July 10-11, 2003

ITEM 120-1006-R0703    Authorization to Confer the Title of Professor Emeritus of English upon Patricia Goedicke; The University of Montana-Missoula.

THAT: Patricia Goedicke, Professor of English, in her 20 years of service to The University of Montana, has merited the appreciation and commendation of The Board of Regents of the Montana University System, and has earned recognition as Professor Emeritus of English.

 

EXPLANATION: Professor Goedicke earned her M.A. degree from Ohio University in 1965. She joined the English faculty at The University of Montana-Missoula in 1983 as part of the Poetry staff in the Creative Writing Program. In the twenty years since, she has been a dedicated mentor of students in creative writing, as well as an example to them of the successful teaching poet. She has guided many students at all levels from freshmen to master's candidates, and beyond, through careful attention to the craft of poetry. She has shaped many a youthful exuberance into the discipline of form, and aided many students in securing their first and subsequent publications. She has spent hours and hours helping students turn a set of disparate poems into a finely organized collection for a Thesis. Many of her students are now publishing poets and successful teachers of poetry at numerous institutions.

Professor Goedicke has served the Creative Writing Program and the Department of English on a number of committees. Perhaps the most onerous of these has been the careful reading, annually, of the many applications to our master of fine arts program, and the careful selection of those we are able to admit. The large numbers of those applications in Poetry has been due, to a very great extent, to her national reputation as a poet and teacher.

Professor Goedicke has published twelve books of poems, seven of them while teaching here. One of them, The Tongues We Speak, was named one of the New York Times' "Notable Books of the Year," and her most recent collection, As Earth Begins to End, was chosen by the American Library Association as one of the ten top poetry books published in the United States in the year 2000.

Her national reputation is also demonstrated by her listings in many important reference books, the number of prizes she has won, (among them a Rockefeller Foundation Creative Writing Residency at its Villa Serbelloni, in Italy), and the number of invitations she receives for poetry readings and workshops. This January, for example, she was invited to Mexico to teach in the San Miguel Poetry Week. And this past fall, having earlier won a "Distinguished Scholar" award from the University of Montana, she received a "Distinguished Alumna" award from Ohio University. This spring she will receive the 2003 H.E. Merriam award from the Friends of the Mansfield Library.

The English Department is honored to recommend Professor Patricia Goedicke for emeritus status.