The Robert Anderson First Seminar Instructor of the Year
The First Seminar Program courses provide a unique blend of discipline-specific questions, community-engaged learning, experiences that go beyond the classroom, and first-year student mentoring and skill development. The award will be given annually to an instructor who meaningfully blends all of these components to create an intellectually engaging and supportive experience for first-year students. This award is named in honor of Professor Robert Anderson, former Assistant Provost of Liberal Learning, who remains an advocate for the program and our first–year students. Dedicated to the spirit of Liberal Learning and courses that create a well-rounded education, Bob contributed to the discussions during transformation that eventually resulted in the First Seminar, and has been recognized nationally for his work promoting the first-year experience.
Professor Anderson began his career at TCNJ in 1967 in the Sociology Department, became the Director of General Education in 1989, and soon after the Director of Liberal Learning. He was named Assistant Provost in 2006, and in those years, advised a countless number of students streaming into Green 109. Not the retiring type, since stepping down from his position in 2014, Bob has continued to teach an FSP of his own, Explorations in Time and Time Travel. We suspect study of this topic, in addition to his enthusiasm for reading widely about politics, sociology, and baseball, and his fondness for sharing his insights with students, all are reasons he remains so young. We look forward to his continuing to teach the course for many more years.