Loyola University Chicago

Faculty Council

Awards 99-00

1999-2000 Annual Report of the Awards Committee

Members:
Raymond Dye, Psychology (Chair) Sarah Gabel (Theater) Frederick Wezeman (Orthopedics) Terry Northcut (School of Social Work) Brenda Crawley (School of Social Work)

The bylaws of Faculty Council give the charge to the Committee on Awards of soliciting the faculty for names of candidates to be recommended for honorary degrees, and to solicit the faculty for nominations for the Faculty Member of the Year Award.

Honorary Degrees:
(1). A call for recommendations for honorary degrees went out on Mon., Jan. 24th, 2000. Five nominations were returned: (1). The Dalai Lama, (2) Frank J. McGarr (a former US District Circuit Court Judge), (3) James A. Lovell, Jr. (the former astronaut), (4) Jean Vanier (the founder of L'Arche?communities for individuals with handicaps?and author of several books on Christianity and service), and (5) Francis Ford Coppola (film director). Francis Ford Coppola has already been approved by the Board of Trustees for future invitation. A sixth inquiry was received regarding the neurobiologist, Dr. Theodore Bullock. He, too, had already been approved by the Board of Trustees for future invitation, and, in fact, will receive an honorary degree at the May 13th undergraduate ceremony. There were no academicians among nominees received initially, prompting a second email solicitation (on February 16th) of academics for honorary degrees (at the request of Wayne Magdziarz, who chairs the University Honorary Degree Committee, made on February 9). There are still no academicians that have been put forth for consideration this year. The individuals who nominated the Dalai Lama and Frank J. McGarr asked that the names of their nominees be passed along to the University Honorary Degree Committee for consideration, and the materials that were sent to the Awards Committee of Faculty Council have been passed along to Wayne Magdziarz. Jean Vanier was approved by the Honorary Degree Committee of the University (to be presented to the Board of Trustees) on February 9. In short, the Committee on Awards of Faculty Council has made no recommendations during 1999-2000 regarding recipients for honorary degrees. Perhaps the most notable accomplishment concerning honorary degrees was successfully recommending that Dr. Theodore Bullock, an individual whose name had been put forth by Faculty Council in 1998, be invited in to receive a degree.

Faculty Member of the Year:
(2). Nominations for Faculty Member of the Year went out originally on Thursday, Feb. 3rd, 2000. The Mail Group used was FT FACULTY, believing that this list consisted of all full-time faculty at Loyola University. At the February 10 meeting of Faculty Council, Dr. Frederick Wezeman pointed out that he had not received the solicitation for Faculty Member of the Year via email. A second call for nominations went out via email at FTF ITMC on February 16th, which R. Dye had been informed would reach LUMC faculty. Because a WORD attachment to that document contained a virus, R. Dye sought the assistance of Dr. E. J. Neafsey at the Medical School in the distribution of solicitations of nominees for Faculty Member of the Year (and candidates for honorary degrees), since Dr. Neafsey maintains a mail group for faculty at LUMC. Dr. Neafsey agreed to distribute those materials via his email list. Ms. Rebecca Graff of University Libraries (who maintains the Faculty Council Web Page) volunteered to put all nomination forms on the website, where they now reside at www.luc.edu/faccouncil/committees/awards/.

Six names have been put forth for consideration. Upon contacting the nominees (March 23rd), two of the nominees asked that their names be withdrawn from consideration, leaving us with four candidates. Nominees were given until April 10 to submit their statements in support of their nomination, and additional letters of support were solicited as needed. At the April 12 meeting of Faculty Council, Dr. Frederick Wezeman again indicated that he had not seen a call for nominations for Faculty Member of the Year. Through an email exchange with Dr. Wezeman, Linda Massari's name arose (April 24) as someone in the Dean's Office at LUMC who was particularly helpful with regard to email groups at LUMC. In a telephone conversation, she indicated that the groups to be used were CLNFACLTY and BASIC SCIENCES, although she was not certain as to whether or not all of the faculty within those groups were full time.

A meeting was held on April 27th of the Committee on Awards to consider the four nominees. At that meeting, a choice was made among the four, but the sentiment was expressed that additional effort be made to solicit nominations from the Medical School faculty. On April 27th, a solicitation of nominations for Faculty Member of the Year went out to LUMC at BASIC SCIENCES and CLNFACLTY, allowing until May 10 for names to be submitted for consideration. On May 1, R. Dye received a call from Dr. Neafsey indicating that he had received the materials back in February and that he does not know what happened to them. He has redistributed the April 27th missive to his Mail Group.

As a consequence, the Committee on Awards does not have a recommendation for Faculty Member of the Year at this time. It was the wish of Faculty Council that a recommendation for Faculty Member of the Year be presented at the September meeting of 2000.