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History of the Department, 1892-1905
"Instruction in the classical languages on this campus is almost as old as the University itself." Thus begins the "History of the Department of Classics", written in 1987 by Drs. Richard Jensen and Thomas Worthen. Their account continues: The University of Arizona Register for 1892-3 acknowledges that there had been no demand for Latin and Greek when the institution opened, but that arrangements had been made to provide adequate instruction in these languages. The Register lists no instructor for such courses but advises any interested students to communicate directly with the President. In the following year, according to the third annual Register, students could take Latin "sufficient for entrance to the leading universities." That is, two years of the equivalent of high school Latin were offered through the preparatory school on campus. In 1897 Classics was put on a more secure foundation when Frank Yale Adams was appointed Chairman of Ancient and Modern Languages. Professor Adams was able to provide three years of Latin in addition to two years each of French and German. In 1901 he was named President of the University, in which capacity he served until his death in 1903. Adams' courses in Latin, French, and German were assumed by Louise Foucar, who was appointed Professor of Ancient and Modern Languages in 1901. In the following year the language programs were separated, and Foucar's successor, Marion Cummings Stanley, was appointed Instructor in Latin and English. She was joined by Hattie Ferrin, who was Instructor in Latin and English from 1903-5. Thus, female faculty were teaching Classics at the University of Arizona at a time when relatively few women with training in Greek and Latin held appointments at public institutions of higher education. With the addition of John William Corby to the faculty in 1904-5, the classical languages now were taught by three teachers. Corby, who had received his M.A. from the University, was appointed Instructor in Public Speaking and Greek. History of the Department, 1905-37
In 1905 Levona Payne Newsom was appointed Instructor in Latin; later promoted to Assistant Professor of Latin and Greek, she remained in that position until 1916. Over the next few years, some of Arizona's most distinguished educators served in the Latin and Greek program, including Byron Cummings, Professor of Archaeology. Cummings eventually became Director of the Museum, Dean of the College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences, and Dean of Men. Under Professor Cummings' direction, the program in Latin was greatly expanded; 30 units were now being offered each year. In 1919 Professor Cummings turned his duties in Greek and Latin over to Frank Hamilton Fowler, who served as Head and sole member of what now was called the Department of Classical Literature for eighteen years. After relinquishing the headship, Fowler continued teaching part-time until 1954, although mostly in the growing Humanities Program, where he also served as an administrator. Owing to Professor Fowler's vision and vigorous efforts, the Department was able to offer a regular program of courses in both Greek and Latin, despite the fact that he was teaching only half-time in Classics. History of the Department, 1937-51
Garnet D. Percy was appointed Assistant Professor of Classics in 1937 and also served as Head of the Department and Chair of the Humanities Program. At this time Classics was a small department, in essence a mere appendage of the Humanities Program. The two faculty in Classics taught primarily in Humanities, and their small courses in Latin and Greek were given as overloads. While the relationship between Classics and the Humanities Program has changed significantly since then, the Department's level of commitment to the humanities in the broadest sense has remained constant. Enrollments in Classics in 1937-8 were as follows: 13 students in Latin, 5 in Greek. A new course in mythology (Classics 175a-b) was instituted by Professor Percy. This course was to achieve legendary status throughout the Tucson community; surviving alumni today still assert that their lives were profoundly affected by Professor Percy's brilliant lectures. Percy's course is the precursor of our current, highly acclaimed mythology course taught by Dr. Jon Solomon to over 600 students per semester. Possibly due in large part to the success of the mythology course, the Department's annual report in 1941-2 notes a distinct increase in enrollment, with a total of 99 students taking Classics courses in the fall, along with 145 in the spring semester. A total of fourteen classes were taught that year. As Professor Fowler was then devoting almost all his efforts to Humanities, thirteen of these were offered by Professor Percy, who also somehow made time to contribute to the Humanities Program and do radio broadcasts and other promotional efforts for Classics. Professor Percy's unflagging devotion to his discipline and the dissemination of knowledge about classical antiquity is carried on today by dedicated classicists at the University of Arizona and other institutions throughout this country. Professor Fowler retired in 1943, whereupon Professor Percy assumed complete responsibility for the Humanities Program while still maintaining a full program in Classics. In 1946 Percy was joined by Robert Palmer, Instructor in Classics; that year the two faculty taught a total of 530 students, with 275 of these enrolling in Classics courses (Greek, Latin, and Mythology) and the remaining 255 in 6 sections of Humanities. History of the Department, 1951-65
