Two award-winning faculty members say they will leave Ball State University in July, but neither have formally resigned.
Bob Papper, professor of telecommunications, and his wife, Carole Papper, professor of English, will both take teaching positions at Hofstra University in Long Island, N.Y. in the fall, Bob Papper said.
The teachers came to Ball State University in 1993 and have since made their marks in the respective fields of study - Bob Papper in TV news and Carole Papper in English language rhetoric and composition.
Bob Papper said he has "thoroughly enjoyed" working with people in the TCOM department, but certain "frustrations" he has had with the department and the university contributed to his decision to look for work elsewhere. Papper said he did not want to elaborate on the frustrations but mentioned that he is the third nationally-recognized TCOM teacher to recently leave Ball State. Stephen Bell and Jim Shasky both resigned earlier this year.
Carole Papper said that location and the fact that their two oldest sons live in New York also played into their decision to take positions at Hofstra. Carole Papper trains teaching assistants for the Ball State writing program, which won the National Award for Writing Program Excellence at the 2006 Conference on College Composition and Communication.
"I've enjoyed what I've done [at Ball State]," she said. "We've had amazing graduate students. It's too bad Ball State didn't do more to keep us here."
Carole Papper will join the English department at Hofstra as an adjunct faculty member, but said she hopes to advance to another position. Bob Papper will become a professor of journalism at Hofstra and will work in the university's new convergence newsroom, which puts print, broadcast and online journalists in the same room. Bob Papper said he tried to convince people in the Ball State College of Communication, Information and Media of the importance of a convergence newsroom but was unsuccessful. Attempts to reach Roger Lavery, dean of the CCIM, after business hours were unsuccessful.
Bob Papper, Ball State's 2006 Researcher of the Year, has won more than 100 awards for his research in news and conducts the annual Radio-Television News Directors Association & Foundation survey on the state of local TV and radio stations.
"He's brought Ball State much fame with that survey," Nancy Carlson, chairwoman of the Department of TCOM, said, saying students in the program will be "the poorer" for losing Papper's instruction and guidance. Bob Papper has been pivotal in making contacts between students and employers in the communications field, Carlson said. Because he has not yet turned in a letter of resignation, Carlson cannot begin to look for a replacement for Bob Papper, she said.
Graduate student Brian Handler said he was disappointed to find the TCOM professor will be leaving the university, as he was enrolled in Bob Papper's Future of News class for the Fall Semester.
"We're losing a good guy here," he said.
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