Legal advice: Associate Prof. Sandra Chance, JM 1975, MAJC 1985, teaches Law of Mass Communication in spring semesters. (Photo by David Zentz)
By Chance
College’s freedom of information center director named national teacher of the year
By Boaz Dvir
College of Journalism and Communications Associate Prof. Sandra Chance, JM 1975, MAMC 1985, already knew she was a well-respected teacher. Despite being a tough grader, she received top student evaluations every time she taught Law of Mass Communication or its graduate-level equivalent. One semester, she earned a perfect 5.0; another, a 4.92. Still, she felt “shocked” when Dean Terry Hynes called recently to say the Scripps Howard Foundation named her 2004 National Journalism Teacher of the Year.
“I kept saying, ‘I’m stunned, I’m speechless,’ ” recalled Chance, who holds the J.D. degree from UF’s Levin College of Law and is executive director of the College’s Joseph L. Brechner Center for Freedom of Information. “How do you describe the feeling? It’s almost indescribable. You teach because you love it. To be recognized is the icing on the cake.”
More than symbolic, the National Journalism Award, given in conjunction with The Freedom Forum, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and AEJMC (the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication), came with $15,000 — $5,000 for the College and $10,000 for Chance. She used some of the cash to bring her husband Michael and three children (Dean, Justin and Caroline, ages 19 to 27) to the Scripps Howard ceremony at the National Press Club in Washington, and will spend more of it this summer when she joins Caroline, a UF freshman, for a week in Paris. She also will make a donation to a teaching fund.
Prof. Laurence Alexander, MAMC 1983, won a similar honor in 2002. At the time, The Freedom Forum and AEJMC oversaw the award, handing out three annually. The Cincinnati-based Scripps Howard Foundation, which took over the process in 2003, names one winner a year. “I tell you, it was terrific,” said Alexander, who shares material with Chance for the law course, which he teaches in the fall and summer.
Asked what the award means to him three years later, Alexander paused and said, “I see it on my wall every day. It’s glowing.”
Tag team: Prof. Laurence Alexander, 2002 national teacher of the year, teaches Law of Mass Communication in fall and summer semesters. (Photo by Hannah Reichel)
Having two winners in three years adds to the College’s reputation for quality instruction, said Hynes, AEJMC 1997 Administrator of the Year. “I’m doubly proud,” she said. “It’s great to see two of our faculty members who teach at the highest level being recognized. This also shows that a research university values excellent teaching.”
Ironically, because she teaches no more than one undergraduate course a semester, Chance fails to qualify for UF’s and the College’s Teacher of the Year award. She did win it in 1998 – the one time the rules were bent to allow her application. The same year, she also qualified for the University Teaching Incentive Program, which added $5,000 to her salary. Over the past decade, she has won numerous UF and College awards.
Chance is also active nationally. She spends two weeks a year teaching at the University of Nevada at Reno’s Advanced Judicial Studies Program. She won AEJMC’s Baskett Mosse Award in 2003.
“My classroom extends beyond the walls of Weimer Hall,” Chance said. “A large part of my work at the Brechner Center involves teaching. I teach professionals, citizens’ groups, judges, and public officials.”
The public has taken notice. “I have repeatedly met journalists and lawyers who spontaneously offer high praise regarding her outreach and service,” Hynes wrote in her nomination letter to the Scripps Howard award committee.
Chance places the most emphasis on feedback she receives from students, she said.
“As a student who does not usually grasp law concepts easily,” wrote one of her undergraduate media law students, “I found her teaching style really helpful.”
In her letter to the Scripps Howard award committee, Debra Deardourff, MAMC 1999, described how Chance challenged her with a Web assignment in Advanced Law of Mass Communication.
“Creating a Web page might not seem innovative in 2004, but in 1998 this task was quite daunting,” wrote Deardourff, an attorney with Holland and Knight in Tampa.
Chance, too, worked at Holland and Knight – until 1993, when she returned to her alma mater.
“Students sometimes ask me, ‘Why would you leave a lucrative law practice?’ I did it because of the opportunity to make a difference,” she said. “As an attorney, I mostly dealt with clients who, for the most part, were in legal trouble. I was being reactive. I wanted to be proactive.”
It’s working, said Department of Journalism Chair William McKeen .
“We have benefited greatly from her background in law, her valuable perspective on freedom-of-information issues, and her integrity and dedication to the worlds of education and journalism,” he wrote in his letter to the Scripps Howard award committee.
McKeen put Chance’s accomplishments in perspective by noting her role in his department’s progress: “The past 10 years would not have been as rich and meaningful without Prof. Chance’s contributions, nor would the department’s future be as exciting without her as a colleague.”
Chance’s secret may surprise her colleagues and students: Her children give her invaluable insight and tips.
“A lot of what I learned about teaching,” she said, “I learned by talking to my children.”
She uses these and other lessons to make her classes “as interesting as possible. I bring in a lot of different tools, such as videos. I try to be up-to-date and relevant. I try to engage the students in the process of learning, to get them excited.”
Feedback from current and former students motivates her more than the many awards she has won, she said. “It’s thrilling to get e-mails from former students saying that they remembered what you taught them five years ago. I have students who, after taking my class, say they now think about getting into law.”
She may inspire others to go into teaching.
“She does it all ...,” Hynes wrote, “with the highest degree of professionalism, enthusiasm and skill.”
Chance is ...
Associate Prof. Sandra Chance, JM 1975, MAMC 1985, who directs the College’s Brechner Center for Freedom of Information, recently won the Scripps Howard Foundation’s 2004 Teacher of the Year Award. Here are some of the comments submitted as part of her nomination process:
Anonymous Student (from an evaluation): “I felt like Prof. Chance knew so much about the material and was able to convey the info to us very well.”
Anonymous Student (from an evaluation): “She taught concepts in a true-to-life manner in terms I could understand. She was also very personable and lovable.”
Doctoral student Elizabeth DeBarba, MAMC 2000: “Prof. Chance is principled; always is available to counsel students … and possesses the talent prized by all teachers: to motivate a student to perform to the best of his or her aptitude.”
Department of Journalism Chair William McKeen: “Students, faculty, scholars, journalism professionals, public officials, lawyers, access advocates and ordinary citizens have all benefited from Prof. Chance’s dedication to journalism education.”
Dean Terry Hynes: “Prof. Chance sets high standards and expectations for student learning and involvement in the learning process, and she is innovative in developing instructional methods that will help achieve these goals.”
