Month: October 2021

Dr. Art Young Receives Distinguished Fellow Award

Dr. Young was recognized virtually at the International Writing Across the Curriculum Conference as a distinguished fellow.  This award, which is made by the WAC Clearinghouse and the Association for Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC), recognizes scholars who have made significant contributions through scholarship, service, and/or innovative program administration to the field of WAC over a career that spans at least ten years.

From  his nomination letter:

We are delighted to nominate Art Young for selection as a Distinguished Fellow of the Association for Writing Across the Curriculum. Professor Young is a national and international pioneer of Writing Across the Curriculum, having translated our discipline’s knowledge into programmatic practices that place the teaching of writing at the center of the mission of higher education.

Nearly two decades ago, Art Young was recognized with the CCCC’s Exemplar Award (on which this nomination is partially based). His scholarship in composition and literature and technology and communication helped to form our larger discipline. Had those areas been the sole focus of his intellectual work, Art would still have been a powerful figure to reckon with. But his oeuvre transcends them—and indeed helped create the field we seek to memorialize with his designation as Fellow. In addition to those aforementioned fields, Art has contributed to the literature in our relatively new field by coauthoring or coediting no fewer than eight books or monographs related to writing across the curriculum.

Art’s contributions to the profession and our community are too numerous to summarize. The list of manuscript reviews for most of our journals, conference presentations and keynotes, workshops, series editorships, program evaluations, task forces, committee work for his home institution, dissertation committee oversight, plus his own articles and book chapters is rendered not in dozens of examples, but in dozens of pages. Likewise, the list of honors recognizing his work is noteworthy. Just a few include South Carolina’s Order of the Palmetto, the State’s highest honor for public service; the Department of the Army’s Outstanding Civilian Service Medal, for his WAC work at the U.S. Military Academy; and a citation in Time Magazine for Clemson’s having been selected as the #1 public college of the year in 2000.

Significant among Art’s accomplishments is his holding simultaneous academic appointments as Professor of English and Professor of Engineering at Clemson University while also holding the Campbell Chair in Technical Communication. Further, he helped found Clemson’s Pearce Center for Professional Communication.

Professor Young’s years-long contributions to the development of WAC and his influence as a leader in the field offer clear evidence to support his selection as a Distinguished Fellow of the Association for Writing Across the Curriculum. Simply put, the inaugural cohort of Distinguished Fellows would not be complete without him. 

Dr. Elaine Richardson Awarded CLADEA Fellow

Dr. Elaine Richardson, Professor Emerita of Animal and Veterinary Sciences and Director, Academic Success Center, was honored virtually at the National College Learning Center Association’s (NCLCA) annual conference as a Council of Learning Assistance and Developmental Education Associations (CLADEA) Fellow. The vision of the CLADEA is to “provide leadership and a unified voice to advance the profession of postsecondary learning assistance and developmental education.” The naming of CLADEA Fellows is the organizations way of formally recognizing the excellence of the very best practitioners, policymakers, researchers, teachers and administrators within the postsecondary learning assistance, developmental education and tutoring. Selection as a Fellow represents the highest honor conferred upon professionals in this field.

Although there are approximately 100,000 educators within the field, to date only 67 individuals have received this impressive accolade since 2000. Dr. Elaine Richardson began her career at Clemson with a teaching and  a research appointment in Animal and Veterinary Sciences, where she was appointed as coordinator for the freshman study strategies course which she expanded to a university-wide offering, eventually focusing on transfer students and students on academic probation. She also was recognized multiple times for her teaching and academic advising of undergraduate students.

At Clemson, Elaine was named the first director of the Academic Success Center, building a center that received numerous national awards. Dr. Richardson publishes and presents on learning assistance collaborations across campus; much of her earlier work was on topics like Universal Design and building programs to enhance academic performance and retention.

After serving as president of NCLCA, she led the development of NCLCA’s Centers of Excellence Certification program. Elaine continues to serve NCLCA as a certification reviewer and on the Past Presidents Council.  In 2019, she received the NCLCA Lifetime Achievement Award and in 2020 was named a Clemson Emeritus College Fellow.  Dr. Richardson’s award was presented by Dr. Debra Jackson, Emeritus College Director.

EMERITUS COLLEGE CELEBRATES ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL YEAR!! 

The Emeritus College celebrated its annual meeting and fall picnic this year through a virtual event on October 5, 2021.

Dr. Debra Jackson welcomed attendees to the ceremony and annual meeting. She recognized the College’s achievements over the past year including over 112 programs with a total participation of 1930 faculty. Participation in activities had increased 29% over the past year. The College enjoyed a variety of programming formats from online and hybrid events to outdoor tours and outings. Dr. Jackson reinforced the positive aspect of the virtual format in the ability to engage faculty that are not in the area or area faculty that may not be able to attend programs at the Emeritus College. Dr. Jackson then introduced Dr. William Stringer, Chair of the EC Advisory Board, who thanked Dr. Joel Greenstein, past chair of the EC Advisory Board, for his service to the College in 2020-2021. Dr. Stringer highlighted the successful fundraising efforts during Dr. Greenstein’s tenure focusing on the completion of the corpus for the Kenelly-Voss Endowment.

Dr. Schoulties, Chair of the Emeritus College Awards Committee, presented the Emeritus Award for Community Service (EACS) for 2021. The recipient for the 2021 EACS award was Dr. Vic Shelburne, Professor Emeritus of Forestry and Natural Resources. Dr. Schoulties highlighted Dr. Shelburne’s over 40 years of service to the Boy Scouts of America. Dr. Shelburne has mentored over 236 young people to the rank of Eagle Scout and has supervised over 1200 nights of camping for Clemson Troop 235.  Dr. Shelburne’s nominator for the award stated, ” The Boy Scouts of America provides a program for young people that builds character, trains them in the responsibilities of participating in citizenship and develops personal fitness. Vic Shelburne believes so strongly in the values of Scouting that he has dedicated his life to volunteering as a leader. In the process, he has become the very personification of dedication and high-minded principle.” Click HERE to view Dr. Schoulties comments.

Dr. Schoulties then introduce Mr. Jake Gotimer, Assistant Scout Executive and Chief Operating Officer, Blue Ridge Council, as the Keynote Address. Mr. Gotimer spoke of Dr. Shelburne’s contributions not only to the Blue Ridge Council but to the greater scouting community throughout the world. Mr. Gotimer highlighted  Vic’s contributions to Camp Old Indian, such as Three Fourths Lodge and the miles of trails originally built by Dr. Shelburne using his expertise in ecology and conservation. Dr. Shelburne still assists in maintaining these trails today!  An average of 60 area youth participate in Troop 235 making it one of the largest troops. The troop provides an average of 800 community service hours yearly, totaling an estimated savings of $23,000 for the Clemson community. Mr. Gotimer also highlighted Vic’s impact on scouts throughout the Southeast as well as his contributions to the national and international scouting programs. Jake Gotimer stated,” Vic has accumulated some very impressive statistics over his scouting career but I don’t think those stats are the most accurate measure of the impact he has had. The mission of the Boy Scouts of America says in part that it’s to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetime. Throughout his tenure Vic has prepared young men at very impressionable times in their lives with the skills needed to make difficult choices for the rest of their lives. Along the way these men have also been learning tangible skills to improve their lives.”

Dr. Shelburne thanked the group for the honor and gave remarks on the importance of the award as a recognition from his peers.

Click HERE for recording of the event!

Click HERE to view event slide presentation!

Photo courtesy of Clemson World