St. Lawrence University honored several employees with awards for their outstanding service and recognized a number of faculty who earned tenure and promotions during their annual Convocation event, which was held virtually on Wednesday, Sept. 23.
Sarah Barber, Associate Dean of the First Year and Associate Professor of English, received the Louis and Frances Maslow Award, and Assistant Professor of Religious Studies Damon Berry was awarded the J. Calvin Keene Award.
Assistant Director of Facilities Operations Marcus Sherburne received the John P. “Jack” Taylor Distinguished Career Service Award, and Technical Support and Media Specialist Kevin Irwin received the Thomas F. Coakley Distinguished Career Service Award.
Louis and Frances Maslow Award 2020 Recipient: Sarah Barber
The Maslow Award, established in 1980, 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.
Vice President of the University and Dean of Academic Affairs Karl Schonberg shared that “Sarah is a gifted teacher who students consistently praise for her deep and sincere concern for them, expressed through high standards and challenging expectations for their very best work. “Her passion for her field and for her students to find the potential inside them is unfailingly clear to them, and her classes are not only demanding and rigorous but also places of joy in creativity and discovery of the pathways that allow us to connect to one another and our shared humanity.”
One colleague wrote that the award criteria “describes [Barber] perfectly” and was deeply impressed by her work on an academic initiative steering committee. “Her interest in the entire undergraduate experience is reflected in her energetic service to the University. I have heard glowing comments about her from students in my own field who have taken her classes. In particular, I have heard praise of her patience when helping students understand how they can grow and improve.”
Schonberg also shared a few of the many ways Barber has gone above and beyond in her work during the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic and as St. Lawrence welcomed back students. “The problems she has been compelled to solve have been deeply vexing and high stakes, with our students’ college experience and the health of our campus in the balance,” he says. “Throughout all of this, Sarah has faced every challenge not only with readiness to take on hard work but also with deep empathy and good humor. There is no estimation of the value to be placed on [Sarah’s] dedication, but to all those her work has touched, it has meant the world.”
J. Calvin Keene Award 2020 Recipient: Damon Berry
Established in 1975, the Keene Award is given to a faculty member in recognition of high standards of personal scholarship, effective teaching and moral concern.
Schonberg said that while reading Berry’s nominations, a unifying theme that stood out was “the courage of his convictions that weds together his approach to scholarship, teaching, and service. His field of research deals with vitally important but deeply unsettling social topics. In the classroom, he does not shy away from the hardest subjects to discuss and creates a safe environment for his students to know they can do the same. In his service to the University, he has taken on the most difficult, emotionally demanding, and exhausting work, vitally important to our campus and students.”
One student comment summed up the sentiment of many by saying, “I came into this class pretty much blind and I’m leaving it with an entirely new perspective,” while a different student wrote that Berry “embodies the St. Lawrence values of being a global citizen and a life-long commitment of service at his core.”
Another student wrote that Berry “has a presence on this campus that reflects his compassion and dedication to his students. Professors and students alike speak incredibly highly of him. He wants all students (not just his own) to succeed both in the classroom as well as outside of it. He genuinely cares about his students,” and encourages them “to branch out and think critically about established systems of our society and what their implications are. He wants students to try out ideas not just try to find the 'right' answer; it is about the journey of discovery, confusion, knowledge, and the possibility of understanding ourselves and the world around us a little better.”
John P. “Jack” Taylor Distinguished Career Service Award 2020 Recipient: Marcus Sherburne
The Taylor Award was established in 1995 and recognizes distinguished service to the University by an administrator who has worked at least 12 years at St. Lawrence. University President William L. Fox noted that Sherburne is someone everyone on campus knows to be the first on campus every morning, the last to leave at night, checking every tree and flower bed seven days a week.
“Every spring, Marcus’ team leaps into action and takes the campus from a cold, drab winter to a beautiful and colorful spring/summer,” Fox said. “But even in winter, Marcus’ leadership is evident, with our plowed roads and parking lots and shoveled sidewalks (even after blizzards and ice storms) assuring we can move safely between classes and meetings. Most, if not all, of our naturalized landscapes on and around campus has been designed by him, adding beauty to our days, reducing the University’s use of resources, and saving thousands of dollars every year. Marcus also assures that campus events are set up flawlessly, with style and again with sustainability as a priority. Attentive to detail, knowledgeable, creative and positive are among the characteristics mentioned in the nomination of someone described as ‘essential to our community.’”
Thomas F. Coakley Distinguished Career Service Award 2020 Recipient: Kevin Irwin
The Coakley Award was established in 2010 and honors distinguished service to the University by an active, permanent hourly employee who has worked at St. Lawrence for a minimum of 10 years. While announcing Irwin as this year’s recipient, Fox shared that Irwin is well known for his patience and adaptability and that his work often goes unnoticed simply because he does it so well.
“Kevin arrives before campus lights are on and assures mics are set up, media and visual aids are tested, and all systems ready to go,” Fox said. “We value Kevin’s experience regarding St. Lawrence’s venues and speakers–knowing who prefers handheld versus lapel mics, which classrooms might need a podium light, and exactly how long it takes to get from Newell to Eben [Holden] when coordinating multiple speakers across the course of a day. No matter how many times a schedule changed or last-minute request is made, the response we hear is, ‘Not a problem!’ or ‘You got it.’ Guests often praise our speakers – professors sharing knowledge, singers gracing us with a tune, students learning to examine and critique the world around them – but none of this would be heard without Kevin standing in the back row with a pocket full of back-up batteries, just in case.”
Faculty receiving tenure and promoted to associate professor:
- Alessandro Giardino, Associate Professor of Modern Languages and Coordinator of European Studies
- Mark Sturges, Associate Professor of English
- Angela Sweigart-Gallagher, Assistant Professor of Performance and Communication Arts
Faculty promoted to professor:
- Jessica Chapman, Professor of Statistics, Grace J. Fippinger '48 Professor of Sciences
- Alison Del Rossi, R. Sheldon Johnson ’68 and Virginia H. Johnson Professor of Economics
- Ana Estevez, Professor of Biology & Psychology, Sarah Johnson '82 Professorship in the Sciences
- Samantha Glazier, Professor of Chemistry
- Jon Rosales, Professor of Environmental Studies
- Melissa Schulenberg, Professor Art and Art History, L. M. and G. L. Flint Professorship in Fine Arts
- Cheryl Stuntz, Absalom Graves Gaines Professor of Psychology
