Longtime A&M-Kingsville Faculty Member
Honored with Language Lab Named in Her Honor
Public dedication ceremony Friday, March 13 at 2:30 p.m. in Fore Hall
KINGSVILLE (March 9, 2009) — Dr. Eladia Hill made her mark as an educator and champion of the language and literature department at Texas A&M University-Kingsville during her more than 25 years of service. Now the department and the university are giving back by naming a language lab in her honor—a lab she helped make possible.
Friday, March 13 at 2:30 p.m., the Eladia León Hill Multimedia Center in Fore Hall will be dedicated in a ceremony open to the public.
This multimedia center is used primarily by students in Spanish and French courses to practice the language they are studying. In the mid 1990s, Hill championed the idea of taking the existing language laboratory and updating it. She led fundraising efforts to build a state-of-the-art facility that could offer a variety of ways to enhance student learning and practice through technology.
The resulting lab lived up to expectations, with a smart board, computers, television and a cluster of cameras known as a polycamera to use with the Trans-Texas Videoconference Network.
“Dr. Hill was instrumental in securing funds to create a language laboratory,” said Dr. Susan L. Roberson, professor and chair of the language and literature department. “Without her drive and determination, the language lab would not exist.”
Hill came to Texas A&M-Kingsville as an assistant professor of modern languages in September 1969. She was promoted to associate professor in 1972, received tenure in 1974, and was promoted to professor in 1986. Hill retired in July 1995. She passed away February 17, 2009.
Among her many honors, she was the first recipient of the university’s William J. Hall Award recognizing excellence in teaching and a commitment to student organizations. Hill founded La Barraca Tejana, the University’s Spanish Club, and created a Spanish theater company to give her students a dramatic outlet.
Colleague Dr. D. Wayne Gunn, professor emeritus of language and literature, said of Hill, “Eladia was a remarkable person. A Cuban refugee and former lawyer, she retooled herself completely for life in her new country by returning to school and obtaining a doctorate in Spanish. She was recognized as one of the department’s most outstanding teachers, and her contributions were honored with the College of Arts and Sciences’ first William J. Hall Award.”
