UNCA Professor Rick Chess Honored for Teaching Excellence
by UNC Board of Governors

One of UNC Asheville's most beloved professors, Richard S. Chess,
was named Tuesday as a recipient of the Award for Excellence in Teaching from the University of North Carolina's Board of Governors. Chess, a well-known poet and an associate professor of Literature
and Language, was nominated by a committee of UNCA faculty. He
will receive the award at a ceremony May 10 at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Chess joined UNCA in 1989. He teaches a host of courses in poetry, creative writing and Jewish studies, as well as classes for the Honors and Master of Liberal Arts programs and the College for Seniors. A gifted and prolific writer, he has two published collections of poetry, "Chair in the Desert" and "Tekiah." His poems are included in more than 50 literary journals and anthologies, and his scholarly essays
have been published in several noted journals.

Chess' absolute joy in the classroom and his talents as a innovative and caring professor are well known among students and faculty.

"He radiates enthusiasm when he's teaching," said Miranda Volborth, a Wilmington senior majoring in creative writing, who has taken six courses with Chess. "He's one of those professors who guides the class rather than teaching to the class. He helped us realize what, as a generation, we have in common and how we fit into the larger creative world. He is the most deserving person and I am so pleased he's getting this award."

Debra Van Engelen, chair of the nominating committee and an associate professor of chemistry agrees. "Rick Chess' enthusiasm, creativity and innovation are without peer; his commitment to students is extraordinary, engaging and inspiring them; he is a deeply compassionate and humane person involved at many levels with the communities around him. His colleagues call him inspirational and a master teacher with an alchemic effect on his students."

Chess, who grew up near Philadelphia, had a stint as a reporter for The Jewish Exponent and lived for three years in Israel before heading to graduate school. Already an accomplished poet, his experience as a graduate teaching assistant was a revelation. "I walked into the classroom on that first day and knew within five minutes I'd found the thing I wanted to do for the rest of my life," Chess said.

He approaches teaching the way he approaches his writing, as a creative act. "I love coming to the classroom with lots of questions, real questions based on my own hunches about what's interesting in a text. I try to create an environment in which every question and comment offered in this class is considered worthwhile as we work together, forming a kind of group mind, toward surprising and deep insights into the material. There is this magical moment when suddenly everyone in the room is energized by the ideas being discussed, and then all the comments that have been offered suddenly crystallize into one great insight articulated by one of the students."

Chess sees teaching and writing as completely integrated activities. "It is essential for me, as a teacher of writing, to be a practicing writer. Every time I sit down to write, I am reminded how difficult it is to write anything, whether it's academic prose or poetry. Because I know how difficult it is to write, I am sensitive to the challenges our students are facing every time they write something, whether the student is a freshman in a freshman writing class or a senior in poetry."

Chess has taken on many campus roles at UNCA, shaping the lives of others through his efforts. He has been director of the Center for Jewish Studies since 1990, and in that role has developed a range of for-credit courses, including two he teaches -- Modern Jewish Writers and the Holocaust in Literature and Film. He has expanded the Center's cultural offerings for the campus and community, bringing to UNCA prominent Israeli novelist Amoz Oz, noted essayist Cynthia Ozick, biblical archeologist Eric Myers, and celebrated Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai. Chess has worked to create an inviting community for Jewish students from UNCA, Warren Wilson College and other Western North Carolina institutions by providing special programming and dinners at the homes of faculty and staff members.

He is also the director of UNCA's Creative Writing Program and developed both the P.B. Parris Lecture Series and the Writers at Home Series. He is frequently in demand as a visiting poetry faculty at other universities across the nation and in Israel.

Among his other honors, he was named the UNCA Feldman Professor for Distinguished Scholarship and Service in 1999, received the UNCA Award for Distinguished Teaching in the Humanities in 1999, and six awards for teaching excellence form the University of Florida's Department of English. He holds a doctorate and master's degree in English from the University of Florida, and a bachelor's degree in communications from Glassboro State College.

"Rick Chess is an ideal teacher: a happy combination of deep knowledge of his subject, passion for teaching and learning, and concern for his students with dedication and kindness. He makes students want to rise to the example he sets," said UNCA Literature Professor Merritt Moseley, a long-time colleague of Chess' and last year's recipient of the Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Media Contacts:

• Dr. Rick Chess, UNCA Literature Department, 828/251-6576
• Merianne Epstein, UNCA Public Information, 828/251-6676