Joe Gutierrez | Office of Strategic Communication | (909) 537-5007 | joeg@csusb.edu
Montgomery “Monty” Van Wart was giving a presentation at the senior team meeting of the Jack H. Brown College of Business and Public Administration, when university President Tomás D. Morales, Provost Rafik Mohamed and about 20 colleagues, fellow faculty members, staff and administrators, barged into the dean’s conference room with a special – and surprise – announcement.
“We’re here to present the 2023 Outstanding Professor Award to no other than Monty Van Wart for his enduring excellence in teaching, research and scholarly activities in service to our students and to the university and to the community at large,” Morales said.
Morales praised Van Wart’s dedication to students, junior faculty and the university.
“He has committed to an impressive level of service activity, all the more impressive considering the time and energy he puts into teaching and research,” Morales said. “His work is too numerous to list here, but suffice it to say that he’s made significant contributions to the university and professional organizations with service activities and just a number and broad number of activities. His scholarship is really first rate and serves as a role model for others to emulate.”
Morales said it is a university tradition to present these outstanding faculty awards through a surprise declaration, where the president and fellow faculty members come right into and interrupt a classroom, lab or lecture hall to make the proclamation in front of the faculty member’s students so the students can see their professor being honored.
The award comes with the honor of being the John M. Pfau Endowed Professor; a $3,000 Faculty Professional Development Grant; the balance of the endowment in the form of a check; being honored at the Faculty Recognition Luncheon; and recognition at the awardee’s spring college commencement ceremony.
Provost Mohamed echoed the president’s comments.
“The president said it all, Monty, or almost it all, but I honestly am hard pressed to think of somebody who better encapsulates all of the criteria that we use to kind of assess and evaluate professors on this campus,” Mohamed said. “You’re an excellent teacher … Your student feedback is truly remarkable. You’re super skilled both in person and in online modalities. You’ve been a driver of online education on our campus long before it was something that was make or break for us as a campus. You’ve been innovative in that space and every other space in service.”
Jack H. Brown College Dean Tomás Gómez-Arias said that during the leadership team meeting, Van Wart was giving a presentation on some of the work he has been doing this year and about the future of research.
“Monty has always been an innovator in what he has been doing, where he stands,” Gómez-Arias said. “He’s helping us think about where we take the JHBC in going forward as a college of business and public administration that is really trying to find the right balance of teachings, scholarly work and service.”
The dean added that Van Wart was one of the first CSUSB faculty members he met when joining the university.
During the meeting Van Wart “was about ‘How can I help you? How can I help you land here? How can I help you be successful? How can I help the rest of my colleagues be successful?’ That’s ultimately the concept of leadership,” Gómez-Arias said. “It’s not about how good you are, but how good you make the people around you. When you look at Monty’s work, that’s what I have seen. It’s not about how much he has accomplished as much as it is, but how much he has helped all of us around him accomplish. And that really speaks great length to his impact, his attitude, and how valuable he is for all of us. So very well-deserved Monty. We are really fortunate to have you here.”
Van Wart, who sat for the announcement and praise, said he was embarrassed by all the attention and the award.
“What I’ve tried to do is not just do my job, but to help the institution,” he said. “And it doesn’t matter whether it’s making sure that we teach really well to our students, and challenge ourselves to teach well, and learn about it and integrate in our research or helping junior faculty or helping colleagues at other levels, occasionally being provocative when I felt we have to have some tough conversations from time to time. We have to be able to bring up issues.
“I’ve enjoyed the opportunity, and I have had so many opportunities here. I mean, it’s been spectacular,” Van Wart said. “The opportunities, the good fortune that I have had to be chair of two different departments, interim dean, faculty research, all those things,” Van Wart said. “It’s been just really wonderful.”
“Monty has always been an innovator in what he has been doing, where he stands. He’s helping us think about where we take the JHBC in going forward as a college of business and public administration that is really trying to find the right balance of teachings, scholarly work and service.”
Tomás Gómez-Arias, dean
Jack H. Brown College of Business and Public Administration
Van Wart’s B.A. is from Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, Pa.; his M.S. in teaching from Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Ore.; and his Ph.D. in public administration from Arizona State University, Tempe, Ariz. Currently, he holds the additional positions of CSUSB Faculty Research Fellow in the Provost’s Office of Faculty Affairs and Development, and director of Faculty Development in the Jack H. Brown College of Business and Public Administration.
The committee, composed of Van Wart’s faculty peers, had this to say about him: “Since joining CSUSB in 2005, Dr. Van Wart has served the university with distinction, particularly in his dedication to excelling in all areas of teaching, research, and service. When evaluating his accomplishments in these three areas, we conclude that Dr. Van Wart has consistently achieved exceptionally high levels of performance during his time at CSUSB.”
The 2022-23 committee was led by co-chairs Mark Agars (Department of Psychology) and Mike Stull (School of Entrepreneurship). Other members include Todd A. Johnson (representing the College of Arts and Letters), Ghulam Sarwar (representing the Jack H. Brown College of Business and Public Administration), Jemma Kim (representing the James R. Watson and Judy Rodriguez Watson College of Education), Christopher Gentry (representing the College of Natural Sciences) and Rajrani Kalra (representing the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences).
Students have commented enthusiastically on his work as a teacher and mentor. “Professor Van Wart is very passionate about his teaching and definitely knows the material. He also knows how to portray it to students in a way that is comprehensible,” said one.
Another added, “Dr. Monty Van Wart has contributed a lot to my career. He has enhanced my skills in Human Resources, Administrative Law and Leadership. Each one has contributed in my current job, and has given me the opportunity to add more value as an employee to this university, thanks to Dr. Van Wart’s contributions. All the material and classes (are) so handy in my career as well as my job.”
He has arguably been CSUSB’s strongest advocate for high-quality online teaching. Van Wart was the first faculty member at CSUSB to have a course certified by Quality Matters and Quality Learning and Teaching. He has also been the champion in regard to scholarly research on online teaching and continues to sponsor a national (but CSUSB-led) research team that has achieved 15 publications and secured a $200,000 National Science Foundation grant.
Van Wart has also been an advocate and catalyst for supporting a greater research climate at CSUSB. He has authored over 150 publications, has been cited over 8,000 times, has a Google Scholar H-index of 33 and has written 11 books.
Even prior to his appointment as the CSUSB Faculty Research Fellow, he had collaborated with every member of the public administration department and over a dozen faculty colleagues from different departments in the Jack H. Brown College on publications. In his current position, Van Wart is supporting the research efforts of hundreds of faculty across the university every year.
Van Wart’s professional association memberships include The American Society for Public Administration and the International Research Society for Public Management.