This year’s faculty laureate, Lynne Curry, is looking forward to welcoming new students into the university community Tuesday at Convocation.

“My primary responsibility is my opportunity to address the incoming students,” said the history professor. “Convocation is meant as a way to bring people in and really recognize and celebrate these new people.”

Curry has been a professor at Eastern for 12 years, and was nominated for professor laureate by Anita Shelton, chair of the history department.

“She’s very successful at inspiring students to take responsibility in their education,” Shelton said.

In the nomination letter submitted for Curry in March 2006, Shelton wrote, “her area of expertise and primary teaching assignment lies squarely at the heart of this university’s mission. She is the personification of the scholar-teacher, the highest ideal of the academy. Students flock to her. She brings out the best in them.”

Curry has been thinking about what she wants to say to students at Convocation since she received the title last spring.

“I thought about my experience over 12 years, and I thought about things I’d like to pass on,” she said. Curry decided that the most important message to convey in her speech is the importance of being part of the Eastern community.

“There’s this other part of coming to a university that you’re part of something larger than just yourself,” Curry said. “Once they understand what’s unique and special about a college education, it’s my hope they will be able to make it the best experience it can be.”

Besides teaching and researching legal history of the U.S. constitution, Curry also serves on Faculty Senate, teaches classes for the Honors College and the women’s studies minor, serves on the Judicial Affairs Board and numerous other university-wide committees.

“There’s a give and take when you’re a university professor that’s really exciting,” Curry said. “It’s amazing how students shape how you think.”

When she’s not on campus with her students, Curry is still working at home. She is awaiting the Spring 2007 release of “The DeShaney Case, Child Abuse, Family Rights, and the Dilemma of State,” a book she worked on mostly while at home.

“The opportunity to always be exploring new ideas and interacting with different people,” is why Curry loves her job, she said. She hopes to pass that same passion for learning and for the university community into the fresh batch of students at Convocation.