Outstanding Teaching Award Goes to Dr. Rodney Grunes, Alumni Faculty Research Grant to Dr. Mark Fisch During 1998 Founders' Day at Centenary College

SHREVEPORT, LA -- Centenary College students and faculty have selected Dr. Rodney Grunes for the 1998 Outstanding Teaching Award. The annual selection is determined by a vote of the entire academic community and is given to recognize devotion to excellence in the classroom.

The announcement came today (Thursday, April 2) during the annual Founders' Day Convocation in Brown Memorial Chapel. Grunes is chairman of the Department of History and Political Science and has been a member of the faculty since 1986. He holds the A.B. degree from Drew University (1963), and the A.M. (1967) and Ph.D. (1972) degrees from Duke University.

Also honored during the Convocation was Dr. Mark Fisch, who received the Alumni Faculty Research Grant for student-involved research and study of the Highland neighborhood in Shreveport. Fisch is chairman of the Department of Sociology and has been a member of the faculty since 1990. He holds the B.A. degree from City College of New York (1973), the M.S. from the University of Chicago (1975) and the Ph.D. (1986) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Founders' Day this year celebrated the 173rd anniversary of Centenary College, which was founded in 1825 and is the oldest privately chartered college west of the Mississippi. Centenary is a private, nationally ranked liberal arts institution located in Shreveport, La.

The Founders' Day program included an address and performance by Dr. Mark Zeltser, an internationally known pianist who joined the Centenary music faculty in January.

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