9/1/06

AWARDS TO FACULTY, STAFF AT SLU CONVOCATION

CANTON - St. Lawrence University faculty and staff received awards for outstanding service at Convocation, held on campus August 31, marking the start of the academic year.

Professor of Canadian Studies and Associate Dean for Academic Advising Robert Thacker received the J. Calvin Keene Award; Associate Professor of English Margaret Kent Bass was given the Louis and Frances Maslow Award; and John Meagher, director of academic services for students with special needs, received the John P. Taylor Award.

The Keene Award was established in 1975 and is given to a faculty member in recognition of "high standards of personal scholarship, effective teaching and moral concern." A faculty member at St. Lawrence since 1983, Thacker is a graduate of Bowling Green State University. He earned a master's degree from the University of Waterloo and the Ph.D. from the University of Manitoba. He is an expert on Canadian culture, especially literature, and the author of Alice Munro: Writing Her Lives, the first biography sanctioned by Munro. Thacker has written extensively on the work of Munro, Willa Cather, and the North American literary west. He received the 2003 Edith and Delbert Wylder Award from the Western Literature Association and is a former editor of The American Review of Canadian Studies.

The Maslow Award goes to the faculty member who has shown "the most interest in and understanding of the education and welfare of the student body as a whole." A graduate of Wilmington College, Bass holds a master's degree from the University of Mississippi and earned the Ph.D. from Louisiana State University. She was a faculty member at Vanderbilt University prior to coming to St. Lawrence as assistant professor of English and director of multicultural affairs in 1993. Bass left St. Lawrence in 1995 to teach at the University of Iowa, and returned to the faculty at St. Lawrence in 2000. She gave the inaugural "First Lecture," a talk marking the beginning of the academic year, in 2001, and was co-director of the St. Lawrence University Festival of the Arts in 2003. She has also served as associate dean of faculty affairs and interim dean of student life.

The John P. "Jack" Taylor Distinguished Career Service Award was established in 1995 at Taylor's retirement as dining services director, recognizing distinguished service to the University by an administrator who has worked at least 12 years at St. Lawrence and who sustains the high standards of performance exemplified by Taylor. A graduate of Georgetown University, Meagher holds a master's degree in education from the University of Vermont. He is responsible for assisting students on the St. Lawrence campus who have disabilities so that they can freely and actively participate in all facets of University life.

Also recognized at Convocation were faculty entered on continuing tenure: Associate Professor of Biology Karin J. Bodensteiner, Associate Professor of Global Studies John M. Collins, Associate Professor of Gender Studies R. Danielle Egan, Associate Professor of English Mary M. Hussman and Associate Professor of Philosophy Erin A. McCarthy.

In addition, Professor of PhysicsDaniel W. Koon and Professor of English Natalia Rachel Singer were recognized for promotion to the rank of full professor.

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