With pleasure, we announce the 2016 recipients of the Peter T. Millard Award, the USFA Academic Freedom Award and the Peter C. Dooley Legacy Award.
The 2016 Peter Millard Award goes to Chris Adams from the Library.
Chris has patiently and painstakingly served USFA members for a number of years. As an Executive Committee member and a Grievance Officer for the USFA, as well as a member of the CAUT Librarians and Archivists Committee, he has worked steadfastly and without flamboyance in support of the USFA, USFA members and his fellow librarians.
The 2016 Academic Freedom Award goes to Penni Stewart, Associate Professor of Sociology, York University.
Penni has made numerous and important contributions to academic freedom in Canada. A gifted, unselfish and courageous colleague, she has patiently and bravely unpacked difficult situations that bring the desire for equity into conflict with principles and practices of academic freedom, including exposure of and resistance to the misuse of respectful workplace policies to silence criticism of University and college administrations. Penni has made national contributions to academic freedom as President and member of the CAUT Executive protecting the rights of unfairly endangered colleagues and educating university presidents and provosts in the basics of academic freedom. She has exercised prudent and informed counsel, keeping interests of individual faculty and their associations’ paramount and developed defences of core academic rights that send a powerful message across Canada and across borders.
The 2016 Peter C. Dooley Legacy Award goes to Howard Woodhouse and Jay Kalra, both from the University of Saskatchewan. Their examples as champions of collegial governance and collegial decision-making at the U of S, while different, are equally important.
Howard is committed to the University as a place of learning where major decisions are made by faculty free from the influence of external forces. Through various peer-reviewed and popular publications, he has taken an active role in the mobilization of knowledge about university governance and he has used it in conjunction with members of the university community to draw attention to the problematic aspects of the TransformUS initiative where collegial governance was undermined.
Jay has had a leadership role in collegial governance as Chair of University Council while the collegium navigated very rough waters seeking to restore our institution to internal health, invigorating independence and public esteem. His unequivocal commitment to collegial rights and responsibilities as the ground on which stability could be achieved and a new institutional course set, along with his unapologetic and recurrent reminders at Council meetings of the values and process that govern Council’s activities and that academic decisions belong in academic hands, carried the university community during the acutely stressful time surrounding TransformUS, the ensuing leadership crisis and an interim presidency.
These awards will be presented at a celebration dinner on Thursday, April 7.
In addition to the celebration dinner on April 7, the USFA is hosting an academic freedom event from 4:00 to 5:45 in the Neatby-Timlin Theater (241 Arts). Event details can be found on the USFA website. Please plan to attend.