Cathleen Bauschatz
Professor of French

Cathleen Bauschatz retired in June 2007. In August of that same year, she chaired the dissertation committee and defense of an I.Ph.D. candidate. In April of the following year, she chaired the thesis committee and defense of an M.A. candidate. That is Cathleen Bauschatz: absolutely reliable, ever helpful, assiduous, industrious, and committed to the University of Maine.

Cathleen played many roles for the Department over the years. She was one of its most productive scholars; she coordinated its graduate programs for many years; and she retired as Chair of the Peer Committee. In the latter capacity, she was an absolute taskmaster. Yet, the process and the tedium of multiple annual reviews was never so orderly in the history of the unit.

Starting in the early 90s, the French section suffered greatly from the stresses of downsizing. Members of the faculty were asked to expand their teaching roles well beyond their areas of expertise. Like all us who remember those years, Cathleen rolled up her sleeves and heroically took on the additional burdens. At first, the stretch was to compatible literary areas; then the need became the development of a new civilization course; then teaching and coordinating the intermediate language program. Cathleen Bauschatz was always willing to do what needed to be done, she was always available when the department, the college, the university needed a representative.  The adjectives reliable, genuine, assiduous, industrious and Cathleen are synonymous.