AWARDS COMMITTEE ANNUAL REPORT, AY 2004-2005
The Awards Committee (hereafter “the Committee”) held three meetings, one in the Fall Semester and two in the Spring Semester. At the Fall meeting, MAJ Scott Lucas was reelected chair of the Committee by the assembled Committee members. The Committee then devoted the majority of the meeting to three chief tasks:
1)It appointed members to the various awards and scholarship committees on campus whose membership includes Awards Committee representatives. CPT Timothy Mays was appointed to the Who’s Who nomination committee; BG Roger Poole was selected for the Military Awards committee, and MAJ Scott Lucas volunteered to represent the Awards Committee on the Summer Scholarships Committee.
2)The Committee reviewed its charter and the nomination-form instructions for the Algernon Sydney Sullivan award. It approved minor changes to the latter document.
3)It agreed to a set voting procedure for selecting Algernon Sydney Sullivan award recipients, one based on secret ballots and multiple rounds of discussion and voting whenever necessary.
The Committee met for its first Spring meeting in early February. At this meeting, the Committee learned that it would number 8 members this semester, due to CPT Maria Rippon’s maternity leave. The chief subject of discussion at this meeting was a request by LTC Bill Woolsey, Chair of Faculty Council, that the Committee study the feasibility of taking a role in the selection of speakers for Commencement and the Greater Issues lecture series. Committee members discussed the matter and generated a number of questions they felt needed to be answered before the Committee could make a report on this subject. MAJ Lucas gathered the questions together and, on the advice of LTC Woolsey, addressed them in a letter to COL Isaac Metts. The Committee agreed to take up the question of playing a role in the selection of speakers at the beginning of next academic year, when (it hoped) many of its initial questions would be answered.
The Committee’s final meeting was in April, and its chief focus was selecting recipients for the Algernon Sydney Sullivan award. The Committee expressed its pleasure at the number of good candidates nominated by members of the faculty, staff, and corps. The Committee debated the merits of various candidates and finally voted in secret ballot for one graduating senior recipient and one non-student recipient of the award. MAJ Lucas informed the Provost’s office of the Committee’s recommendations. MAJ Lucas then thanked the Committee for its good work this semester and adjourned the meeting.
Submitted by MAJ Scott Lucas, Chair, Awards Committee
April 20, 2005