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Dr. Byron Augustin

Augustin honored for his work with first-year students

Dr. Byron Augustin, Regents Professor in Geography, is one of three people in the nation to be named an Honor Roll Advocate in 2007 by the National Resource Center for First-Year Students.

The award recognizes Augustin’s 30 years of outstanding work on behalf of first-year students at Texas State University-San Marcos. Throughout his teaching career, Augustin has worked with Texas State’s programs to promote success among first-year students, including Freshman Orientation, Paws Preview, Early Alert, and other programs. A popular professor in Geography, he has also taught large sections of first-year Geography classes perennially.

In his letter recommending Augustin for the honor, Texas State Provost Dr. Perry Moore wrote, “Dr. Augustin's awards and recognition denote the value of his contributions to students. His accessibility and availability, and the wide-spread esteem in which he is held by students and colleagues, are legendary. Advocacy for first year students has always been his passion, and he believes that the best and most experienced professors should be teaching first-year students. Thus he continues to teach freshmen rather than doctoral students. His student evaluations are among the highest at the university. His sense of humor, friendliness, and teaching style are the reasons his freshman classes are in such high demand.”

In 2007, Augustin was named one of the first Regents Professors in Texas by the Texas State University System Board of Regents.  Augustin has also earned the Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Alumni Association Teaching Award of Honor, and the Associated Student Government Outstanding Student Educator Award, along with the National Council for Geographic Education Distinguished Teaching Achievement Award, presented to only 10 teachers in United States and Canada annually. He will receive his latest honor in February at the annual conference of the National Resource Center for First-Year Students, in San Francisco.