In 1951 Dr. Donald Ayers joined the Department and remained at the University until his untimely death in 1969. The same year that Ayers arrived, two Arizona graduates in Classics were accepted into Ph.D. programs elsewhere: Mr. Colin Edmonson entered the doctoral program at the University of California, Berkeley, and Mr. Harold Evjen the program at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Both went on to distinguish themselves in the profession: Mr. Edmonson for many years was Secretary of the American School at Athens, and Mr. Evjen became Professor of Classics at the University of Colorado. Between 1956 and 1962, a number of instructors were hired: Dr. Edward Best (1956-61), who left to take a position at the University of Georgia; Charles Gross (1957-60), who resigned his position; Bruce Parsil, who was hired as Instructor in 1962 and remained until 1965, when he left to obtain his doctorate at Tufts University. By 1958-9 the Department had grown to include four full-time faculty. That year enrollments were 415 in the Fall and 498 in the Spring. The four members of the Department taught an additional 272 students in Humanities sections. Thus for the academic year enrollments totaled 1185, or 296 students per faculty member. In 1961 Richard Jensen, an Arizona alumnus who went on to earn his Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, joined the Department as an Assistant Professor and remained there until his retirement in 1994. He now enjoys Emeritus status. Dr. Jensen made many enduring contributions to the programs in ancient and medieval Latin and to the Humanities Program; he was also instrumental in the development of the Arizona Junior Classical League. The Department now consisted of three full-time tenure-stream faculty members: Percy, Ayers, Jensen, with the fourth position filled by a variety of temporary appointments. At that time Rabbi Bilgray was also teaching Hebrew in the Department, but Hebrew language instruction was transferred to another unit soon afterward. History of the Department, 1965-80
Dr. Thomas Worthen was appointed Instructor of Classics in 1965 after completing his doctoral studies at the University of Washington. Dr. Worthen progressed to Assistant Professor and subsequently Associate Professor and is now an Emeritus following his retirement in 1999. His appointment in 1965 enabled Dr. Jensen to concentrate on Latin, while Dr. Worthen oversaw and taught most courses in the Greek Program. All members of the Department continued to teach sections in the Humanities Program. In the annual report for 1966-7, Dr. Percy addressed a problem that continues to beset the Humanities Program to this day: as this program now taught 2400 students annually, it was becoming increasingly difficult to staff courses. It had been customary for senior faculty in the various departments within the humanities to teach sections in the program, but with the introduction of graduate programs, the situation changed dramatically. "The senior men dropped out," Percy notes in his report, and adds that with the new emphasis on research and publication, the younger faculty "are simply not interested in teaching courses of the Humanities type. They want to teach courses at an advanced level in their own specialties. Some of them specify that they are not to be expected to teach Humanities, while others ask the same favor as soon as they become acquainted with the course." The problems associated with the teaching of an undergraduate core curriculum in the Humanities at a Research I institution have only been exacerbated since Percy's time. Nonetheless, the commitment of the Department of Classics to the core curriculum has never weakened. While faculty in the Department have distinguished themselves in research, publications, and field archaeology, they continue to contribute as large a share to the core curriculum in the humanities as Percy and his colleagues did in the 1960s. In 1970 Dr. Marie Volk, later Marie Bahr-Volk, was appointed Assistant Professor of Classics. She almost instantly was regarded as one of the most energetic and popular instructors ever to have taught in the Department. Bahr-Volk was promoted to Associate Professor in 1976, but resigned in 1978. History of the Department, 1980-7
