Campus climate group wins Perkins Prize at Willard Straight event

At the ceremony for the James A. Perkins Prize in the Willard Straight Hall Memorial Room, April 5, are, from left, Thomas Jones, Cornell trustee and founder of the prize, and his wife Addie Jones; Barbara Perkins Tinker, James Perkins' daughter; and Robert Miller, Cornell professor emeritus and dean of the faculty from 1967 to 1971. Photographs by Nicola Kountoupes/University Photography

By Jacquie Powers

The sixth annual James A. Perkins Prize for Interracial Understanding and Harmony at Cornell was awarded to the Campus Climate Committee at a ceremony April 5 in Willard Straight Hall.

Two other applicants for the $5,000 prize, established in 1994 by Cornell trustee Thomas W. Jones, won honorable mentions. One went to the 30th Anniversary Commemoration of the Willard Straight Hall Takeover, April 19, 1999, an event planned under the leadership of Tanni Hall, associate dean of students. The other honorable mention was awarded to the Community Development Student Staff Training Committee and was accepted by Heidi Hable, the committee's chair and student staff selection and training administrator, and Brian Meyer, a committee member and residence hall director for the Collegetown Residence Halls.

Jones, Cornell Class of 1969, MRP '72, established the Perkins Prize to promote efforts for the advancement of campus interracial understanding and harmony and to honor the "historic decision" by Cornell President Emeritus James A. Perkins, who was president from 1963 to 1969, to increase the enrollment of minority students during the unsettled 1960s. Jones, the chair and CEO of SSB Citi Asset Management Group, one of the largest asset management firms in the world, and vice chair of its parent company, Travelers Group, was an undergraduate and participant in the student takeover of Willard Straight Hall in the spring of 1969. Perkins, who died in 1998, was represented at the ceremony by his daughter, Barbara.

Jones called the award "a celebration a recognition of just how far along the road to improve race relations Cornell has traveled" since 1969, and "it is also a celebration of how far America has improved in 30 years. Our progress has been very real and very substantial and much, much greater than was thought possible."

President Hunter Rawlings thanked Jones for creating the Perkins Prize. "Since you established this award, it has brought members of the Cornell community closer together. It marks one of the high points of our year," he said. "We believe that diversity and excellence go hand in hand, and in fact that one increases the other. It is with this in mind that we make these awards today."

Robert Harris accepts the Perkins Prize on behalf of the Campus Climate Committee.

The Campus Climate Committee (CCC) is co-chaired by Robert L. Harris, associate professor of Africana studies and vice provost for diversity and faculty development, and Robert L. Johnson, director of Cornell United Religious Work. The committee was established in February 1999 by J. Robert Cooke, dean of the faculty, in response to numerous disturbing incidents on campus during fall 1998.

Cooke has said the incidents created a heightened concern that Cornell needed to create and maintain a wholesome community " where people with different backgrounds, cultural identities, academic interests and political ideas could interact constructively and freely express themselves." On Feb. 10, 1999, the Faculty Senate adopted a resolution urging the faculty to take action.

Cooke then established the CCC, which has members representing the entire campus community, and charged it with the responsibility for organizing a sustained effort to create a renewed sense of community.

According to the Perkins Prize selection committee: "Accomplishments to date include the May 3, 1999, open forum 'Cornell '69: Key Issues Then and Now,' the adoption of Cornell's Statement on Diversity and Inclusiveness: 'Open Doors, Open Hearts, and Open Minds,' which included input from all the campuswide governance bodies, and the establishment of dialogues among students, faculty and staff in several academic departments on how we engage difference at Cornell. The CCC has also set a foundation for further discussion by establishing subcommittees that will facilitate conversations among students, staff and faculty about how we all can improve the campus climate to make Cornell a more safe and inviting campus for all students, regardless of race, gender, religion, national origin, sexual orientation or class."

Rawlings presented the award to Cooke, Harris and Johnson, whom he jokingly referred to as "the three Bobs," and said they have "been forces for positive change at Cornell, not only in this effort but in their other efforts as well, in their day-to-day work. Not by making one spectacular speech, or one spectacular event, but by ensuring that every day brings positive change."

Rawlings noted that it only takes one negative incident to destroy the climate of the community. "It's important that negative incidents, when they do occur -- and they will occur, everywhere -- are themselves so isolated that they are not the norm but become the exception to the norm," he said.

That is what the Campus Climate Committee has accomplished, Rawlings said. "This committee is being honored not for just a single event but for a large number of events that have taken much time. These efforts have ensured that these events become part of the positive fabric of our community."

In accepting the award, Harris thanked Cooke "for making [campus climate] a central part of his agenda." He said the committee wanted the diversity statement to be "a bottom-up exercise, not a top-down exercise, and we hope that every member of the community will take ownership of this statement in an effort to make this a safe, wholesome campus climate."

Johnson said that the 26-member CCC intends to use the $5,000 prize to provide every Cornell student with a computer mouse pad imprinted with the diversity statement, as a reminder.

Cooke thanked the other members of the committee for their energy and commitment. "It is that energy and commitment that is required over the long haul to make a significant change."