ITEM 127-1016-R0505
May 19-20, 2005
ITEM 127-1016-R0505 Authorization to Confer the Title of Professor Emeritus of French Upon Sigyn Minier; The University of Montana-Missoula
THAT:
Sigyn Minier, during her 26 years of dedicated service to The University of Montana-Missoula, has merited the commendation of the Board of Regents of the Montana University System and has earned the title of Professor Emerita of French.
EXPLANATION:
Professor Minier was a member of the French faculty from 1979 until her retirement last spring (2004), and she was throughout those years a most valuable asset to the section, department, university, and larger community.
Her teaching responsibilities over the years spanned all levels of instruction from beginning through graduate in language, literature, and culture, though she tended to focus her efforts at the upper-division and graduate levels. Her special interest in French women writers throughout the period since the Middle Ages allowed her to make enriching contributions to the curriculum of the language section. She carried the considerable classroom teaching load which tends to characterize the faculty of this department but also directed the university's semester-long Burgundy/Paris Study Abroad program five times during the period. In addition, Professor Minier's teaching gifts were utilized in connection with the university's French Immersion Seminar, a summertime offering at Flathead Lake, which she directed three times; as well as in various pedagogical workshops which she offered for teachers of French in the secondary schools. Her knowledge of technology permitted her to create and offer an internet workshop for high school teachers of French, which is exactly the kind of offering which is accessible and useful to that particular population. As a respected senior faculty member, she also spent a good deal of time with the section's teaching assistants, mentoring their classroom efforts, and in observation of student teachers as they proceeded toward education certification.
In the area of service, Professor Minier made important contributions at all levels, from language section to the nation. She advised senior students as they completed their Watkins research work and also several graduate students in preparation of the M.A. thesis. Nor did Professor Minier limit her advising activities to majors in our department: from 1983 until 2001, she generously served as an effective and reliable advisor for General Studies students, contributing in a most professional way to the crucial mission of the University College. She was very active in the Montana Association of Language Teachers, editing its MALT Bulletin for several years and receiving the association's Excellence Award for Superior Teaching and Outstanding Service in 1998. I particularly thank her for her dedication as Director of the DELF-DALF Testing Center for Montana, an important and very demanding post that she held from 1993 until 2002 and in which we have not yet been able to replace her.
Professor Minier's research produced a book, numerous articles in refereed journals, and a healthy stream of scholarly presentations at scholarly meetings on the regional and international scene. In particular, her work on the monograph and other publications concerning Madame de Charriere opened the door to a great deal of subsequent work by other scholars.
In recognition of the great professional contributions, which she made during the twenty-five years of her active involvement in the university faculty, the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures is honored to recommend Professor Sigyn Minier for Emerita status. We hope that you will agree that she has, indeed, served us well and deserves well of us in return.