Mooney
 “Betty has been a leader on our campus and in the community, and she is a mentor and role model for new faculty.” —Alfred Guillaume Jr., vice chancellor for academic affairs, |
Part-Time Teaching Award
If you’ve seen the movie Kinsey, you may have smiled at the naiveté of IU undergraduates in the 1950s. Surely today’s college students know all about sex, don’t they? As it turns out, they still have a lot to learn.
This hardly surprises Elizabeth Mooney, who has spent 40 years educating young people about sexuality and 20 years teaching the subject at IU South Bend. Her instruction goes far beyond essential information about body parts and sexually transmitted diseases. “In a course that touches the essence of humans, their sexuality, I must lead the students to a better understanding of themselves,” said Mooney.
Teaching exhilarates Mooney, and she has a powerful effect on her listeners. “I sat in your class and realized that I could still make a difference in people’s lives,” said Donald Neely, who recently earned a doctorate from the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality. “You were an inspiration to me. Thank you for the mentoring, counsel and assistance you have given me.”
Mooney’s main course on Marital Relations and Sexuality attracts 100 students a semester and “has been one of our most popular,” said Scott Sernau, chair of the IU South Bend Department of Sociology and Anthropology. “It is not an easy course to teach well. Students may come with deep-seated anxieties and biases, or may come hoping for an easy course. What they find instead is one that is very rigorous and carefully constructed.”
Mooney’s professional experience includes work as a certified sex therapist, consultant and research associate for the Kinsey Institute. She has served as a Planned Parenthood executive director in three different states, often overseeing clinical or teen services.
Mooney also has taught in the IU South Bend Department of Psychology and is frequently invited to address other classes. “She has lectured in my Biology of Women class. These lectures have been wonderful—well-informed, up-to-date and interesting. I am always spellbound,” said Sandra Winicur, associate professor emerita, who recalls hearing one student advise another: “Take Ms. Mooney’s class. She’s the best teacher in the school.”
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