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CORVALLIS - Cheryl Glenn, an associate professor of English at Oregon State University, will be focused on teaching next year.

Glenn, this year's recipient of the Elizabeth P. Ritchie Distinguished Professor Award at OSU, has been named head of the newly created center for teaching excellence in the College of Liberal Arts.

The center will encompass the existing master teachers program and add several activities. An inaugural lecture series for faculty who received full professor status begins in October. The center will also develop and organize a program to train teaching assistants within the college.

And Glenn is helping organize a series of colloquia on various aspects of good teaching.

The center's purpose is to motivate and reward good teachers in the college, Glenn said, but all the activities will be open to faculty across the campus and the speeches will be free and open to the public.

Glenn said she is trying to challenge the idea that those teachers who publish a great deal are lousy in the classroom, and great teachers are often unpublished.

"How can you be a good teacher unless you're current in your field?" she asked. "I'd like to complicate that whole notion."

Theme-related colloquia are also being developed around a variety of topics, including feminist pedagogies, electronic resources and technology transfer, team-teaching, linking course content, incorporating community service, connections between writing and learning, teaching-based research, and mentoring and partnering for teaching improvement and tenure success.

The inaugural lectures will be held the first Monday of each month from October through March at 7 p.m. in MU 208.

The free public lectures will be followed by a reception. They are intended to allow professors to talk about the evolution of their life's work and illustrate the human nature of academic life, Glenn said.