On April 19, RWC held a ceremony to honor two of its best faculty, as well as a Distinguished Staff member and two Distinguished Alumni. Patricia C. Cruise received the Distinguished Teaching Award for an adjunct instructor. Michael Roos received the Distinguished Teaching Award for full-time staff. Both professors Roos and Cruise are members of the English Department, which swept the Distinguished Teaching Awards section of the ceremony.
“Teaching energizes me,” says Professor Cruise. That energy is very evident in her conversations about her work as well as in her behavior in the classroom.
“I love the students. You cannot stay as a teacher unless you love them,” she says. “No matter if they’re 17 or 60, I treat them all as adults whom I respect.”
Professor Cruise firmly believes that English is the foundation for the entire curriculum and starts the trek for satisfaction and success in our daily lives.
She also has a deep love for reading. She tries to instill this love into all of her students in the hope that it can affect them and their families for decades to come.
For these reasons, she enjoys working with students in preparatory and freshman writing classes. First-year students are at a crucial time in their lives, she says, whether they’re traditional or non-traditional students. What a wonderful time for these students to encounter a teacher who is as dedicated as Professor Cruise is.
She is also a pragmatist, however, understanding that students need to see the ultimate relevance of their studies. She says she attempts “to motivate students with the promise of a degree and a good position. I drive that home all the time.”
Her mission is nothing less than a change in attitudes and an increase in wisdom. These goals are very ambitious, yet according to Professor Philip Luther, the Chair of her department, Professor Cruise has been able to balance her high standards with personal warmth and concern for the students.
She has always been very willing to give her best at whatever needs doing in the English department above and beyond her normal duties. She has done everything from filling in for other teachers at the last minute to evaluating student placement tests.
In her conferences with students about their writing, she attends not only to their compositions but also their complications. Professor Cruise has raised four children of her own, and she relates with those students trying to balance all of their life demands on top of the time and energy they spend with school work. “Sometimes I tell them they’re trying to do too much,” she says.
Her influence is felt throughout the department. Marlene Miner, Associate Professor of English, notes that Professor Cruise has “unofficially mentored just about every new adjunct who has joined us for the past decade, sharing with them her expertise, syllabi, and general wisdom.” Professor Cruise serves as the liaison between adjunct and full-time faculty in this department, which has the largest group of adjuncts in the college.
She has received comments from more that 2,000 students that she has taught in her 11 years. Some get right to the point by exclaiming, “Mrs. Cruise is the best teacher I’ve ever had!”
On behalf of the students who have had the opportunity to learn from this wonderful teacher, we honor Professor Pat Cruise.