Collins, Daghe, Fairfield
Earn Trustees Teaching Award
The Trustees Teaching Awards, granted annually, serve as highly coveted emblems for our faculty's continued and steadfast commitment to quality teaching and the individual students. This year's award winners were Professors Kevin Collins, Laura Daghe, and Joshua Fairfield. Indiana Law's commitment to its students was evident as recipients doled out gratitude.
The student panel's nomination of Kevin Collins noted his diverse range of academic and professional experience. "He
invites and welcomes intensive student input in class discussions and invites challenging responses," Dean
Robel said, reading from the nomination. Collins reflected on his good fortune to be able to offer Law and
Architecture of Urban Design and the excitement he feels when teaching. "To the students, because my class
does require a kind of dialogue, the extent that the course is enjoyable," he said, "that has a lot to do
with the students."
Laura Daghe's Legal Research and Writing instruction garnered similar praise from the selection committee.
"Professor Daghe has a reputation for making sure that her students are prepared. Each year it is common
for her students to rank among the top brief writers in the Sherman Minton Moot Court Competition," they
wrote. Students in her courses praised her dedication and her willingness to work with students outside
the classroom.
Blushing, Daghe thanked her Legal Research and Writing colleagues for an environment of collaboration that sets the bar incredibly high. "I remember deciding to gut it out," she said, smiling, "and wait for students to move from 'Oh my gosh, I have Daghe!' to 'I'm excited about having Daghe, because I hear she's tough. She's going to push us.'"
The thanks and good humor continued with the presentation to Joshua Fairfield. Known for his "highly-caffeinated"
teaching style, Fairfield is loved for his contagious and genuine excitement for the chance to teach and be
in the classroom.
"We teach three things: the first thing we teach is the law. The second thing we teach as professors is how to learn about the law. The third thing and the most important and exciting thing we teach is how to love the law," he said. "It's a strange person who reaches 3 a.m. writing a brief and gets a thrill from it. You see the answer, and you get up, and you shout with excitement. If I teach nothing else, I hope I teach that."