SEC Chair-elect Shoemaker highly regarded among peers

According to fellow faculty members, Senate Executive Committee Chairperson-elect Louise Shoemaker is a strong, caring and no-nonsense educator. But above all, her colleages say she is capable. Since she was nominated to the post without opposition last month, Shoemaker has received staunch support and virtually no criticism. "She has certain causes which concern her, and she stands by them strongly," Emeritus Biochemistry Professor Adelaide Delluva said this week. Shoemaker, who has worked at the University for 25 years, will begin her three-year stint in the fall, learning SEC operations and advising committees as chairperson-elect. She will head the committee the following year, and will advise the incoming officers during the 1992-93 academic year. Shoemaker served as Social Work dean from 1971 to 1985 and has been in the forefront of the fight for civil rights at the University for most of her years here. During her tenure as dean, the School of Social Work hired four black professors, and the school still has the University's highest percentage of black faculty members. "I feel that there should be a faculty diversity here because we are an American faculty," Shoemaker said. "I'd like to see the University become a more humane place for people to study and work." The clinal social work professor has served as chairperson of the Association of Women Faculty and Administrators at the University for the past year. She said that the group's greatest work during the year has been "taking a proactive stance about women's issues on campus." Under her leadership, the association signed an amicus curiae brief supporting the Equal Employment Opportunity Commmission in the recent Supreme Court case against the University, in which the justices ruled that the University must give documents for government investigations into charges of discrimination. Social Work Professor Mark Stern said yesterday that Shoemaker will be a "strong spokesperson for the faculty." He added that he expects her to focus her efforts on combatting racism and sexism on campus. "She is a no-nonsense person who has a clear notion about what is important, and she works on those issues," Stern said. Shoemaker also serves on several academic committees and currently heads the Senate Committee on Academic Freedom and Resposibility. Delluva, a member of the academic freedom committee, said that Shoemaker has been a fair and capable committee chairperson who "always stands by her principles." Delluva added that she expects Shoemaker to carry these traits with her to the SEC leadership. While Shoemaker will not be a SEC member until the fall, she said that her experience as Academic Freedom and Resposibilty chairperson has helped her to understand faculty issues at the University. "There seems to be a lot of ignorance about what it means to be a faculty member at the University in regards to academic freedom," the Social Work professor said. She added that she hopes to educate faculty about their rights and responsibilities during the next three years. Shoemaker also said that her experience as dean and professor will enable her to be an intermediary between the administration and the faculty. "Being dean, I had to know how the University operates and the kinds of issues it deals with," she said. "The administration knows I am persistent, and I have a very good relationship with the deans." Colleagues have praised Shoemaker's professional work as well, saying that she is well known in her field of clinical social work. According to Social Work Professor June Axinn, Shoemaker is a "leader in social work in the United States," who has written extensively and given many speeches about her area of expertise. But Shoemaker's social work fame is not limited to this country. Shoemaker's love of travel has taken her to the ends of the Earth where she has taught and studied the social work practices of people worldwide. She has been involved in a student exchange program to the University of Ibadan in Nigeria for the past five years, and said she plans to travel to India in the near future. While Shoemaker said she loves to experience foreign cultures, she added that she seldom travels just for fun. Her trips include visits to prisons, institutions and hospitals which "tell a lot about the people." Axinn said she thinks Shoemaker's travel experience will help her in her new position. "She has a lot of interest in international affairs," Axinn said yesterday. "She will give a broad perspective to University life." Shoemaker also paints, and her artistic works include oil landscapes and other subjects which she said are "restful to the soul." But according to Shoemaker, all these accomplishments are little next to her lifetime greatest accomplishment: the successful raising of her three children and one Vietnamese foster child.

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