Date:
5/17/2006
Contact: Wendel Sloan at 505.562.2253
PORTALES—Eastern New Mexico University anthropology professor Janet Frost will be joining her husband, former ENMU president Everett Frost, in retirement on June 1. "It seemed like a good time," said Frost. "At the time Everett retired, I wasn't quite ready."
Janet Frost, who came to Eastern in 1970, began teaching part-time in the anthropology department in which she had just started a master's program. Frost said that one of the things that she is most proud of is that she has worked with every student who has received a master's in anthropology from Eastern.
"I was here when the program first started and it has been my privilege to work with all of those students," she said. The professor added that teaching has always been her passion, however, she won't be giving it up all together.
"My husband and I will be teaching one class each in the fall," said Frost, who took a class on the history of quilting this semester. She notes that teaching has been her number one focus, but she has also been heavily involved in research in anthropology.
"I have spent many years working with other faculty to develop and offer a women's studies program at Eastern," said Frost. Other activities that the retiring professor was involved during her 36-year tenure at Eastern included a National Science Foundation-funded project to offer workshops for teachers to improve math and science by teaching archaeology. She also served on the General Education Committee and then helped direct a NEH grant to assist faculty in developing the courses for the upper division globalization/diversity requirement.
Frost said that another thing she will miss when in retirement is the interaction with students and faculty. "I will miss when students come to me looking for sources for papers and when fellow faculty members come to me to talk about the most recent journal article that they have read," she said.
Frost and her husband hope to visit archaeological sites around the world. They continue to be interested in and do research in Oceania in the South Pacific, and are working on a report from excavations in Oahu.