“For me, teaching is a privilege…”

History professor Hayden Schilling's attention to students over the last four decades earns him national recognition as Outstanding Baccalaureate College Professor of the Year

by John Hopkins

When Lisa Morris and Kent Shimeall, '73s, were preparing to bring their son Courter to Wooster for his first year, Morris told the young man that no matter what, he had to take at least one course with her I.S. adviser, Hayden Schilling. She praised Schilling's teaching, his involvement with his students outside the classroom, and the lasting relationships he formed with them.

“Courter looked at me and said, 'Oh, Mom, that was thirty years ago. He doesn't have a clue who you are anymore,'" Morris recalls. "But sure enough, as we're dropping Courter off on campus, who do we seeing coming toward us but Hayden. And he calls out, 'Hey, Lisa, Kent, how are you?'"

Hayden Schilling has been teacher, adviser, mentor, coach, and friend to thousands of Wooster students since he arrived on campus as an assistant professor of history in 1964. In November, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) recognized his deep and lasting impact by naming him the 2005 Outstanding Baccalaureate College Professor of the Year.

National winners, selected from a field of more than three hundred nominees, were named in four categories: baccalaureate colleges; community colleges; master's universities and colleges; and doctoral and research universities.

At a luncheon to honor them in Washington, D.C., Lee S. Shulman, president of the Carnegie Foundation, said, "All four winners are remarkably disrespectful of artificial boundaries and borders to how teachers teach... They don't see themselves as engaged solely in education, writ small, but in formation, writ large."

"Hayden makes a habit of doing for all students what other professors might do for an especially gifted student," says colleague Madonna Hettinger, Lawrence Stanley Professor of Medieval History. "He invests in them, intellectually and personally, with an energy and generosity of spirit that makes them want to learn."

"You could have a conversation with him about anything," Morris recalls, "from the incredibly serious and difficult to the everyday. He always had time to sit and talk about what you were thinking about, what was going on in your life."

"The metaphor of the open door really does work," Schilling says. "If students feel comfortable coming to see you at odd hours, then their college education is beginning to work."

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