Current Alabama teacher shortage areas (grades levels, if applicable, appear in parenthesis) Art Band English/Language Arts (7-12) Family Consumer Science (9-12) Foreign Languages (7-12) Guidance and Counseling (7-12) History/Social Science (7-12) Math (7-12) Music Science (7-12) Special Education   - Autism (7-12)   - Gifted (6-12)   - Learning Disabled (7-12)   - Mentally Retarded (7-12)   - Multi-Handicapped (7-12)   - Speech   - Visual-Hearing Impaired Source: "Teacher Shortage Areas, Nationwide Listing: 1990-1991 through 2006-2007," released April 2007 by the U.S. Department of Education

Established in December 2007 by 1964 Education alumni Dr. Gerald and Mrs. Emily Leischuck, the Leischuck Endowed Professorship for Critical Needs in Education will equip the college to recruit and retain faculty in the most critical, understaffed disciplines of K-12 schools. Such focus will allow the college to remain adaptive and responsive to the needs of contemporary school systems and its students.

Initially, the professorship, available for associate or full professors, will center on programs preparing K-12 mathematics teachers, science teachers or educational administrators (principals or superintendents). Currently, Alabama and many other states are experiencing a teacher shortage in the areas of mathematics and science, and the supply of educational administrators is also poised to decline sharply in the next few years.

The college's dean will review national, regional and statewide data every five years to determine if the critical needs areas have changed.

"The Leischucks are not only addressing the significant needs area in education with this professorship, but by making it available to associate and full professors," Dean Frances Kochan said, "they are equipping the college with a recruitment tool for professors and associate professors alike."

Through their many philanthropic acts, the Leischucks have demonstrated their commitment to and passion for education and Auburn University.

Teaching awards at both the college and university level bear their names and recognize teaching excellence by faculty.

At AU, Emily Leischuck earned a master's degree in counselor education. She served nine years in student affairs programs as Panhellenic adviser and assistant to the dean of women, followed by 12 years in the Office of the President. During those years, she served as assistant to the AU president and the Board of Trustees, retiring in 1995 with emeritus status.

Long supportive of student organizations and a frequent leader in community service activities, she was a 1996 recipient of AU's Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award for Humanitarian Leadership.

In recognition of her efforts on behalf of Auburn students and the entire Auburn family, the  university named a residence hall, Emily Reaves Leischuck Hall, in her honor in 1998.

Gerald Leischuck began his 35-year Auburn career in 1962 as a graduate assistant in the college of Education. Shortly after earning a doctorate in educational leadership in 1964, he joined the staff of what is now AU's Office of Institutional Research and Assessment. He served as executive director of that office from 1966 to 1989, and as secretary to the Board of Trustees from 1989 to 1997. From 1992 until retiring with emeritus status in 1997, he also served as executive assistant to the president. After retirement, he returned for two years as a consultant to the Board of Trustees.

He also served on the Auburn City Schools Board of Education from 1977 to 1987, and was its president from 1980 to 1985. In 2000, AU presented an honorary doctor of humane letters degree to Gerald in recognition of his career achievements and university service.

The endowed professorship is not the couple's first effort in recognizing educating excellence. In 2000, the couple began partially funding the college's top two teaching awards given in the areas of undergraduate and graduate instruction.

In 2005, the university presented the inaugural Gerald and Emily Leischuck Endowed Presidential Awards for Excellence in Teaching, also funded by the couple. These awards recognize two full-time, tenured faculty members who have demonstrated effective and innovative teaching methods and a continuing commitment to student success through advising and mentoring inside and outside the classroom.

The Leischucks have also endowed the Leischuck-Reaves Endowment for Scholarships at Auburn in honor of their parents, Claude and Emily Tyson Reaves and Steve and Nellie Leischuck. In addition to their support of Auburn, the couple has established or provided for scholarship programs at Huntingdon College, Birmingham-Southern College and the University of Northern Colorado.