Six faculty and professional personnel were honored for their contributions to the university at the fall semester faculty meeting Aug. 20.

They are Tracy L. Cross, outstanding administrative service; Linda K. Hanson, outstanding faculty award; Bruce W. Hozeski, outstanding faculty service; Donald F. Kuratko, outstanding research award; Bonita M. McVey, outstanding faculty academic advisor; Scott W. Trappe, outstanding junior faculty.

The outstanding educators, selected by their peers, receive a cash award from the Ball State University Foundation as well as a plaque provided by the Alumni Association.

Since coming to Ball State in 1993, Cross has been coordinator of research for Teachers College, director of the Center for Gifted Studies and Talent Development, chairperson of the Department of Educational Psychology and executive director of the Indiana Academy for Science, Mathematics, and Humanities.

In December 1996, he was asked to lead the Indiana Academy, where he is credited with setting high expectations and working collaboratively with faculty and staff to build on past progress.

Six years ago he approached his dean with an idea for establishing a Center for Gifted Studies and Talent Development. Today the center is recognized as one of the top five in the nation and Cross himself is viewed as a national leader in gifted and talented education.

Hanson has served as director of basic writing instruction, site director of the Indiana Writing Project, rhetoric and composition associate professor and former English department chairperson. With 28 years of teaching experience, she continues to demonstrate national leadership in basic writing programs, computer applications in literature and writing courses, scholarly studies of William Wordsworth and implementation of the Boyer model for teacher-scholars. She is also a sought-after graduate student advisor and dissertation director.

As site director for the regional affiliate of the National Writing Project, Hanson brings more than $30,000 in outside grant monies to campus annually. The project trains public school teachers in the latest composition theories and teaching methods during intensive summer institutes.

Hozeski has served 16 years on the University Senate in every major office including chairperson. He has been a member of the University Review Board, Publications and Intellectual Properties Committee, International Affairs Committee and Wings for the Future Capital Campaign. He has also represented Ball State on the Indiana Partnership for Statewide Education. Within the College of Sciences and Humanities, Hozeski has served on the dean’s advisory council and the graduate faculty advisory committee. In the English department, he directed the graduate programs, chaired the salary and British and world literature area committees and actively participated on the promotion and tenure and writing committees.

Hozeski has published 13 articles and written part or all of 11 books. He is the convener of the annual Conference for Ancient and Early Studies and the founder of the International Society of Hildegard von Bingen Studies. such as Christian Ministries, the United Way and local schools and churches

Over the past 16 years Kuratko has brought Ball State’s program in entrepreneurial research to ninth best in the country. His efforts in developing the Midwest Entrepreneurial Education Center have placed it in the top 10 nationally and garnered grants totaling approximately $1 million.

Kuratko has authored eight books and published more than 140 articles. His "Entrepreneurship: A Contemporary Approach" is the leading entrepreneurship text in the world. Additionally, he has won four best paper awards at national conferences and in 1997 was invited to author the entrepreneurship chapter for the International Encyclopedia of Business and Management.

Students in the College of Business voted Kuratko the college’s professor of the year for five consecutive years before the college retired him from that competition and he has been granted the Dean’s Teaching Award 13 times. He has also served as president of the U.S. Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

As graduate program director in computer science, McVey guides more than 80 students through the curriculum to completion of all requirements. An added challenge is that most of her advisees are international students, alone in a foreign country for the first time. For them, having a knowledgeable, perceptive and approachable advisor is a matter of academic survival. Many have been on shaky ground until McVey mentored them, helping them to blossom into successful graduates.

In recognition of her individualized attention, students once affectionately strung a banner over her door which read "over one million students served!" In 1996 the Disabled Student Development office named her most accessible teacher.

A tenure-line faculty member for just two years, Trappe has become an exemplary teacher-scholar in the School of Physical Education and a productive researcher in the Human Performance Laboratory. As teacher, he helps undergraduates gain a cutting-edge knowledge of exercise physiology and he effectively mentors graduate students as well.

Through his research in muscle physiology, the Human Performance Laboratory is learning about the basic adaptive characteristics of muscle at the single fiber level and the results already show promise for new discoveries in both aging and sport physiology.