Dr. Sean Huss’ promise to his students at Arkansas Tech University is simple.
“I won’t give up on you as long as you don’t give up,” said Huss. “As long as they meet me halfway, I’ll be there from day one until the final exam.”
Huss, professor of sociology and criminal justice at Arkansas Tech, was elected by the ATU student body as the 2025-26 professor of the year. It is the second time he has earned that honor. He was previously selected in 2021-22.
He credits an increased understanding of the power of empathy in helping him develop as a faculty member.
“In general, it makes me a far better professor because you shift away from just focusing on content and making sure they hit certain milestones,” said Huss. “It’s more about developing and mentoring. So, what you do is try to meet the students where they are, and in order to do that, you have to figure that out…where are they? The goal would be not to teach way up here, but to bring it down and walk up. Meaning, very simply, to help them be the best that they can be and learn as much as they can.”
Huss said anticipating students’ needs, communicating to them clearly and establishing clear expectations for them are the keys in setting the stage for learning to occur.
“They are a generation in transition,” said Huss when asked about his students. “The reason I say that is they are on the precipice on this major technological shift with AI and some of the other issues. They are also, at the same time, taking on greater and greater burdens.
“Many of my students,” continued Huss, “for instance, are working jobs…sometimes they have families…they’re doing all this additional stuff…and so, if I had to characterize them more sociologically, I would say these are students who are essentially, for the most part, coming from working class backgrounds and effectively being hit by a series of challenges on top of just trying to get an education. So, that informs me in the classroom and helps me kind of balance expectations and requirements. I make it real, real clear to them that this is doable, and this is how you do it.”
Huss grew up in Arkadelphia. He dropped out during his first try at college, but later returned to the classroom to earn his bachelor’s degree at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
He earned Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees at the University of Tennessee before joining the Arkansas Tech faculty in 2005. A graduate of the Leadership Tech professional development program at ATU, Huss was promoted to associate professor and granted tenure in 2011. He was promoted to professor in 2017.
Huss said the students and the community that exists among the faculty and staff are his favorite aspects of Arkansas Tech.
“We do it for the value added and the intangibles,” said Huss. “Sometimes you’ll hear people ask a teacher what they make. My response is, like the poet says, I make police officers, I make lawyers, I make professors. That’s what we’ve done. We’ve had students come in who honestly didn’t think they would graduate, and some of them are finishing their doctorates now. They will go on and pay it forward, and that’s the real payoff.”
