The Washington State Senate took time out from its normal business Tuesday to tip its collective cap to University of Puget Sound Professor Suzanne Barnett.

The Senate adopted a resolution commending Barnett, professor of Chinese and Japanese history, who was named 2002 Washington Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education.

Senate Resolution 8641, sponsored by Sen. Debbie Regala (D-Tacoma), proclaims that dedicated teaching of the kind exhibited by Barnett and others at Puget Sound is important because “skillful, enthusiastic, and innovative teachers improve the lives of countless students by encouraging curiosity and understanding, and by contributing to the development of mind and spirit” and because “the quality of life and the scope of opportunity for many future citizens of Washington will be determined by the quality of teaching in the classroom.”