Cook award winners recognized for improving climate for women at CU

By Linda Myers

A student trustee who marched on Washington in support of affirmative action in higher education admissions, a trail-blazing professor, the director of an educational theater troupe, an executive chef and three leaders of key Cornell offices and programs all were recognized April 16 for their contributions to improving the climate for women at Cornell.

2003 Cook Award winners, from left, are Janet Corson-Rikert, Dorothy Mermin, Linda Grace-Kobas, Vivian Relta, Lynette Chappell-Williams, Eileen Hughes and Funa Maduka. Nicola Kountoupes/University Photography

The winners of the 11th annual Constance E. Cook and Alice H. Cook Recognition Awards were honored at special luncheon in Morrison Hall on campus. The awards are granted by the Cornell Advisory Committee on the Status of Women (ACSW), a campus group that encourages the advancement of women at Cornell, and are selected by an ACSW panel from nominations by members of the Cornell community. The awards are named for Constance Cook, Cornell's first woman vice president, and Alice Cook, one of the first women faculty members at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, both of them early advocates for women at Cornell.

ACSW's Wendy Lombardo, associate director of the International Students and Scholars Office, introduced this year's winners, who are: Funa Maduka, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences and a student trustee of Cornell; Dorothy Mermin, the Goldwin Smith Professor of English emerita; Vivian Relta, associate director and facilitator of the Cornell Interactive Theatre Ensemble; Eileen Hughes, executive chef, Trillium Dining; Lynette Chappell-Williams, director of the Office of Workforce Diversity, Equity and Life Quality; Janet Corson-Rikert, physician and director of the Gannett Health Center; and Linda Grace-Kobas, director of Cornell News Service.

Maduka was nominated by classmate Jermaine Gause in city and regional planning, who said: "Everything Funa does, she does because she cares wholeheartedly about the issues." She cited Maduka for her role as the first chair of the Student Assembly committee for women's issues; for holding student forums on sexual harassment; fighting for funding for the Women's Resource Center on campus; founding the Women's Network, which brings together about 200 women student leaders campuswide; and spotlighting the need for women's safety on Slope Day.

President Rawlings, who spoke at the start of the ceremony, also praised Maduka for being part of a Cornell contingent to Washington, D.C., this year in support of affirmative action in higher education, while the Supreme Court heard arguments for and against it in admissions policy in two key University of Michigan cases. (Cornell has filed a friend of the court brief in support of Michigan's position.)

Kathy Partridge, who nominated Hughes, spoke about the Trillium chef's supportiveness of women staff with health and family issues. She talked about her own battle with breast cancer and how Hughes, a breast-cancer survivor herself, "gave me the courage to go on." She also praised Hughes' empathetic listening skills, which she strived to emulate.

"Whether it's breast cancer or harassment [or other concerns relating to women], we all need to listen more because its pretty tough out there," Hughes countered.

Professor Laura Brown, chair of the English department, was part of the group who nominated English professor emerita Mermin (the others were Francille Firebaugh, former dean of the College of Human Ecology, Hope Mandeville, director of the Office of Assemblies, Ph.D. graduate Diane McPherson, now a faculty member at Ithaca College, and Lynne Abel, Arts and Sciences associate dean for undergraduate education).

Brown recounted how Mermin, who began as an instructor at a time when the English department had no tenured women faculty, rose to become the department's first female chair. She cited her for being a "vigorous" advocate for women students, making a priority both the admission of women into the department's graduate programs and the hiring of more women and minorities as faculty -- changing the balance on both fronts. "The college and department owe a debt to Dorothy that this award can only begin to acknowledge," she said.

Mermin thanked the many women who had helped her. She spoke of supportive faculty wives and administrative aides, including one who worked after hours to put through the paperwork granting her tenure, even taking it to the dean's home for a signature.

Relta was nominated by Martha Dewey, who praised her "for getting people to engage in dialog on subjects very difficult to discuss," such as behavior reflecting racial and gender prejudices harmful to others. One Relta program she cited was First Voices and Visions, which targets first-year students. "Her skill is to get people to engage in a more frank and fruitful dialogue that comes from the heart, not from the head," said Dewey.

Chappell-Williams was nominated by Sonya Baylor and Patricia Stark for helping to design a program for child-care assistance for needy employees and for developing life-cycles workshops and other programs and initiatives that have improved the work and life quality for women staff.

Corson-Rikert was nominated by Nianne VanFleet for creating a fail-safe network of care for students with eating disorders, primarily women. "Dozens of women are here, able to participate in the life of Cornell because of her," said VanFleet, who likened her boss's management style to that of the conductor of an orchestra.

And Grace-Kobas was nominated by Henrik N. Dullea, vice president for university relations, for her great success in promoting in the national media the research achievements of women faculty, in particular those in the sciences and humanities, as well as the achievements of alumnae, staff and students.

Award winners also acknowledged the assistance of other women, including the ACSW. "No one wins an award like this in a vacuum," Grace-Kobas commented. And Mermin said, "This group shows the spirit is still alive."