The Department entered a period of rapid expansion in the early 1980s under the direction of Paul Rosenblatt, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and John Schaeffer, President of the University. Dr. Norman Austin (Ph.D. Berkeley) was named Professor and Head of the Department in 1980; in 1982 Dr. David Soren (Ph.D. Harvard) joined the Department as Professor of Classical Archaeology; in 1983 Dr. Jon Solomon (Ph.D. North Carolina) was appointed Associate Professor; Dr. Albert Leonard, Jr. (Ph.D. Chicago), currently the editor of the Bulletin of the American School of Oriental Research, joined the Department as Professor of Classical Archaeology in 1985; in the following year Dr. Mary Voyatzis (Ph.D. London) was hired as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Archaeology and Modern Greek. All remain with the Department today. Three additional appointments at the assistant professor level were made during this decade: Dr. Charles Chamberlain (Ph.D. Berkeley) in 1981; Dr. Holt Parker (Ph.D. Yale) in 1985; and Dr. Margaret Fusco (Ph.D. Chicago) in 1988. Classics now was an energetic and prosperous department that could claim success on many fronts. The annual report for 1985-6 cited University President Henry Koffler as having designated the Department of Classics as "one of the University's fastest rising stars." There was much evidence to support the President's claim: the Department's enrollments were increasing rapidly each year; the faculty's research was bringing national and international renown to the University; the faculty were well-known and respected throughout the University and in the local community; high school teachers of Latin were looking to the Department for guidance and support. The Department had an excavation at Kourion, Cyprus, directed by Dr. Soren, which attracted special attention internationally because of the scientific information that seismologists were able to glean from the site. Dr. Voyatzis had provided us with a second excavation, at Tegea in Greece. In 1985 we instituted an M.A. program. Our first graduate student, a Fulbright scholar from Portugal, was hired by the government of Portugal to direct three major archaeological projects in her homeland. Soon after, two other students in our fledgling program published articles in refereed journals. After we revitalized the Arizona Junior Classical League, the number of Latin courses being offered in high schools across the state of Arizona increased dramatically. The annual report for 1986-87 records that our annual Latin convention was attended by some 300 high school teachers and students. We were also gaining a reputation across campus for excellence in undergraduate teaching. Dr. Solomon received a national award for distinguished teaching from the American Philological Association. All others in the Department had impressive student evaluations in their undergraduate courses. During this period we instituted a two-year program in Modern Greek, which was immediately supported by the local Hellenic community. A formal agreement was made between the Hellenic community and the University to insure the continued maintenance of this program. Our outreach efforts in the community resulted in close liaisons with the Hellenic Cultural Foundation and the Humanities Seminars Program, both of which continue to contribute funds to the Department today. Classics Faculty were active in research and fund-raising in a variety of ways. In 1986-7, the Department offered its first National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute for college instructors, directed by Dr. Austin with a $120,000 budget. In 1986-7 alone, the Department raised a total of $400,000 in external funding (excluding sums raised in the local community). The University's Fact Book for 1990-1 quantified the Department's contribution to the University in the 1980s. This source records an astronomical increase in SCH (Student Credit Hours) generated annually by the Department, i.e. from 2,173 in 1980 to 4,434 in 1987 (an increase of 104% in seven years). Although this increase in SCH reflects the addition of new faculty, comparison with figures for other units in Arts and Sciences (as the College was then named), most of which also enlarged their faculties during this period, indicates that our increases during this period were truly exceptional. The increase of 2,261 in SCH generated by the Department of Classics represents 28% of the total increase in SCH within the College of Humanities during the years 1981-7. This fact in turn suggests that the success of the Department over this period should not be attributed solely to increased faculty lines or to increased enrollments in the University at large. Rather, the statistics chart a significant shift of student interest toward the field of Greco-Roman studies, a shift that also reflects the high quality of undergraduate teaching in the Department. It is clear that Classics has been assuming a larger and larger proportion of the teaching mission of the College of Arts and Sciences. History of the Department of Classics, 1988-Present
