UpDate - Vol. 12, No. 8, Page 1
October 22, 1992
James R. Soles named first Alumni Distinguished Prof
You have the opportunity as a teacher/adviser to set an example
of how to conduct yourself. The dignity with which you treat people,
the seriousness with which you approach your job and the enthusiasm
with which you approach your job can be a little contagious. I have
tried to be contagious," James R. Soles, chairperson of the Department
of Political Science Department and International Relations, says.
Soles has just been named the University's first Alumni
Distinguished Professor. A letter from President David P. Roselle and
Provost R. Byron Pipes said the designation recognizes Soles'
"demonstrated excellence in teaching" during a "distinguished career."
"Although it is impossible to summarize the many contributions
for which you are being recognized, the selection committee was
particularly impressed by the deep respect your students have for you
and their appreciation of the influence you have had in their lives,"
the letter read in part. "Among your students are numerous
accomplished individuals who attribute the sound principles you taught
as the foundation for their successes. It is also clear from the
testimonies of these students and from your extensive teaching
materials that you are an expert at challenging your students while
demanding rigorous standards of performance.
"The selection committee was also impressed by the breadth of
your contributions to the University community," the letter continues.
"Your willingness to serve as mentor for students and young faculty
colleagues, to participate in University-wide programs such as
freshman orientation, and your extraordinary performance in the
classroom have set the standard for excellence in teaching which
serves as an inspiration for your faculty colleagues."
Soles was nominated for this honor by close to a dozen colleagues
on the campus, and his file of support also included letters of
recommendation and remembrance from former students. The file is at
least two inches thick.
James Soles has indeed been contagious and in the most wonderful
way.
Soles is celebrating his 25th year at the University, and,
although he is chairing the department, he still assigns himself to
teach large introductory courses on American government.
And, he still advises students--listening compassionately to
their problems and pain, hearing back from them in joy and sorrow long
after they have graduated.
The soft-spoken gentleman from Virginia, known for the fresh
carnation (usually red) that he wears each day, has invested countless
hours in hundreds of students' lives. He is modest to a fault and says
putting the portfolio together for his nomination was the most
embarrassing thing he has ever had to do.
"I am very pleased to be named to the professorship, of course,
but the first selection is really symbolic," Soles said. "The most
important thing is the way this recognizes people who devote
themselves to teaching."
Barbra F. Andrisani, director of alumni relations, said, "Alumni
are most interested in the undergraduate educational experience at the
University, and the Alumni Distinguished Professorship enables
exemplary undergraduate teaching to be recognized and celebrated."
Soles has twice been the recipient of the University's
Excellence-in-Teaching Award and, in l988, was awarded the
Excellence-in-Advising Award.
"Teaching is simply what I do as I understand it," Soles says.
"Everyone is a teacher. We teach little children to walk and to tie
their shoes. My particular niche as a teacher has been with
college-age students. It has been my privilege and opportunity to work
with young adults. It is an awesome task and an awesome opportunity.
They are at the point where they can be taught to love learning and
the excitement and satisfaction that comes from learning.
"The classroom is a place for intellectual engagement. Everyone
should feel free to ask whatever it is they want to ask and not be
shot down. I promise my students room to venture and explore. We need
to teach students to ask as well as to answer."
Advising goes hand in hand with teaching, he says.
"Advising is very important because students are making a lot of
decisions that are just very important to them. Every crisis that can
occur in life can occur to a college student. The world tends to look
at college students as an elite group with no problems, and it may be
that while they are in college, they are having a great deal of fun.
However, they are also facing many problems and, at times, without a
great deal of preparation. As an adviser, I try to help them address
those problems and encourage students to recognize and grasp their
potential."
The implications of Soles' encouragement to students has had
wide-ranging implications for the state of Delaware. His former
students are active in many roles in public life. The letters in his
nomination portfolio bear the letterheads of prominent law firms in
several states, the Office of the Governor of the state of New Jersey,
the mayor's office in Glendale, Colo., the Office of the County
Counsel in Camden County, N.J., the Center for Public Integrity in
Washington, D.C., and more.
"It has been part of the role I play in this state to encourage
other people," Soles says, modestly.
That encouragement extends to people in all political parties,
for Soles never lets his own political preferences known in class. At
the end of each year, most classes are equally divided in their
opinion of his voter registration card.
Ironically, his nomination portfolio includes a letter of support
from Robert E. Chadwick, executive director of the Republican State
Committee of Delaware, and one from James A. Farrell, director of the
Democratic State Party Coordinated Campaign l992.
Chadwick writes that Soles "literally took me under his wing. His
guidance and personal attention were the key ingredients which allowed
me to flourish both as a student and as a young man trying to find my
way in the world."
Farrell says that Soles "has played an incomparable, central role
in my choice of a career. I often think that were it not for having
met him, I would today be engaged in dramatically different work."
No matter how successful his alumni have become in public life,
Soles is reluctant to point to any one success story. To him, some of
the most amazing cases are those students who flunked out and came
back or who pulled through college in spite of some personal travail.
These students, as much as the well-known public figures, are heroes
in his book.
The few times that there has been a majority in the annual
classroom vote on whether Soles is a Republican or Democrat, a small
majority have thought him Republican.
He is, in fact, a Democrat and ran unsuccessfully for Congress in
l974. The incumbent Congressman Pete Du Pont, had the name recognition
factor in his favor, Soles concedes.
"Losing was one of the best things that ever happened to me,"
Soles says now. "It meant I was to continue doing what I do best. It
would have been fun to be in Congress for a while, but this has been
far more satisfying over the long haul." One imagines that it has. No
politician's telephone could be busier than Soles.' It rings
constantly as an average of five constituents (alumni) call him each
day.
For although he has not inspired their choice of political party,
Soles has inspired their lives. There are three values that he works
hard to instill in each student he teaches: human dignity, human
freedom and human equality. "These are the prerequisite values for a
decent society," he says. "They are three values I am not prepared to
compromise on. They are necessary for the world I want to live in."
-Beth Thomas