At its March 4 meeting, the
board of trustees confirmed tenure for four MHC professors. W. Donald
Cotter, Paula Debnar, James E. Hartley, and Lucas B. Wilson were each
promoted from assistant to associate professor. Their new titles are
effective July 1. W. Donald Cotter,
"Donnie Cotter has been one of the leaders in the chemistry
department's remaking of its curriculum," says Donal O'Shea, dean of
the faculty. "His paper with a number of students in the Journal
of the American Chemical Society sets a new standard of
excellence for research involving undergraduates." Cotter received a
1999 - 2001 Petroleum Research Fund Type B grant of $30,000 for his
research, "Transmetalation of Organic Substrates by Electrophilic
Palladium (II) Complexes." An assistant professor of chemistry at MHC
since 1994, he has published numerous articles and given recent
presentations at conferences across the country. Paula Debnar,
assistant professor in the classics department, has taught at the
College since 1993. O'Shea notes that "her work on Thucydides'
speeches is a model of careful scholarship." In addition, says
O'Shea, "Her teaching is superb and her engagement with the community
is appreciated by all." Debnar's book Speaking the Same Language:
Speech and Audience in Thucydides' Spartan Debates is forthcoming
from the University of Michigan Press. Lucas B. Wilson,
assistant professor of economics and African American studies, is
"one of the most respected individuals on campus," says O'Shea. "He
is known for his challenging but wise teaching and advising." O'Shea
notes that Wilson's intellectual concerns "range broadly over topics
of pressing current interest." He has authored numerous essays,
including "Seeming Silence and African-American Culture: Interruption
as a Metaphor of Transformation in the Religious Historiography of
James Melvin Washington," published in The Courage to Hope,
edited by Quinton Dixie and Cornel West, 1999. He has been on the MHC
faculty since 1991. James E. Hartley,
assistant professor of economics, "is a rising star, with a book and
many publications to his credit," says O'Shea, adding that "his work
with independent students in economics is especially notable."
Hartley is the editor (with Kevin D. Hoover and Kevin D. Salyer) of
Real Business Cycles: A Reader (1998). His book The
Representative Agent in Macroeconomics was published in 1997.
Hartley has been a member of the faculty since 1994.
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