Jeffrey Berman Recognized Nationally for Making a Profound Difference

Named One of America's Best Professors by Princeton Review

Jeffrey Berman, back left, speaks with three students after class this spring. They are, clockwise, Ian Lepkowsky, Rebecca Sweet and Joevonne Brace.

ALBANY, N.Y.(April 6, 2012) — A Distinguished Teaching Professor who believes he's learned more from his students in his 39 years at UAlbany than they ever could have learned from him, has been chosen one of the 300 best professors of undergraduate students in America.

Department of English Professor Jeffrey Berman is honored in a new book from the Princeton Review, The Best 300 Professors (Random House, 2012), which profiles teachers in 60 different fields of study. The results are based on input from thousands of students regarding educators encountered during their college careers. Berman was one of 22 professors chosen in the field of English, and one of 25 honored overall from New York State.

Berman's passion for teaching is evident not only in the classroom but also in the many books he has written about his students, including Death Education in the Writing Classroom (Baywood Publishing, 2008), based on an undergraduate writing course on love and loss he taught at UAlbany in 2008. "My goal is to improve the quality of their writing, and that's all they are graded upon, but we touch upon areas that are most important to their lives," said Berman.

The cover of Distinguished Teaching Professor Jeffrey Berman's latest of 14 published books, Death Education in the Writing Classroom.

He added, "I hope I've made a profound difference in the lives of my students, but I know they have made a profound difference in my own."

The survey was a collaborative effort of Princeton Review and RateMyProfessors.com – the highest-trafficked college professor ratings site in the U.S. It identified more than 42,000 professors rated by students nationwide, created an initial list of 1,000 leading professors, then followed up with additional input from school administrators and students. The Review's editors made the final choices of the 300 profiled professors.

The Review noted that all of the professors profiled in the new book "won high praise from their most important audiences: the undergrad students they teach and inspire, class after class, year after year, in fields that range from ancient studies to neuroscience to sport management."

According to Robert Franek, Princeton Review's senior VP/publisher, "We developed this project as a tribute to the extraordinary dedication of America's undergraduate college professors and the vitally important role they play in our culture, and our democracy."

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