Welcome, this is the 11th annual Faculty Awards Convocation.
We have a wonderful opportunity today to pause from the everyday.
Celebrate the achievements of one another and rejuvenate ourselves for the important
calling that brought us to this moment.
Higher education has been called into question over the last several years.
The label intellectual has become a disparaging term.
At the same time, scores of information have proliferated exponentially and the need for
clarity is ever more critical.
In this tumult, it is absolutely essential that we not forget why we are here.
Each and every one of us has chosen to pursue the path of knowledge and truth.
We cannot let this time in history create a sense of futility or hopelessness within
us.
Rather, we must draw on our community and remind ourselves that there is nothing closer
to the heart of humanity than this quest for knowledge and truth.
Let's take today to congratulate one another and our achievements, for the achievements
of one are of the achievements of and for us all.
Now, let's get into those celebrations and begin with our milestone awardees.
The first group of faculty we will recognize this afternoon are those who are celebrating
important milestone years in their careers at Grand Valley.
Will all those receiving the 25, 30, 35, 40, and 45-year awards please make your way to
the stage.
Let's congratulate all our milestone winners and thank them for the many contributions
they make to create the excellent university that is Grand Valley today.
Next in our program are the awards for excellence.
First is the group receiving the CSCE awards for scholarly and creative excellence.
I would like to ask Dr. Robert Smart Vice Provost for Research Administration and Executive
Director of the Center for Scholarly and Creative Excellence to come forward to present these
awards.
We have two types of awards tonight and so we'll start with the mentoring awards and
then we'll go to the early career scholar awards.
Our tradition for this convocation has been to ask one of our faculty honorees to share
his or her perspective on some aspect of higher education.
I want to continue this tradition and would like to introduce todays speaker Dr. John
Constantelos.
My father delighted in teaching anyone, the etymology of words of Greek origin, including
my favorite, philoxenia.
The antonym of xenophobia.
It means friendship or love to strangers or foreigners.
I think of N, who told classmates that she chose GVSU, instead of a better-known university,
because our staff was extraordinarily helpful with a dreamer's admission process.
I was heartened to hear that and thought, that's exactly what we should all be doing.
So, I close, suggesting that internationalization, and love, should be embedded in everything
we do at GVSU.
I think that's exactly what my parents had in mind when they taught me, philoxenia.
And now it's time to present the awards for the Pew Awards for Excellence.
I would like to ask Dr. Christine Rener, Vice Provost for Instructional Development and
Innovation and Director of the Pew Faculty Teaching and Learning Center, to join me to
present the awards.
Will the Pew honorees please join us on the stage?
I'm delighted to be joined onstage by 11 wonderful faculty and to present the Pew Awards for
Excellence in Teaching.
And now we'll present our last group of awards, the University Awards for Excellence in International
Work, Advising, Service, Scholarship and Teaching, as well as the Glenn Niemeyer Awards.
Our last awards this afternoon, are the Glenn A. Niemeyer Outstanding Faculty Awards.
The Niemeyer Awards are the most prestigious academic awards presented by the university.
These awards are named for Dr. Glenn Niemeyer who retired from Grand Valley in 2001 after
38 years of dedicated service.
He was a pioneer faculty member and then served as the institutions first Provost from 1980
to 2001.
Faculty selected for the award are honored for their excellence, enthusiasm, and loyalty
to teaching, scholarship and service.
This award recognizes individuals who excel in all three categories.
They have a superior student-centered approach to teaching, and they continuously develop
further excellence in the classroom that instills the love of learning in their students.
They create new knowledge and explore its applications through scholarly activity.
These faculty also contribute their expertise and service to the university, professional
organizations and the community.
I asked Provost if I could just say congratulations to all those that have served us, that have
been recognized for the core business of quality teaching and learning, and service, and scholarship.
And for the Provost in keeping this tradition alive and to our deans who are providing the
environment for these types of achievements to be realized.
Because at the end of the day, what we're doing here is we're representing a faculty,
and many staff members too, who are engaged in a teaching, and scholarship and service,
because we love the academy.
We love this university, and we love our students and we're going to challenge them so that
they can go out and be that internationalization expert as John so eloquently put forward to
us.
That was remarkable, John, I do appreciate that very, very much.
But I just wanted to, I'm not going to be able to join you at dinner, but I just wanted
to take a minute again to say thank you, congratulations, and for those that are here supporting those
that have received these recognitions, thank you for joining in this great celebration.
Thank you very much.
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