September 3, 1999

Five faculty members honored for service

University President Bernard Knoth, S.J., recognized five members of the faculty for 25 years of outstanding teaching during the fall convocation on August 23. Among the celebrants were William Barnett, associate professor in the College of Business Administration; Glenn Hymel, associate professor in the Department of Psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences, Raphael Rabalais, professor in the School of Law; Herbert L. Sayas, Jr., associate professor in the Department of Drama and Speech in the College of Arts and Sciences; and Benjamin Wren, associate professor in the Department of History in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Barnett is an often quoted and high-regarded economist. He spearheaded the effort to offer a combined master of business administration (MBA) and juris doctor (JD) degree. In 1992, he received Loyola's Dux Academicus award for excellence in teaching. Prior to working at Loyola, Barnett was an economics instructor at Michigan State University. After a two-year stint in the Navy interrupted Barnett's education, he returned to Loyola to earn a bachelor's degree in business administration in 1967, a doctorate in economics from Michigan State University, and juris doctor from Loyola in 1982.

Hymel served as chair of the Department of Psychology for four years. His areas of specialization include educational psychology, research design and statistics, personal adjustment/stress management, school counseling, and philosophical psychology. He has worked extensively in faculty development and students enhancement efforts at the elementary, secondary, tertiary, and professional school levels, with a particular focus on mastery learning, instructional design, learning strategies, and test-preparation skills. Hymel also is licensed in the area of therapeutic bodywork with a particular practice and research focus on fibromyalgia, geriatric, and chronic pain populations. He teaches Introduction to Psychology, Research Methods, Statistics, Psychology of Personal Adjustment, and Modes of Human Behavior. He is a prolific writer having published in top psychology journals and his research has been presented at numerous international and national conferences. In 1992, Hymel co-authored with Lee Gray, a book titled Successful Schooling for All: A Primer on Outcome-Based Education & Mastery Learning. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees from Loyola University New Orleans and a doctor of education from the University of New Orleans.

Rabalais joined the law faculty in 1974. Prior to that, he was a staff attorney and director of operations of the Michigan State Housing Development Authority, a statewide agency that financed the construction of single-family and multi-family housing for families of low and moderate income. Rabalais is general editor of International Regulation of Finance and Investment. He teaches Western Legal Tradition, International Commercial Law, and Financial Institutions Law. For several years, he taught Common Law Property I and II and Constitutional Law I and II. He is a member of the Michigan and Texas bars and a faculty member of the Louisiana Bar, the American Bar Association, the American Society for the Legal History, the Southern Historical Association, and Louisiana Supreme Court Historical Society. Rabalais has taught at Tulane, the University of Cambridge, and Louisiana State University. Also, he has taught in Loyola summer sessions in Cuernavaca, Mexico, in 1994; Capetown, South Africa, in 1996; Budapest, Hungary, in 1997; and the LSU Summer Session at Aix-en-Provence, France, in 1992. Rabalais earned a bachelor's degree from Princeton University, a master's degree from Michigan State University, and a juris doctor from Harvard University.

In his 25 years in the Department of Drama and Speech, Sayas has taught a variety of courses including those in stagecraft, lighting, scene design, and theatre history. He also has designed scenery for four plays a year. He has designed more than 78 shows at Loyola. Sayas won an Award of Excellence in Scenery last year at the state level of the American College Theatre Festival that was held at Southeastern State University. The set was designed for fellow drama and speech professor Ernest Ferlita, S.J. Sayas earned a bachelor of arts from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, a master's degree from the University of Denver, and a master of fine arts from the University of New Orleans.

Wren, an expert in the Zen religion, recently completed a book titled Zen Among the Magnolias which chronicles his past 43 years of Christianity and Zen. Over the past 16 years, he has received six National Endowment of the Arts grants. The latest was awarded this summer where he presented "Teaching the Content of World Civilization With Joy and Enthusiasm" to 24 teachers. Wren teaches courses in World Civilization, Chinese and Japanese history, and Zen. He has taught on the university level for 30 years in the United States, Europe, and Asia. He is a member and former president of the Japanese Society of New Orleans and the Ikebana Society of New Orleans. He also organizes and facilitates workshops and retreats on Zen and Christianity. Wren was a Jesuit for 48 years, and as such received a firm grounding in Greek, Latin, and medieval history. He and his wife belong to the Organization of Corpus, a group of more than 2,000 priests, most of whom are married. When he left the Jesuit order, Wren ceased being a cleric but "still is a priest according to the CanonLaw and practices the priesthood to the best of my ability." Wren earned a bachelor of arts degree in history, a sacred theological licentiate in theology and philosophy, a master's degree in Oriental studies, and a doctorate in Japanese and Chinese history and culture. Wren is licensed to teach Ikebana, classical Japanese flower arranging, and Tai Chi.