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Dec. 9, 2005

Morningside College awarded the 2005 Sharon Walker Faculty Excellence Awards to Michael “Tug” Buse, assistant professor of mass communication; Dr. Gail Dooley, associate professor of music; and Dr. Jim Stroh, associate professor of biology and chemistry.

Morningside President John Reynders presented the awards during the annual faculty banquet held Wednesday, Dec. 7, at the Sioux City Country Club. The recipients, selected from a field of nominees by a panel of three outside evaluators, will each receive a $10,000 honorarium and $3,000 to use for the purpose of faculty development.

The Sharon Walker Faculty Excellence Awards, presented for the first time in 2003, were funded by a generous gift from Morningside alumni Jim and Sharon Walker, of Wayzata, Minn.

Criteria for selection include: teaching excellence, effective advising, scholarship, and service to Morningside College. The awards are based upon the accomplishments and activities of a faculty member during the previous academic year.

The evaluators were Dr. Ann Russey Cannon, associate professor of statistics and mathematics, Cornell College, Mt. Vernon, Iowa; Dr. Stephen F. Davis, professor emeritus, Emporia State University, Emporia, Kan.; and Dr. Raymond Brady Williams, professor emeritus in the humanities and director emeritus of the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion at Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Ind.

Buse, who teaches television, film, and video courses, began teaching at Morningside with the fall 2004 semester. During his first year at Morningside, he served as an advisor to students, although he was not required to do so that year. He was active on campus and founded the Film Club & Discussion Group, which screens movies once a week throughout each semester.

Buse is the faculty advisor to MCTV, the student-run television station at the college. As MCTV advisor, he is working with students to produce the local 30-minute bi-weekly television series, “Social Security Administration Information” for the Sioux City Social Security office. He has also been active in the Sioux City community through participating in Lewis and Clark reenactments and programs.

Buse has written screenplays for, acted in, directed, and/or produced more than 30 independent films. His animated film “Space Pirates: The Spiral Arms of Greed” won the Silver Eddy Award for Achievement in the category “Master Freestyle” at the 2005 Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and was an official selection at the 2005 Gulf Coast Independent Film & Video Festival in Nassau Bay, Texas. He is currently working on a documentary “In Search of Adventure,” about building a sailboat called “Adventure.”

Buse holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, and a Master of Fine Arts degree in film from Chapman University in Orange, Calif., where he was a teacher’s assistant in cinematography. He also taught courses in video production at the Irvine Fine Arts Center in Irvine, Calif., and the Meadowbrook Family Center in Seattle, Wash. He is a member of the Gamma Beta Phi Honor Society.

Dooley joined the music faculty in 1995 and teaches applied voice and other related courses. Beginning last fall, she also taught “Passport,” a course for first-year students. That same year, she elected by her peers as president of the Faculty Senate, a position she still holds.

She is an advisor for first-year students as well as music students and is director of the Morningside College Opera Theatre. Her students have participated successfully in Student Auditions at the Iowa and Lewis and Clark Chapters of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS). Dooley is a founding member and past-president of the Lewis and Clark Chapter of NATS.

She is an active performer on campus and in the Sioux City community and other places. Most recently, she performed a solo faculty recital at Morningside and the soprano solos in Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Sioux County Oratorio Society. She has appeared as a soloist with the Sioux City Symphony and the Siouxland Master Chorale as well as at several area churches.

She has been adjudicator or clinician for numerous organizations, workshops, and festivals, such as the Donna Reed Festival for the Performing Arts scholarship competition, the Nebraska District Vocal Solo and Ensemble contests, and the Missouri State Level Vocal Solo and Ensemble contest.

Dooley is faculty advisor to the college’s Gay/Straight Alliance. As advisor to that group, she was instrumental in bringing Judy Shepard, mother of Matthew Shepard, to speak on campus last year.

She is vice chair of the Sioux City Human Rights Commission. She is a regular reader for the Iowa Radio Reading Information Service for the Blind and Print Handicapped and volunteers for the Siouxland Humane Society.

Dooley holds bachelor’s and master’s degree in music, vocal performance, from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and a Doctor of Music degree in voice performance with an emphasis in vocal pedagogy from Florida State University.

Stroh has been at Morningside since 1997. He teaches primarily field and environmental classes, incorporating case studies and field research into his coursework. During his 2005 May Term course “Desert Ecology,” he took 12 students to the American Desert Southwest.

He served as advisor to 48 students. He was active on campus and was voted by students as the First Runner-Up in the 2004 Homecoming Mr. Morningside student-run competition. He has served as chair of the Morningside Curriculum Policies Committee since 2004 and served as chair of the college’s United Way fundraising campaign last year. He is also ad hoc co-chair of the college’s Recycling Committee.

Stroh is a member of the Environmental Advisory Board for Sioux City. He works as an outreach and education volunteer approximately 20 to 25 hours a month for the Siouxland Humane Society. He served as the judge for the college-sponsored KTIV-TV Quiz Bowl last spring, and he and his wife, LaVon, have organized science camps for home-schooled students the last four summers.

He presented his research on “Historic Vegetation Patterns and Dynamics of the Northern Loess Hills” at the 2005 annual meeting of the Iowa Academy of Science (IAS) and submitted his paper on this topic to the “American Midland Naturalist,” a journal published by the University of Notre Dame. He also submitted his paper “Forensic Camps + Homeschooled Students = Science Education” to “Science Teacher,” published by the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA).

Stroh holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Central College in Pella, Iowa, a master’s degree in animal biology from Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kan., and a doctorate degree in rangeland ecology from Texas A&M University.