July 12-13, 2001

ITEM 112-1007-R0701  Professor Emeritus Status for Lois M. Welch, Professor of English, College of Arts and Sciences; The University of Montana-Missoula

 

THAT: Lois M. Welch, in her thirty-fifth year of dedicated service to The University of Montana, has merited the commendation of the Board of Regents of the Montana University System, and has earned the title of Professor of English Emeritus.

 

EXPLANATION: Dr. Lois M. Welch earned her Ph.D. degree in 1966 from Occidental College. After teaching four years at Portland State University, she joined the English faculty at The University of Montana in 1966, spending the remainder of her academic career here. Professor Welch has been a popular and dedicated teacher in a variety of literature courses ranging from the freshman level to graduate seminars. Her courses are always demanding, her standards are high, and her classes have been consistently popular. She has provided her students countless hours of assistance on writing as well as on the comprehension of often very difficult literary and theoretical texts. She calculates that during her career, she has read, evaluated and commented on a daunting 177,761 pages of student papers. Professor Welch has been active in the development of new courses, especially in Criticism and Theory and in Women's Literature. She has been among the earliest and most consistent promoters of Women's Studies on this campus. In addition she has advised several thousands of students at all levels, giving them guidance both academic and general. In 1991, Professor Welch was named The University of Montana Advisor of the Year.

Professor Welch has contributed far more than her share in service to The University of Montana and to the Department of English, serving on and chairing numerous University and Department committees, including several important review committees, several important search committees, and numerous committees for student awards and visiting speakers. In the Department of English she has particularly distinguished herself in bringing a stellar series of writers and scholars to campus to address the University community. She has completed her thirty-five years of service to the Department and the University with a term as Chair of the Department of English.

Professor Welch also has been an active scholar throughout her career, publishing articles and reviews and delivering papers on a wide range of writers from Aristotle to Richard Hugo. Her publications only begin to indicate the broad range of her scholarly expertise, upon which her colleagues in and out of the Department of English have relied.

Professor Welch has been an outstanding colleague and member of the University and Department. The Department of English proudly recommends Professor Lois M. Welch for Emeritus status.