Five Faculty Earn Emeritus Rank

PARAMUS, N.J. – Since establishing the professor emeritus rank in 1988, Bergen Community College has awarded the title to a select group of faculty members who made extraordinary contributions to the institution during their careers as educators.

On May 2, the College inducted five longtime professors into the exclusive group: Carlo Annese, Ph.D.; Philip Dolce, Ph.D.; Weiping “Bill” Jiang, Ph.D. (posthumous); Mauro Marzocco (posthumous); and Lou Ethel Roliston, Ph.D. The College celebrated the retirees at a luncheon in Hackensack sponsored by the College and the Bergen Community College Faculty Association. Professor Kate McGivern, Ed.D., chairs the professor emeritus committee that manages the selection process.

The professor emeritus class of 2024-25 includes a founding faculty member, Marzocco, who began teaching at Bergen when the institution first began offering classes in 1968. The inductees’ disciplines span from English to history and the sciences, with Annese and Jiang making significant contributions to the College’s developmental English and American Language Program courses of study. Others helped connect Bergen to the national consciousness, with Dolce distinguishing himself as one the country’s top experts on the topic of the suburban landscape and Roliston spearheading initiatives that brought speakers such as Maya Angelou, Jhumpa Lahiri and Ta-Nehisi Coates to campus.

With the latest inductees, only 74 faculty members have earned the rank of professor emeritus in the College’s near-60-year history. As part of their membership in the elite group, inductees join the Professor Emeritus Association under the Bergen Community College Foundation and receive special access to College events, activities and resources.

Based in Paramus, Bergen Community College (www.bergen.edu), a public two-year coeducational college, enrolls more than 13,000 students at locations in Paramus, the Philip Ciarco Jr. Learning Center in Hackensack and Bergen Community College at the Meadowlands in Lyndhurst. The College offers associate degree, certificate and continuing education programs in a variety of fields. More students graduate from Bergen than any other community college in the state.

Photo Caption: Lou Ethel Rolison, Ph.D.; Philip Dolce, Ph.D.; and Carlo Annese, Ph.D.