SLCC's 2021 in-person commencement ceremony will take place Aug. 6 at the Maverik Center. For more information, click here.
Distinguished Faculty Lecturer
Every year the college community comes together to hear about the exciting work of one of its faculty. The Distinguished Faculty Lecturer is both a recognition of quality work by one of our full-time faculty and also a charge to develop that work over the course of an academic year into a public presentation that might take the form of a lecture, demonstration, or performance. The lecture typically takes place in April each year, and the recipient is recognized at Commencement.
Distinguished Faculty Lecturer – Adam Dastrup
Geographic education is important because it gives people a sense of place and belonging in a complex and ever-changing world, says Adam Dastrup, SLCC’s 2022 Distinguished Faculty Lecturer. Everyone has a unique world view, and society needs people who understand both physical and cultural environments and who are committed to being good stewards of the planet.
Adam’s faculty lecture will focus on his efforts in using data and geographic information systems (GIS) to spatially and historically analyze racial, economic and environmental segregation along the Wasatch Front. The data will come from a variety of sources, including the Utah State Board of Education, the 2020 Census, the University of Utah and local community organizations. During the course of his research, Adam has already found that diverse communities in Salt Lake County and students who do not speak English as their primary language live in economically suppressed regions of the valley. Further, his research shows these areas generate less property tax revenue, which results in underserved populations not having the same access to education as students from the county’s predominately white regions. “This could impact our future economy and lead to large-scale gentrification within the valley,” he says.
During his more than 15 years at SLCC, Adam has taught courses in natural disasters, physical and world geography, GIS, environmental science and global positioning systems. In 2019, he created the Utah System of Higher Education’s first drone certificate program, and he is also the founder of Open Geography Education (OGE), where he developed online textbooks and made them available at no cost to students. With the three textbooks that he created, Adam has saved SLCC students roughly $1.3 million since 2015. The books are also available to students worldwide.
Adam holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Utah, and he is a certified GIS and drone professional. He has led multiple organizations at the college, including the school’s Sustainability Committee and Faculty Senate. With the help of students, the Thayne Center for Service and Learning, and SLCC’s Facilities Department, Adam also created the school’s community gardens and recycling programs.
APPLICATION PROCESS
Applications for the Distinguished Faculty Lecturer are solicited a year in advance. Each December, the Associate Provost for Learning Advancement puts out a call for applications for the Distinguished Faculty Lecturer, and a committee composed predominantly of faculty choose among the applications. The chosen applicant will be the Distinguished Faculty Lecturer in the following spring, giving him/her a year in which to complete their project and polish their presentation.
Teaching Excellence Award
The Teaching Excellence Award is given by the Salt Lake Community College Foundation Board to recognize excellence in professional education at SLCC. Both full-time and adjunct faculty are eligible. The award reflects a cumulative body of teaching excellence rather than just a single year of exemplary work.
David F. Pack, PhD
Adjunct Professor, Communications and Fine Arts
Renaissance man might best describe Dr. David F. Pack, adjunct professor at SLCC for 20 years. Some of his roles include working actor and singer, entrepreneur, and certified tennis pro, and he holds five associate’s degrees from SLCC and seven post-doctoral certificates. David is also recognized as an extraordinary educator, as he has won Utah’s Best of State Adjunct University/College Professor award for 9 of the past 10 years.
On the day David received two of his associate’s degrees in 2019, his oldest daughter also graduated from SLCC with two degrees, and he sang the national anthem at the college’s Commencement ceremony. “That was certainly a day to remember,” he says. David teaches year-round and has taught at six SLCC campuses, including online, across two disciplines – communications and fine arts. Basically, there is almost no teaching assignment David won’t accept.
David’s dean and colleagues say that he is an exceptional faculty member who can always be counted on to go the “extra mile” and is thoughtful, attentive and exemplary. Students often say he extremely dedicated and an “important influence,” along with being incredibly helpful, proactive and accommodating.
As for his teaching style and his role as facilitator of classroom discussions, rather than serving as the “sage on the stage,” David prefers being the “guide on the side.” He prefers pointing students in the right direction and allowing them to make their own discoveries. When students struggle during the learning process, he keeps in mind there are different types of learners and he tries to determine what he’s not giving instead of why students don’t “get it.”
Outside of his work with SLCC, David is the consummate volunteer, having served in more than 30 positions with various groups and organizations, including the West Jordan City Council, Western Stampede Committee, Jordan Hills Elementary PTA and United States Professional Tennis Association. “I just want to make a difference in my community and in society and be able to look back on my life and know that I did all the good I can in all the ways I can,” he says. “I think that helps everyone be happier, when you’re focusing on serving others. And I hope that I’m a good example to my kids, so that they will want to volunteer and inspire others.”
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