University News

Hundreds of years of academic tradition will merge with recognition for this past academic year's outstanding professors when the University of Memphis observes the annual Faculty Convocation on Thursday, April 28.

Beginning about 1:30 p.m., administrators and faculty members, dressed in the academic regalia of the colleges and universities where they earned their degrees, will process from the Art Museum, past the McWherter Library, to the Rose Theatre. The academic procession dates back to medieval times, when universities first came into being.

The convocation will honor professors for teaching, research, service, and student advising. The highlight of the event will be presentation of the Eminent Faculty Award, the single most prestigious honor given to a faculty member, presented by the University's Board of Visitors.

The recipient of this year's Eminent Faculty Award is David Appleby, professor of communication. He will receive a crystal obelisk and a cash award of $20,000. The award recognizes exceptional and sustained contributions to scholarly-creative achievement, teaching, and service, all of which bring recognition to the University.

Appleby has been making documentary films for almost 30 years. He joined the U of M faculty in 1977 after completing his MFA degree in film and television at Temple University. Last year, his film Hoxie: The First Stand won several honors: a Peabody Award (broadcasting's equivalent to the Pulitzer in print journalism), an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award, a Mid-South Regional Emmy for non-news writing, and a CINE Golden Eagle.

Hoxie examines a 1955 decision by the school board of small-town Hoxie, Arkansas, to abide by the U.S. Supreme Court's 1954 school desegregation decision and integrate its schools voluntarily, despite strong opposition. Followed soon after by a similar, but larger situation in the Arkansas capital of Little Rock, the events in Hoxie received little, if any, national attention.

Appleby has also earned awards and a national Emmy nomination for an earlier documentary, At the River I Stand, which examines the 1968 strike by Memphis sanitation workers that resulted ultimately in the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Receiving the Thomas W. Briggs Foundation's Excellence in Teaching Award will be Dr. William Jermann and Dr. John Hanneken. The award, established in 1996, is named for the founder of Welcome Wagon International. Nominees are rated on the basis of teaching skills, classroom performance, their role in the overall development of undergraduates, and the results of student rating surveys.

Jermann is a professor of electrical and computer engineering; he has taught at the U of M since 1967 and is considered by his colleagues and his students as a "tireless,” dedicated, and enthusiastic teacher. Hanneken is an associate professor physics who challenges his students to achieve their full potential. Each will receive a $5,000 stipend.

Four professors will each receive $2,000 Distinguished Teaching Awards sponsored by the U of M Alumni Association. They are Dr. Randy Floyd, Dr. Brian Janz, Dr. Reginald Martin, and Yvonne Leatherwood. Ms. Leatherwood teaches composition and African-American literature. Dr. Martin is coordinator of the African-American literature program and past director of the professional writing program. Dr. Janz, who received a Suzanne Downs Palmer Professorship last year, is an associate professor of management information systems. Dr. Floyd teaches courses in psychological and educational assessment.

Distinguished Advising Awards, one for a faculty member and one for a professional staff adviser, will go to Dr. Walter "Bob” Brown and Stephanie Johnson. Each will receive $2,000. Brown, who joined the faculty in 1965, is an associate professor history; he and one other colleague have served as faculty advisers to all the U of M's undergraduate majors in history, one of the University's largest undergraduate programs. Johnson, a counselor in the Academic Counseling Center with more than 20 years' experience in her field, has counseled more than 4,500 students during her career at the University.

Awards for Distinguished Research, Excellence in Engaged Scholarship, and Creative Achievement will go to five professors: Dr. Stanley Hyland, Dr. Gene Plunka, Dr. Robyn Cox, Dr. John Baur, and Dr. Douglas Imig. Each will receive a $2,000 award.

Dr. Hyland is an associate professor of anthropology and director of the School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy. Dr. Plunka, a professor of English and a specialist in 20^th century French and American drama, is now working on his seventh book. Dr. Cox, a professor in the School of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology, is a Fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, an honor afforded to only about one percent of the organization's 116,000 members. Music professor Baur has been the Tennessee Composer of the Year, and his original work, The Promise, about the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., debuted last fall at the Germantown Performing Arts Center.

Dr. Imig is a professor of political science and director of the Benjamin Hooks Center for Social Change. He received the University's College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Research Award last year.

The Allen J. Hammond Distinguished Service Award will be presented to Dr. Arch Johnston, founder and director of the University's Center for Earthquake Research and Information.

The Hammond Award, which memorializes a deceased director of financial aid at the University, is not given every year; it is reserved for special recognition of people who have rendered significant service to the University.

Since CERI's creation in 1984, under Johnston 's leadership it has developed an outreach unit that has become the region's leader in earthquake preparedness and information. Johnston has been named a Dunavant Professor in the College of Arts and Sciences, and he has won the College's Meritorious Faculty Award, the University's Distinguished Research Award, and the Jesuit Seismological Association Award.

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