When Donna Swaim retires from full-time teaching in the Humanities Department at the end of this semester, she will leave behind a legacy.

Though the University of Arizona has been accused of providing inadequate undergraduate education, peers and students say Swaim is a remarkable teacher.

"Donna Swaim is the finest human being I know or will likely ever know," says Emilee Mead, former student and administrative assistant at the University Teaching Center.

On office walls covered with plaques and awards, Swaim points out a plaque making her an "honorary convict."

It dates back to 1978, when Swaim was asked to teach her Humanities 250A class, Introduction to Humanities, at the Arizona Correctional Teaching Facility in Tucson.

For the fall semester, she taught two courses on campus and one at the prison.

After the course was completed, Swaim went to a Christmas party at the prison. When she asked one of her students his Christmas wish, he looked at her and said, "Humanities 250B."

Swaim taught the sequel the next semester.

"I just fell in love with those convicts," Swaim says. "They came from such a different background that they would ask why we were studying Aristotle, who was this guy?"

Swaim remembers when two of her pupils, both African Americans, were moved to the prison in Florence.

"I was allowed four sessions with them. We could stay for as long as we wanted, but if any of us left the room for any reason whatsoever, the session was over."

They had been meeting for about six hours and were in the middle of a heated discussion when one of the students made a comment she could not understand. "What?" she asked. He repeated himself, but she still could not understand a word.

Finally, her other pupil started laughing and said, "Hey man, you're forgetting she ain't black."

"It was the neatest thing I have ever experienced. For just a moment, he forgot that I was an old, white woman with gray hair and communicated in a Kansas City street dialect with me, human to human! All of the differences melted away," Swaim says.

Swaim's ability to communicate with and see the good in every human is a trait she credits to her family and upbringing.

Born in 1935 in a farming community in western Nebraska, Swaim, the youngest of five children, says she "had the incredible good sense to be born to wonderful parents."

Swaim recalls going to school in a two-room country schoolhouse named after her grandfather Samuel Elliot, an educator.

"It was an excellent place to learn how to spell," Swaim says. "We had hundreds of spelling bees."

After high school, Swaim attended the University of Nebraska. She majored in history and minored in English for her teaching degree and joined Kappa Alpha Theta sorority.

Swaim married her husband Robert when she was 19. "We were way too young, we had to learn to grow up together," says Swaim, adding that their growth was successful as they are still happily married.

When Robert was offered a position in a Tucson architecture firm, they moved to Arizona and Swaim began to take classes at the UA.

"I wanted to learn how to read poetry and know why a classic was a classic," says Swaim. "Somebody had decided what was a classic, but I didn't know why so I started to study English."

While taking English classes, Swaim taught first-year composi--tion courses as a graduate student.

"I was so terrified the first day that I had to have a podium to stand up, and I couldn't read my notes because my hands were shaking too badly," Swaim says.

When Swaim was told in 1967 that she had enough credit to graduate with her master's she was surprised. "I hadn't been studying to get a degree, I just loved to learn."

"Dr. Swaim was a student of mine years ago," says Paul Rosenblatt, English professor at the UA. "She was a marvelous student, is a remarkable person and superb teacher who believes that the student stands at the center of the university."

Swaim is currently the director of the Faculty Fellows, as well as faculty fellow to the athletic department.

"She has done a fabulous job and is a real asset to the team, players, and coaching staff," says Dick Tomey, head coach of the UA football team.

"Watching and helping people grow is the most fabulous experience you can have," Swaim says. "Sometimes that light of understanding comes on in the office, sometimes on a hike, sometimes in class. That gleam of understanding and the knowledge that I touched someone's life make everything worthwhile."

"Donna Swaim has made an obvious contribution in the Faculty Fellows and with student athletes," says Doug Canfield, English professor at the UA. "She has become one of the humanities program's most beloved teachers - she cares earnestly about students and learning."

Swaim has enjoyed being able to participate in many aspects of the university. "I've had the opportunity with (UA President) Manuel Pacheco to be more involved with budgets, etc., so I feel like I know the university as a whole much better," says Swaim.

When asked about the national attention brought by the "60 Minutes" segment last fall portraying the UA as an institution that refused to concentrate on undergraduate education, Swaim says, "I think it's ironic that the national hammering came at a time when we had left the worst of our faults behind. I've been here 32 years and that is a totally unfair judgement of this university.

"I do not just have hope, but I am truly optimistic about the direction this university is going. The Student Centered Research Department is not just words, it is a goal and an actuality," Swaim says.

Swaim recognizes a yearlong sojourn in England as a "definitive time" in her life.

"It was a totally impulsive trip," she says. One night my husband and I were talking about all of the things we wished we could see in Europe and then we woke up the next morning and asked ourselves,'Why shouldn't we go see those things?'"

They saved money for a year and then took themselves and their two children overseas.

After returning from Europe, Swaim was approached by the UA Humanities Department to sign an "absolutely temporary" one-year teaching contract. She has been teaching ever since, and completed her doctorate several years ago.

Though Swaim will be retiring to a 49 percent teaching load after this semester, she will still be conducting her summer class, Voyage of Discovery, where "small groups travel to cultural centers of Europe to experience major works of art and architecture," according to the UA General Catalog.

"I call it Voyage of Discovery and often people assume that the students will be discovering, but mostly I discover," Swaim says.

This summer's trip to Morocco will be SwaimÍs 15th. After a lifetime of teaching, the decision to retire was difficult, but Swaim feels the timing is right.

"I was hiking with my family on Mount Laramie, and I thought, 'I want time to climb other peaks while all of my body is sound, I want time to spend with my family, I want time to read books'," she says.

"I believe that you can't retire from something, you must retire to something. I am retiring to contemplate, to learn. I am retiring in search of understanding."