From right to left, President Hunter Rawlings, President Emeritus James A. Perkins and trustee Thomas W. Jones listen to speakers at the Perkins Prize ceremonies May 6. Don Balcom, associate director of special gifts, is at left. Robert Barker/University Photography
By Linda Grace-Kobas and Jacquie Powers
The annual James A. Perkins Prize for Interracial Understanding and Harmony at Cornell was awarded for the second time on Monday, May 6.
"In honoring those who have helped to promote interracial harmony and understanding, the Perkins Prize establishes those goals as worthy ones for the university as a whole," said President Hunter Rawlings, speaking at the afternoon ceremony at the A.D. White House on campus.
The Festival of Black Gospel, a 20-year-old campus organization dedicated to strengthening ties between Cornell and the community through an annual weekend of gospel music and worship, received this year's $5,000 award.
Speaking along with Rawlings at the ceremony were trustee Thomas W. Jones, who established the prize in 1995; President Emeritus James A. Perkins, for whom the prize is named; and John L. Ford, the Robert W. and Elizabeth C. Staley Dean of Students.
Accepting the Perkins Prize on behalf of the Festival of Black Gospel were Roxanne Ryan '98, president; Yvonne Lomax, community liaison officer; and Cleveland Thornhill, adviser.
"I've learned that the path to leadership is more so paved with pain and prayer than with the power and plaudits that soothe the ear," Ryan said. "Also know that blessed are the peacemakers. Look at yourself and be sure you are among the peacemakers."
Two finalists for the prize were given honorable mentions at the ceremony: Dr. Martin Harris, staff psychologist at Cornell's Gannett Health Center, who has worked as an adviser to and mediator for Latino organizations on campus as well as individual students, and the Department of Theatre Arts, which last fall produced Fires in the Mirror: Crown Heights, Brooklyn and Other Identities to explore issues of racial tension. Kimberly L. Shute, interim director of campus and community relations, and Robert Mortis, director of audience services, received awards on behalf of the department.
Jones established the Perkins Prize to promote efforts for the advancement of campus interracial understanding and harmony and to honor Perkins for his "historic decision" to increase the enrollment of minority students during the tumultuous 1960s. The annual award is intended to be presented to the student, faculty, staff or program making the most significant contribution to furthering the ideal of university community while respecting the values of racial diversity.
At the ceremony, Jones said the prize allows an opportunity "to pause and reflect on some of the positive things that have happened in the life of this university and the life of this country." And he said it shows, "there is more to celebrate about how far we have come than there is to lament about how far we have to go."
Perkins added: "This prize shows there is a long line of individuals in the past and stringing into the future who will handle difficulties the way a great university should handle such difficulties."
Perkins served as Cornell president from 1963 to 1969. Jones, who was an undergraduate at Cornell during a student takeover of Willard Straight Hall in 1969, is president and chief operating officer of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF), the world's largest pension fund.
The Perkins Prize grant is administered by Dean of Students Ford. Winners are selected by a nine-member executive committee of the Student Community Fund, made up of students, faculty and administrators.