November 20-21, 2003

 

ITEM 121-2002-R1103  Authorization to Confer the Title of Professor Emeritus of Spanish upon Jack Jelinski; Montana State University-Bozeman

 

THAT:  Upon the occasion of the retirement of Jack Jelinskifrom the faculty of Montana State University, the Board of Regents wishes to express its appreciation for his service to the University, the Montana University system, and the people of the State of Montana.

 

EXPLANATION:  Dr. Jelinski came to MSU in 1973 after earning degrees at The University of Indiana and The University of Wisconsin-Madison. During his 30 years of loyal service to MSU, Dr. Jelinski played an active role in University Governance. From 1995 until his retirement in 2003, he served on a number of college and university committees: the Salary Review Committee, the University Governance Council Steering Committee, the University Promotion and Tenure Committee, and served as Chair of the Faculty Affairs Committee. He played a pivotal role in the establishment of the current structure of Faculty Council which has representatives from all academic departments. As Department Head of Modern Languages and Literatures (1978-1990) he led the program in its transition to a quality research-oriented academic department, developed procedures for annual review and special reviews and designed a department-wide program of teaching evaluations. He also served from 1990 until 2003 as the Coordinator of Spanish. Dr. Jelinski is especially proud to have established the Steven L. Johnson Memorial Scholarship which provides an annual $500 scholarship to the outstanding Spanish student selected by a departmental scholarship committee.

Dr. Jelinski has published scholarly articles on a variety of subjects such as: the design of academic review procedures, bilingual education, and studies on the works of major literary figures including Ignacio Aldecoa, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Miguel Delibes, Miguel de Unamuno and Graham Greene. He has been a book reviewer for Hispania for many years and has published approximately thirty book reviews in this and other scholarly journals.

Dr. Jelinski has also given fee workshops and presented scholarly papers on a variety of literary and linguistic topics at state, regional and national conferences. During his service at MSU he was the principal investigator or grant coordinator for over $64,000 in grants, all of which were written for the purpose of improving foreign language education in Montana.

During his 30 years at MSU Dr. Jelinski was a dedicated teacher and student advisor, to which his many awards attest, including the Excellence Award for Superior Teaching awarded by the Montana Association of Language Teachers in 1997. Dr. Jelinski presented workshops on language pedagogy at state, regional and national conferences throughout his career. He also published his research in those areas in scholarly journals.

For these and other contributions, the Board of Regents of Higher Education is pleased to confer upon Jack Jelinski the rank of Professor Emeritus of Spanish at Montana State University and wishes him well for many years in the future.