Since 1987-8, some faculty have departed, but faculty members who have brought new strengths to our programs have been appointed. Two assistant professors left the University to accept offers elsewhere: Dr. Fusco accepted a position at Vassar College in 1990; Dr. Parker accepted a position at the University of Cincinnati in 1991. As noted above, Dr. Jensen retired in 1994, and Dr. Worthen in 1999; following the retirement of each, generous donations allowed for the creation of an annual award to the outstanding undergraduate student in Latin (Jensen Prize) and in Greek (Worthen Prize). Dr. Austin officially retired in 2000; as of the fall of 2005, the department still had not received authorization to fill his philology line. Over this same period we made five new hires: Dr. Marilyn Skinner (Ph.D. Stanford), from Northern Illinois University, was appointed Professor of Classics and Head in 1991, and subsequently served as editor of Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association. That same year, Dr. Cynthia White (Ph.D. Catholic University) was appointed Assistant Professor of Classics and Latin Program Director. Dr. Frank Romer (Ph.D. Stanford), with previous service at Johns Hopkins University, was appointed Assistant Professor of Classics in 1992. Dr. David Christenson (Ph.D. Harvard) was appointed Assistant Professor of Classics in 1995, as was Dr. Gonda Van Steen (Ph.D Princeton) in 1997. All these appointments in Philology have greatly enriched our teaching and research mission. These faculty members have received extremely positive evaluations from students, and have created new courses for the core curriculum of the University. In 2003, university administration eliminated the Humanities Program. As a result, two new faculty members joined the department: Bella Vivante (Ph.D. Stanford University) was appointed Associate Professor and Richard Wilkinson (Ph.D. University of Minnesota) became Professor of Classics. Five faculty members have been promoted in recent years. Dr. Voyatzis was promoted from Assistant to Associate Professor with tenure in 1994 and became a full Professor during her first five-year term as Head, which began in 2000; Dr. Romer was tenured and named Associate Professor in 1996; Dr. Solomon was promoted from Associate Professor to Professor in 1996; and Dr. White was tenured and named Associate Professor in 1997, as were Dr. Christenson in 2000, who served as Latin Program Director from 2001 to 2005, and Dr. Van Steen in 2002. In the 2000-1 academic year, the line held by Dr. Worthen was converted to archaeology. Eleni Hasaki, who holds a Ph.D from the University of Cincinnati, subsequently joined the faculty in the fall of 2001 and is now an Assistant Professor. The Department has followed up on its enormous success during the 1980s in providing quality instruction to undergraduates by creating several new classes for the University's core curriculum; still further increases in enrollments and SCH have resulted, and Classics faculty currently teach over 2000 students each semester. Over 200 students now begin elementary Latin (i.e. LAT 101) each fall, and, typically, 30-40 begin studying ancient Greek each fall. In 1995 we established a successful accelerated Latin sequence that enables students to complete two years of college Latin during the summer sessions.This summer intensive Latin program is an enormous success, and typically draws over 50 students each year. Department members also have instituted and taught Freshman Colloquia, and a departmental plan for offering Senior Capstone courses on a regular basis has been formulated. Dr. Voyatzis was reappointed for a second consecutive five-year term as Head by Dean Charles Tatum in the spring of 2005. That same semester Dr. Romer and Dr. Solomon announced that they would be leaving the University of Arizona to accept positions at other institutions. Dr. Alex Nava of the Religious Studies Program was appointed Interim Head for 2005-2006 by Dean Charles Tatum immediately after he was tenured and promoted to Associate Professor in the spring of 2005. Dr. Nava resigned as Interim Head in April 2006, and the remainder of his Interim Headship was filled by Dr. Soren. In the summer of 2007 Religious Studies became a separate unit from Classics. Dr. Leonard retired and became Professor Emeritus in 2007. Dr. John Bauschatz (Ph.D. Duke University), with previous experience at Swarthmore College, was appointed Assistant Professor of Classics in 2007. The M.A. program has grown dramatically in these years, and the results of a 1993 University of Florida survey identified it as one of the premier M.A. programs in Classics in this country; since 1989, over 60 students have received master's degrees. In Fall 2005, Dr. Christenson assumed the new office of Director of Graduate Studies. There are now four distinct M.A. Emphases in Classics: ancient history, classical archaeology, classical