Faculty Scholarship and Awards Committee
Annual Report, 2006-2007
The Faculty Scholarship and Awards Committee met four times during the Spring 2007 term (May 30, April 5, April 26, and May 4). The committee will also, if asked, preside over the counting of votes for the Bradshaw-Feaster and Donaldson-Watkins Medals at the upcoming May 14 faculty meeting.
The job of the Faculty Scholarship and Awards Committee is currently two-fold. First the committee is charged with soliciting applications from all eligible graduating seniors for the Bradshaw-Feaster and Donaldson-Watkins medals of excellence. The committee then reviews these applications and provides the faculty with a list of three finalists for each award, with the faculty selecting the recipients of these awards at the May meeting of the Furman University faculty. Second, the Faculty Scholarship and Awards Committee is charged with interviewing candidates and selecting the recipient of the Faculty Scholarship.
As such, in mid-March I contacted JoAnn Williams in the Academic records office to obtain the names and contact information of all graduating seniors with a high enough GPA (3.4) to be eligible for the Bradshaw-Feaster and Donaldson-Watkins medals of excellence. On March 20, 2007 email transmission and attached application forms (letters in the cases of students known to be off-campus) were sent out to all eligible students (187 female and 81 male students) asking them to apply for these awards. Between March 20, 2007 and the application deadline on March 30, 2007, at least two additional reminder letters were sent to these students to encourage them to submit an application. By the time of the application deadline, 84 applications from female students and 30 applications from male students had been received. The committee carefully read each application and discussed each applicant, and presented to the faculty at the April meeting of the Furman University faculty a list of 12 semifinalist candidates for each award (see below). I then solicited letters of recommendation for each candidate from the three faculty members listed on each student’s application. After careful evaluation of each student’s application and their letters of reference, and extensive discussion, the Faculty Scholarship and Awards Committee then narrowed the list of semifinalists to three male and three female finalists. These names (see below) were posted on May 7, 2007.
The candidates for the Faculty Scholarship must be rising juniors with a GPA > 3.5. This year a committee consisting of Carol Daniels, Harry Shucker, Benny Walker, and Anne Smith selected five students (Matthew Kuhn, Walker Pfost, Erik Dronen, Sarah Henning, and Bailey Johnson) to be interviewed by the Faculty Scholarship and Awards Committee. Each student was asked to fill out an application form, and all four students were interviewed on May 4, 2006. The recipient of this year’s Faculty Scholarship will be introduced at the May meeting of the Furman University faculty.
The chair wishes to express thanks to the committee members for their time and efforts in this service:
Erik Anderson (Philosophy), Judy Bell (Education), Bill Brantley (Physics) Trudy Fuller (Music), and Min-Ken Liao (Biology)
Respectfully submitted,
Nicholas F. Radel, Chair, Faculty Scholarship and Awards Committee