UA Announces Premier Awards Recipients

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The University of Alabama has announced the top individual award recipients for scholarship, leadership and service to the University for 2000.

UA President Andrew Sorensen announced the honors at the Presidential Awards Dinner held recently at NorthRiver Yacht Club in Tuscaloosa. The recipients will also be recognized during UA Honors Week in an awards ceremony Friday, April 14, at the Mound on the UA Quad.

Two of the four honors — The Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award and the Morris Lehman Mayer Award — recognize non-students as well as students. The William P. Bloom Scholarship Award and the John Fraser Ramsey Award recognize top students at the University. All recipients have made significant contributions to UA.

The Morris Lehman Mayer Award is named in honor of Morris Lehman Mayer, business professor emeritus. For three decades, Mayer was a beloved UA teacher and a guiding force in student life. The award recognizes one member of the graduating class and, this year, two members of the teaching faculty, who exemplify integrity, selfless service and leadership at UA and in the community along with making significant contributions to student life.

Scott Thomas Levy, a Huntsville native, received the Morris Lehman Mayer Award as the graduating recipient. He is an accounting major with a 3.8 GPA and has served as treasurer of a variety of groups: Lambda Sigma, the sophomore honorary; Zeta Beta Tau, his social fraternity; and the Anderson Society service honorary. Levy has served as president and, this year, as executive director of the Student Alumni Association (SAA), which was selected as the most outstanding group on campus during his administration. He has also served in numerous leadership capacities: chairman of the Council of Presidents, vice president of fundraising for the SAA, member of the Student Government Association (SGA) Finance Committee, chairman of the SGA Awards Banquet, and member of the business school’s Student Executive Council. He has been honored by selection for myriad honor societies and was named “Most Outstanding Sophomore” by the Order of Omega.

Dr. James F. Cashman, professor of management in the UA Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration, received the Morris Lehman Mayer Award as one of the two teaching faculty members. Cashman’s principal nominator wrote: “The University is a kinder, better, gentler place because Morris was here — and Jim Cashman has continued that legacy. From an undergraduate perspective, Jim Cashman is probably in contact with and positively influences more students than anyone else on campus. He team-teaches two mass lecture sections of Management 300 every semester. Students line the hall outside of Jim’s office to meet and talk with him. Jim patiently talks to each one and solves each student’s special needs. Jim is relentless in his willingness to help undergraduate students. He works diligently to help them find jobs, internships, and other opportunities. At the graduate level, he teaches an MBA and a Ph.D. level course, both of which are wildly popular and highly successful. Jim has directed more dissertations in the last ten years (over 15) than anyone else in the college. Jim’s students publish as much or more than the vast majority of Ph.D. students. Yet Jim seldom accepts co-authorship of these works, even though it would benefit his academic career. Instead, Jim permits students to build on his ideas and encourages them to begin their careers with their own publications.”

Dr. Robert W. Halli Jr., associate professor of English in the College of Arts and Sciences, also received the Morris Lehman Mayer Award as a faculty recipient. A fellow leader in the international English honorary, Sigma Delta Tau, says, “Professor Halli’s sense of servant leadership is remarkable. In a life filled with personal and professional commitments, he has modeled — with great enthusiasm, humor, modesty, and often at considerable personal and professional cost — what it means to be a fully involved person. Serving on the UA Faculty Senate, serving on or directing the work of countless committees, showing his students the ins, outs, and joys of academic pursuit, leading young people through the ropes not only of pre-professional but of personal, committed living, he has put his students, his department, his university on the map in our very large international honors organization.”

This year’s Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award is presented to two men and one woman of the graduating class and one non-student who has been helpful to, and associated with, the University. The Sullivan Award recognizes excellence of character and service to humanity.

Student winners of this year’s Sullivan Award are Stephen Lawrence Miles of Bessemer, Richard Brandon Stacey of Birmingham and Katherine Elise Perrien of Mobile.

Stephen Lawrence Miles is a native of Bessemer who has earned a 3.853 GPA in economics. As president of the Anderson Society, he led the group to record fund raising to benefit children’s programs at the YMCA.

In his junior year, Miles served as president of Cardinal Key and chief of staff in the SGA executive administration. He helped build relationships between the SGA and other campus organizations such as the Residence Hall Association and the African American Association. Miles also aimed to increase minority representation in the SGA.

Richard Brandon Stacey is a native of Birmingham (zip code 35210) who, in preparation for medical school, has achieved a GPA of 3.85 in his New College depth study of Interdisciplinary Applied Science. He also has participated, as a junior, in the Dr. Michael E. DeBakey Summer Surgery Program. Stacey’s activities range from service in the SGA to volunteering at DCH Regional Medical Center. In response to his father suffering a massive heart attack, Stacey founded The Hope Group, an on-campus support group for students suffering from major illnesses either themselves or in their families. He has also raised awareness about the need for organ donation and raised money to help fund a heart transplant needed by a young girl whom he met when his father was hospitalized.

Katherine Elise Perrien, of Mobile, was also last year’s winner of the Ramsey Award. She is a chemical engineering major with a 3.88 GPA. Her service to the University ranges from individual tutoring, serving as SGA vice president for academic affairs, and a myriad of other student government positions. One of her references said, “She has always been an intelligent, engaged person. She can do so many things well that one has a hard time wrapping her up in a few sentencesÖ She is not satisfied unless she has given an effort her best. She is not satisfied with the appearance of getting the job done well; it must really be done well.”

Camille Cook received the Sullivan Award as a non-student honoree. As “the first woman law professor in Alabama, the first woman to serve as an administrator at the UA School of Law, and the first woman to be named to an endowed professorship at UA,” Cook has served as mentor, leader and inspiration to people within and outside her profession. One of her nominators said, “She has served her community and University joyfully, energetically, and selflessly. She has demonstrated integrity in every office she has held, every committee she has served on, every job she has accepted Ö(She) is a woman of tremendous courage and determination, (who) Öworked closely with the Alabama Law Institute to revise legislation in Alabama that pertains to family and children issues.”

The John Fraser Ramsey Award, named in honor of the late University history professor emeritus, recognizes in a junior the versatility gifts and attainments, as well as the breadth of excellence in mind and character, that have traditionally been the goals of a liberal education.

The recipient of the Ramsey Award is Ryan Christopher King of Huntsville. King is majoring in quantitative finance and minoring in computer-based honors, economics, and mathematical statistics. He has a 4.0 GPA.

King is also a member of the Blackburn Institute, a Capstone Man, historian of The Other Club, member of the Friedman Hall Council and board member and service project chair in Circle K. One reference said, “Mr. King is a person who believes that no part of one’s life should be allowed to atrophy. (He) is a role model for all of us as reflected in his character, his academic excellence, his commitment to leadership, and his in-depth understanding of the true meaning of education.”

The William P. Bloom Scholarship Award honors a junior who has improved intergroup relations within the University community; this year’s recipient is Porcia Therese Bradford of Montgomery.

Bradford, a National Achievement Scholar, is in the University Honors Program with a 3.76 GPA in biology and pre-medical studies. Her service to the University includes captain of the Bama Belles, SGA Recruitment Committee chairperson, natural sciences representative in the College of Arts and Sciences SGA, and director of the Community Service Center. In 1998, she was named Volunteer of the Year by Habitat for Humanity. As president of her sorority, Delta Sigma Theta, she earned the Panhellenic award for Most Outstanding Chapter President, and led members to top recognition for academic achievement and philanthropy.

Contact

Carin Charles or Linda Hill, Office of Media Relations, 205/348-8325