Akwe:kon is awarded fourth annual Perkins Prize

Ramona Connors, residence hall director at Akwe:kon, is flanked by President Hunter Rawlings, left, and Thomas Jones, university trustee, at the April 28 ceremony in Willard Straight Hall. Robert Barker/University Photography

The fourth annual Perkins Prize for Interracial Understanding and Harmony at Cornell was awarded at a ceremony attended by more than 100 people in the Memorial Room of Willard Straight Hall, April 28.

This year's winner of the $5,000 award was Akwe:kon residential program house, which, the award citation reads, "has provided a residential experience centered on Native American people and issues that are welcoming and supportive of both Indian and non-Indian students."

Accepting on behalf of Akwe:kon was residence hall director Ramona M. Connors.

Honorable mention certificates were awarded to ALANA (the African Latino Asian Native American Programming Board) and the Multicultural Living Learning Unit.

Cornell trustee Thomas W. Jones '69 established the annual James A. Perkins Prize in 1995 to promote efforts for the advancement of campus interracial understanding and harmony and to honor the "historic decision" by Cornell President Emeritus James Perkins (1963-1969) to increase the enrollment of minority students during the tumultuous 1960s.

"The Perkins Prize is a living, annual testimony to the potential for human reconciliation," said Jones at the ceremony. "It is important for Cornellians to gather each April to bear witness to those who led Cornell and our country out of the racial wilderness. Dr. James Perkins was one of those leaders."

President Hunter Rawlings also spoke at the ceremony and presented the awards. He read a statement from Perkins, who could not attend due to illness. In his statement, Perkins thanked Jones and Robert Miller, the dean of the faculty during his tenure, congratulated Akwe:kon and expressed his pride in Cornell and its constituents. "We should continue to raise our sights and strive to develop our understanding of each other and our pursuit of common priorities," his statement read.

Said Rawlings: "Those words from Jim Perkins clearly come from the heart. And the vision of healing and harmony that he and Tom Jones have set forth is even more relevant today than when the prize was established four years ago."

Winners of the Perkins Prize are selected by a nine-member executive committee of the Student Community Fund, made up of students, faculty and administrators.

For online information about the prize, visit http://www.dos.cornell.edu/dos/dos/PerkinsPrize.html.