Santa Monica College Professor Wins Award for True Grit

December 13, 2012 -- Political Science professor Eric Oifer – who believes “grit and perseverance, rather that test scores and grades, are the keys to student success" -- has been named Santa Monica College's 2012 Faculty of the Year.

An accomplished scholar known for his intellectual acumen and pioneering teaching methods, Oifer developed SMC’s recently adopted GRIT initiative (Growth, Resilience, Integrity, Tenacity).

"In the classroom he has made his mark as a teacher who not only challenges his students intellectually but also seeks to help them discover purpose in their lives and develop grit," SMC officials said in a statement Wednesday.

“Eric Oifer is an incredibly fine human being, colleague, scholar and instructor and a dedicated environmentalist and global citizen,” said SMC Academic Senate President Janet Harclerode.

Oifer -- who the SMC Academic Senate is nominating for the statewide Hayward Award, which honors outstanding community college faculty -- has been recently focusing much of his attention on environmental issues and has “greened” his curriculum.

“His genius is to turn the most difficult texts (Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes, Locke, Marx, Nietzsche, Foucault, etc.) into accessible and uplifting lessons for his students,” said the SMC Academic Senate letter nominating him for the Hayward Award.

“He has done this through his work to green his courses and to foster resilience, perseverance and purpose in his students,” the senate wrote

Oifer, who received his Ph.D. in political theory from USC, has been teaching political science courses at SMC since 1999, including political philosophy, environmental politics and the politics of gender.“This honor makes me think of a favorite quote by naturalist Ben Gadd – ‘I am lucky beyond words. I have all three things needed to make me happy: I live in a place I love, with people I love, doing work I love to do,’” Oifer said.

“It is an incredible honor to be recognized by my colleagues in this way," he added. "I wish everyone at the college could experience what I experienced upon being nominated by my mentors and good friends Christine Schultz (chair of the Social Science Department) and (philosophy professor) Amber Katherine.”

Oifer is the author of several articles in academic journals and has presented widely throughout the state at scholarly and academic organization conferences on topics ranging from “Masochism and the Military-Style Education” to “Improving Institutional Effectiveness,” college officials said.

"Among colleagues he is best known as an articulate and thoughtful leader who served as Academic Senate President in 2009-11 and has served on countless academic and planning committees," officials said, adding that Oier currently chairs the school's Academic Senate Environmental Affairs Committee.

A native of the Los Angeles area, Oifer was recently awarded a sabbatical for fall 2013. He is writing a book about the use of nature writing to teach environmental politics and ecological democracy.

Oifer received his master’s in political science from USC and his B.A. in political science from UCLA. He and his wife Kim live in Marina del Rey.