Congratulations to Cody Walker, winner of a 2025 Individual Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education, bestowed by the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts.
From Associate Dean Timothy McKay:
Nominators describe Cody's exceptional ability to encourage students in their creative work while giving them support and confidence, “continuing a tradition of individualized instruction in a climate of risk-aversion and depersonalization” with “generosity and good-humor” and creating “a sense that the classroom and one-on-one meetings constitute one long, informed, and caring conversation about students’ imaginative writing and reading of other writers.”
Former students spoke of tremendous gratitude for the generous contributions to their lives and creative work, how Cody took them and their work seriously and taught them to take their own work more seriously, treating “the entire class with respect and gratitude day in and day out.” One student wrote, “Cody is a rare professor, one whose casual, friendly nature seemed to always make me want to work harder.” Another wrote of Cody as “the kind of person who views his presence in his students’ lives as the most grave and serious honor.”
