The highest award that any faculty member can earn from Eastern Michigan University is a Distinguished Faculty Award in one of the three primary areas of faculty responsibility, i.e., teaching, scholarly/creative activity, and service. The College of Arts and Sciences is always proud of its many outstanding faculty, but we are particularly proud of our 83 recipients of EMU Distinguished Faculty Awards, since the inception of such awards in 1977. Although the name and focus of some of the faculty awards have changed over the decades, you will readily note in the pages dedicated to our Past Award Winners the consistent and long history of CAS faculty accomplishment honored by the University. An education in the EMU College of Arts and Sciences ensures interaction with some of the best faculty that EMU has to offer.

CAS Distinguished Faculty Award Winners, Awarded March 2007

Two College of Arts and Sciences faculty received Ronald W. Collins Distinguished Faculty Awards — the University's most prestigious for faculty, at the 30th Annual Celebration of Faculty Excellence Awards March 28. Jessica "Decky" Alexander, associate professor of communication and theatre arts, garnered the Service to the University Award and Gregg Barak, professor of sociology, anthropology and criminology, earned the Scholarly/Creative Activity Award. Each received a plaque and a $3,500 honorarium.

The winners talked of teaching inspirations, their students and those who helped them along the way. Some even shed a few tears. Barak, the author/editor of 12 books and more than 100 publications, made the analogy that scholars who write "are like long-distance runners. They work out by themselves and usually do so for an extended part of their life course." Barak said he spends about one-half of his scholarly/creative time writing and the other half editing. "Both give me a great deal of pleasure. Although I enjoy writing more, I learn more from editing," Barak said.

Alexander, perhaps the most emotional of the Distinguished Faculty Award winners, was recognized for her service contributions, including serving as founder and co-director of EMU's CloseUP Theatre Troupe; as a coordinator of the annual MLK Jr. Day Celebration; and, most recently, as a co-chair of EMU's United Way campaign. "I don't believe engaging in EMU or the community, beyond teaching and scholarship, is a choice. It just is," she said. "...You become part of something or it becomes part of something else...without you. You initiate or stagnate. Be in the game or watch it from the sidelines Seek fortune or create the rainbow, which may, of course, lead to fortune. Which is what I have found, here at the end of the rainbow — a fortune of friends, students and colleagues who shape and color my every day."