philology, and Latin pedagogy. In the Fall of 2006, a record number (17) of students matriculated into the graduate program. Many of our graduates have been accepted into prominent doctoral programs nationwide. A 1995 M.A. recipient who completed his Ph.D. at another institution received multiple tenure-track job offers, as did also a 1999 graduate who earned an M.A. in Classics and a Ph.D. in Philosophy conjointly at the University of Arizona. We have successfully extended our efforts to increase enrollments in the Modern Greek program. A four-semester sequence (i.e. four courses per year) of Modern Greek has been established, as has a 400 level course. For much of this period Dr. Voyatzis taught two of these each year, and for the other two we relied upon Greek or Greek-American graduate students at the University hired as graduate teaching assistants. With the hiring of Dr. Van Steen, 50% of whose time is dedicated to Modern Greek, Dr. Voyatzis is now able to devote more time to archaeology. The Department is very pleased to have established a relationship with the College of Education, whereby Classics students may enroll in courses within both our Department and the College of Education so as to obtain certification as teachers of Latin. In 1995-6, we instituted a Placement Service for teachers of Latin; no other such service exists in the South and the southwestern states between California and Florida. Several B.A. and M.A. recipients have taken Latin teaching positions in Arizona and other states. At the beginning of this period Dr. Soren was completing his excavations at Kourion, Cyprus. Since then he excavated for six seasons at Lugnano, Italy, and subsequently began excavations at Chianciano in Tuscany, Italy. Dr. Voyatzis is now Co-Director of the Mt. Lykaion Excavation and Survey Project in Greece. Dr. Wilkinson currently directs excavations in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. The inclusion of video-disc and CD-ROM imaging technology into undergraduate syllabi with the use of electronically-based information-retrieval equipment has become part of the Department's educational mission. Dr. Worthen assumed a leadership position in acquiring the expertise necessary to implement these technological advances into the Classics curriculum and several faculty members now utilize various technologies in the classroom. During 1994-5, with the aid of a Departmental Award for Outstanding Achievement in Undergraduate Education from the Provost's Office, a computer work-station was set up next to the student reading room, with state-of-the-art computer equipment, a scanner, and an ethernet connection. This facility has since been upgraded and is used extensively by our graduate students and faculty, who actively encourage undergraduate majors to explore educational possibilities open to them via this equipment, such as the various data bases now available for research in Classics. Classicists at the University of Arizona and elsewhere have played an instrumental role in the practical application of computer technologies: Dr. Leonard quickly foresaw that improvements in data base programs for personal computers made possible the realization of his ongoing MYCINDEX, a project for cataloging pottery from the Late Bronze Age Mediterranean. Summary of Departmental History, 1892-present
Throughout this narrative history of Classics at the University of Arizona since its inception as the President's personal responsibility in 1892, certain themes recur repeatedly. Faculty in Classics consistently have been motivated by an unyielding conviction that the study of Greco-Roman civilization is of fundamental importance to a liberal arts education, and they have put that conviction into practice by their vigorous commitment to undergraduate, and, most recently, graduate student teaching, sometimes under the most trying circumstances. Faculty in Classics regularly have taught course overloads while at the same time achieving international reputations for their research. They have worked industriously to foster ties with the community, whether by giving radio talks or lectures for the general community, serving on the boards of local organizations, or by participating in various other outreach activities. In conclusion, the remarkable expansion of the Department of Classics from the first years of the 20th century to the beginning of the 21st can be attributed to two factors above all others: first, the uncompromising dedication of Arizona Classics faculty to teaching, and, secondly, the implicit suggestion that constantly reinvigorated study and appraisal of Greco-Roman civilization remains profoundly relevant to the experience of students living in the modern world. Today, the Department of Classics at the University of Arizona remains a resilient, vibrant, and innovative force uniquely suited to assume an important role in the field as it faces the new challenges of the current century. |
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