Professor Plans to Stay

---

Photo by Michael Ford

Dr. Betty Matthews

   English Professor Betty Matthews came to the University of Arkansas at Monticello as a student in 1955, later returned as a teacher in 1967 and continues to teach on campus today.

   “As long as I’m able and can get up the steps, I’ll be teaching,” Matthews said. “I plan to die in the classroom, and they’re going to spread my ashes in Weevil Pond.”

   After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in English from UAM, Matthews earned her master of arts and doctorate, both in English, from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville before returning to UAM.

   “I love everything about UAM, especially now that Lassiter is here,” Matthews said. “I also love my new dean, and I love the students.”

   Though Matthews said she loves all of her students, she makes sure they understand one thing.

   “I tell my students that if you’re going to fail, you’re going to fail,” she said. “My students understand that. I have a lot of good students, and I like teaching freshmen.”

Photo by Michael Ford

Covered - Matthews covers her office with pictures of her students. “I try to get pictures of as many students as I can,” she said. “A lot are students, and a lot are family.”

   Matthews discussed one difficult aspect of teaching.

  “You can’t win them all,” she said. “Sometimes I work so hard with a student, and they still just don’t get it.”

   University Chancellor Jack Lassiter said Matthews is the epitome of what you want a faculty member to be.

   “She takes so many students under her wing,” Lassiter said. “What you look for in a teacher is not only that they’re a good teacher but also good outside the classroom, and she goes to so many of the faculty meetings.”

   Matthews said now that Lassiter is here she finally likes faculty meetings and no longer sits in the back reading the newspaper.

   When it comes to Matthew’s preferred class to teach, it’s a tie.

   “The Bible and Lit of the South are my two favorite classes to teach,” she said. “I took these in my graduate course. We have to have Lit of the South because we’re in the South.”

   In her free time, Matthews enjoys reading, writing, shopping, cooking, visiting her kids and attending sporting events.

   Matthews said she had been teaching at UAM for so long that she no longer considered it work.

Have a comment? Please e-mail us.