By Laura Frazier
For the five UP professors who were granted tenure recently, the journey was worth the reward. Tenure and promotion takes up to six years to earn. Each professor went through an intense process of research, conference presentations, committee, student and self-evaluations, in addition to a series of letters and narratives.
The rewards are job security and the title of associate professor, but, most importantly, the opportunity to continue teaching and inspiring UP students.
Aaron Wootton
Mathematics professor Aaron Wootton, whose accent is a dead giveaway of his British background, is looking forward to having more responsibility now that he has been granted tenure. Wootton is also excited to continue to work with undergraduate students.
" I am looking for opportunities to help undergraduate students with research, and pursue grad school work," he said.
Sophomore Rhiannon Teixeira said Wootton is a dedicated teacher who wants to help students learn.
"He will work to make sure that you understand no matter what. He will find ways to make you understand," she said.
Wootton will continue his research, which involves solving extremely difficult math problems that are useful and beneficial to society.
During the tenure process, Wootton reflected upon his own teaching style.
"Most importantly, I had to show how I had learned to be a good teacher. There is always the danger of getting in a rut and doing the same thing over again," he said.
The best part about tenure for Wootton is the guarantee that he will stay at UP.
"I love the university and I love Portland and being granted tenure and promotion ensures that I am here for the long haul. And there is no place I would rather be," he said.
Jacqueline Waggoner
Education professor Jacqueline Waggoner is excited that being granted tenure gives her the opportunity to keep learning at UP.
"It's exciting to learn and I continue to learn more constantly. I want to keep looking for and working with projects," she said.
Waggoner, an Oregon native, appreciates how UP pushes professors to earn tenure and promotion based on their work in more areas than just research.
"Because we have such a value in teaching, scholarship and service, we have to be strong in all three," she said.
Waggoner is currently researching different ways to identify particular aspects of people. This includes developing methods to identify sexually violent predators. She is also working on better ways to assess steaching candidates and ensure that they are teaching effectively.
Waggoner has already made an impact on graduate student Claudia Ruf, who is the assistant principal at Beaverton High School.
"Dr. Waggoner is very organized and her class is hands-on," she said in an e-mail. "I know that I have personally already used what she has taught us in my every day work life."
Ruf said that UP will definitely benefit from hiring Waggoner as a permanent staff member, and that no one deserves tenure more then she.
Peter Thacker
Education professor Peter Thacker achieved tenure late in life. Thacker spent several years working in the Portland public school system before coming to UP. Now, at age 62, he has never been so proud of an accomplishment.
"The most exciting thing to me is that this will be the place I work until I stop working," he said. "I have never felt this deeply except when my children were born."
For Thacker, the best part about working at UP is the students.
"What has been the most delightful about being here to me is that students are genuine, " he said. "There is no artifice, and students have a sense of openness and realness to the world."
Thacker loves that UP not only expresses core goals, but helps students and teachers to live them out as well.
"I feel that the school acts on its mission. I am proud to be here and humbled too," he said. "It's a big deal to do something like this."
Thacker's research is about students who read material that did not directly relate to their particular major, and how that helped them develop good teaching skills. For example, an English major was directed to read about science, and then studied as to how that helped in the classroom.
Freshman TJ Breysee said Thacker is a great professor because he creates a classroom environment in which students learn together.
"He mostly leaves it up to us to teach ourselves and learn from each other," he said. "After being in his class, he definitely deserves it."
Tae-In (Mike) Eom
Buisness professor Tae-In (Mike) Eom has many things he wants to accomplish in light of his recent promotion.
"Job stability aside, I can focus on research. There are a lot of things I want to try and develop," he said.
Eom, who is originally from South Korea, wants to continue to develop the Management Information System program that he helped bring to UP as a major.
MIS works towards technological improvement for the business world.
He also hopes to help students pursue their goals in his upper level classes.
Junior Court Reeves enjoyed being in Eom's class because he shows students how business works outside of the classroom.
"What I really liked about his class is that he went outside the textbook to pull in examples of what we are talking about in the real world," he said.
Now that Eom has been granted tenure, he plans to utilize his promotion to be more of a leader and benefit the classroom.
"I am in the position that my voice will be heard. I can become a more effective leader now," he said. "I have put myself in the position to make my own decision and have my own plan."
Andrew Guest
Andrew Guest, who is a Social and Behavioral Sciences professor, likes that tenure is an opportunity to continue his research and projects.
"For now I'm looking forward to continuing the work I've been doing; during the last year or two I've been focused on a project, with the help of several students in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, looking at the role of extracurricular activities in youth development," he said in an e-mail.
"I hope to write more about that, with particular attention to best practices along with inequalities in both access and outcomes," he said.
Guest has joined this project with his class covering the societal influences on youth and lifespan development.
He hopes to help students connect their research to the local community.
Guest is originally from Seattle, but went to graduate school in Chicago.
He used UP as an opportunity to return to the Northwest, and is glad to be staying here as a professor.
Freshman Jeff Makjavich enjoyed learning from Guest because he always kept class engaging and challenging.
"I thought he was a great professor. I learned a ton and was always interested in his class," he said.
