Here's to Our Best
Every year at the Chancellor’s Honors Banquet I have the pleasure of praising the accomplishments of faculty, staff, and students from every college in the university. This year was especially rewarding.
The top faculty honor is Macebearer, and this year the award went to Dr. Alfred Legendre, professor of medicine and founding faculty member in the College of Veterinary Medicine, who’s affectionately known by his colleagues and students as “Dr. Legendary.” UT’s Macebearer leads the commencement processional carrying the traditional academic mace. It is little understood that the mace originated as a club-like, medieval weapon but evolved in practice to today’s more gentle, but certainly no less powerful, symbol whose carrier “guards” the university community while it engages the intellectual enterprise.
UT is blessed with many generous donors whose contributions make possible awards to exceptional faculty engaged not only in teaching, but also research and service. We awarded the following top prizes to faculty:
Alexander Prize: Dr. David Schumann, the William J. Taylor Professor of Business in the Department of Marketing and Logistics. Named for former UT president and now Senator Lamar Alexander and his wife, Honey, the award recognizes superior teaching and distinguished scholarship.
Jefferson Prize: Dr. Lorri Glover, associate professor of history. This award is made possible by an anonymous donor.
L.R. Hesler Award: Dr. John Peters, professor of educational psychology and counseling. The award is named for the longtime department head and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
Teaching is always priority one on the Knoxville campus of the University of Tennessee. Some of our most outstanding teachers receive National Alumni Association Awards. This year they are Dr. Joseph W. Bartges, professor of medicine and nutrition in the College of Veterinary Medicine; Dr. Edwin G. Burdette, professor of structural engineering; Dr. June Gorski, professor of health education and public health; and Dr. John Robert Mount, associate professor of food science and technology.
UT employs the finest staff in the state. We selected an extraordinary representative when we awarded this year’s Customer Service Award. James Bletner, director of concessions, went above and beyond the call of duty when a power outage left a number of residence hall students without a home for the night. Bletner welcomed these students into the Thompson-Boling Assembly Center and Arena and spent an inordinate amount of his personal time, well into the early morning hours, making sure those displaced students were comfortable.
Torchbearer is the highest honor we give to UT students. Recognition as a Torchbearer reminds all students that those who bear the Torch of Enlightenment shadow themselves to give light to others. New honorees are Carrie Elizabeth Harris, an animal science/food science and technology major from Speedwell, Tennessee; Curtis Sanderfer, a political science and Africana studies major from Chattanooga, Tennessee; Shanika Deshawn Sanders, an accounting major in the University Honors program from Huntsville, Alabama; Ashley Yeager, a journalism and electronic media major from Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania; and Elizabeth Marie Wilson, a College Scholars student from Strawberry Plains, Tennessee.
We recognized many more of our top students, faculty, and staff at the Honors Banquet. The full awards list and video of the event (this year available online for the first time) is at http://chancellor.utk.edu/honorsbanquet/2007/.