the College of Letters and Science. Dr. Koker has been serving as interim Dean this year.

A professor of mathematics, John Koker joined the UW Oshkosh faculty in 1991. He earned his B.A. from St. Nortbert College, M.S. from Purdue, and Ph.D from UW-Milwaukee. He has served as Chair of the Math Department and Director of the Math Tutor Lab.

What I like most about John Koker is his dedication to teaching excellence. In 2002 he received the UW Oshkosh Distinguished Teaching Award, the highest recognition for teaching on our campus. Then in 2006 he received the Board of Regents Teaching Excellence Award, the highest recognition for teaching in the UW System.

Dr. Koker's scholarly and professional credentials are equally impressive. At UW Oshkosh (as with all comprehensive universities), there exists disagreement about how to define professional and scholarly development. Dr. Koker strikes me as a problem solver who can help work through disagreements in this area.

Finally, it is worth noting that John Koker has acted in several productions at the UW Oshkosh Fredric March Theater. That suggests that he is a mathematician who not only can count, but can be counted on to support all forms of campus creativity.

Many thanks to the COLS Dean Search and Screen Committee for the time and effort they put into the process.

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