Professor Betsy Morris reflects on over a quarter century of teaching
BY: FRAHNAZ NAZARY
Staff Writer
Art is the expression of creative human skill and imagination in a visual form, encompassing mediums such as painting and drawing. Betsy Morris, who was born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana and attended DePauw University, is one of the art professors at the Meramec campus of STLCC. She specializes in drawing and has been teaching on this campus for over 25 years. She started teaching as an adjunct instructor for about a year, then spent two years as a temporary full-time professor. Finally, in 2004, she joined the faculty as a permanent full-time professor.
“I always wanted to become an art professor because I was inspired by Robert Kingsley who was my art professor at DePauw University, and he encouraged me to consider a professional career as a studio artist and get my degree as master of fine arts,” Morris said.
She has a double major in art and art history and her studio focus was painting and drawing. While Morris’s professor had a good impact on her, her family, especially her aunt who studied fashion design in New York city, inspired her to become an artist.
Of her teaching profession, Morris said, “I taught at Washington University for many years, but I always felt at home on the Meramec campus.”
She enjoys the diversity of the students, meeting and working with faculty and staff members outside of the art department and the NASAD (National Association of Schools of Art and Design) program that Meramec has.
Every professor has their own method of teaching, and Morris’s method is to redesign her classes every semester with consideration to subject matter, project sequencing and teaching strategies. She also divides students into two or three person groups to discuss their in-progress work and share their ideas.
Morris plans to retire at the end of this fall semester and completely step away from teaching and leave her options open for what might unfold. To her students, she says, “I encourage my students to be kind to one another and to enter class each day with a positive attitude.”
