Texas
Tech 		Dr. Nim Batchelor


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Brief Personal Biography

I was born in Dallas, Texas on Nov. 26, 1955. I attended Thomas Jefferson High School where I played offensive tackle on the football team. I also played ice hockey for a local team.

I attended Texas Tech University from 1974-1978. I majored in Secondary Education and received a broad field science teacher's certification. I had minors in Chemistry and English. I played lacrosse on the Tech club team and was selected as a conference all-star one year.

After my stay at Texas Tech, I moved back to Dallas and taught science for two years at North Dallas High School. I taught Physics, Chemistry, and Earth Science.

I then enrolled in the philosophy department at the University of Nebraska--Lincoln for my graduate studies. While there, I received my Masters (1984) and Ph.D. (1989)degrees.

I was hired at Elon College in the fall of 1990. I've been teaching in the philosophy department since that time. I've been the prelaw advisor at Elon since 1992.

I was married to Lily Tzouris in June of 1985. We have two children: Jennifer (1988) and Greg (1991).

PRE-LAW

I joined the Southern Association of Prelaw Advisors in 1993. I was elected to their leadership in 1995. I served as President of SAPLA 1998-99. Presidents of regional prelaw advisor associations are automatically appointed to the Prelaw Advisors National Council (PLANC). During my service to PLANC, I was elected to be the Registrar for the Third National Conference that was held in San Diego Nov. 16-18, 2000. Subsequently, I was elected to PLANC's leadership track. I served as Chair-elect from July 2001-July 2003. I am currently serving as chair of PLANC and will hold that office until July, 2005. Since being elected chair, I've been appointed to be a member of the Pre-Law Committee of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar. I also serve as webmaster for PLANC (www.planc.org).

I continue to be Director of the Elon University Prelaw Program. I am faculty advisor to Elon's Phi Alpha Delta Chapter and to the Mock Trial Team. I also maintain the Prelaw Web site (www.elon.edu/pre-law).

Philosophy

My dissertation was written on the Philosophy of Law. This continues to be my primary academic field of interest. I teach a philosophy of law course once a year. Beyond this primary focus, I've taught the following courses:

Personal Notes

I love to travel. When I was a child, my dad was in the Navy Reserves and each summer we would travel to a different port in the country by car. That, together with my adult travels, has enabled me to say that I've been in all 48 contiguous states. I've also traveled in Canada, Mexico, England, France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Belgium, and Switzerland.

Over the years, I've become a fairly good cook. I began working with Chinese cuisine and I've moved on to Indian and Thai cooking.

I enjoy playing games. I combined my interest in wood working with my interest in games, when I developed the ability to make six-piece burr puzzles. I also made a chess board in a coffee table that now resides in the living room of the philosophy department house. This is interesting because we run a community chess game on this board. Anyone can make a move in the game, but you can only make one move per hour. The result is a game without winners or losers. The aim is for all those who participate to make the game as beautiful as they can. I also enjoy other manipulative and logic puzzles.

I've been trying to develop skill as a fly-fisherman. Thus far, I've got the technique down. I'm still working on finding, hooking, and landing a decent size fish. I've developed my skills by catching blue-gills with my son at the lake on Elon's campus.

Publications

Over the years, I've published or written a number of things that might be of interest to a general audience. A few of those texts are offered here.