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State Merit Award Recipients
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Connecticut |
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Maine |
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Massachusetts Irving Fradkin |
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New Hampshire
Ingrid Lemaire and Peter V. Sampo |
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Rhode Island |
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Vermont
The Hon. James H. Douglas |
The Eleanor M. McMahon Award for Lifetime Achievement
John SilberJohn Silber became the seventh president of Boston University in January 1971. During his tenure, Boston University grew in size, quality and reputation. Emphasizing the attainment of academic excellence and financial stability, he balanced a budget in disarray, hired noted new faculty, doubled the size of the university’s facilities and raised admissions standards and academic requirements. He personally recruited future Nobel Prize recipients Elie Wiesel and Derek Walcott to the Boston University faculty, along with Nobel Laureates Saul Bellow and Sheldon Glashow.
Beginning in 1989, Silber led Boston University?s innovative program to operate the schools of Chelsea, Mass., providing the small city with early childhood education and adult literacy programs and constructing new school buildings. The Boston University/Chelsea Partnership has been renewed twice and is scheduled to conclude in 2008.
Silber also established the Prison Education Program and the Boston University Academy.
In 1983, President Reagan appointed Silber to the National Bipartisan Commission on Central America. He was appointed to the Defense Policy Board in 1987. In 1990, he was the Democratic nominee for governor of Massachusetts. In 1996, he was named chancellor of Boston University and was chosen by Gov. William Weld to chair the Massachusetts Board of Education, the state?s policymaking board for K-12 public education.
Prior to his appointment at BU, Silber taught at Yale University and at the University of Texas at Austin, where he was made dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. A Texas native, he was the first chairman of the Texas Society to Abolish Capital Punishment and a leader in the integration of the University of Texas. He was instrumental in founding Operation Head Start.
Silber is an internationally recognized authority on ethics, the philosophy of law and the philosophy of Immanuel Kant. His book, Straight Shooting: What?s Wrong with America and How to Fix It, was published in 1989 and translated into several languages. His work has appeared in philosophical journals, the Atlantic, Harper?s, New Republic, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and elsewhere.
The Governor Walter R. Peterson Award for Leadership
The Hon. James M. JeffordsJames Merrill Jeffords spent 32 years representing Vermont in the U.S. Congress. In 1974, he won Vermont’s sole seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served for 14 years. In 1988, he was elected to the U.S. Senate. Originally elected as a Republican, he left the party in 2001 to become an Independent, famously changing the Senate composition from 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans to 50 Democrats, 49 Republicans and one Independent. He retired from public office in November after completing his third term as a U.S. Senator.
Before arriving in Washington, he served as a Vermont state senator from Rutland for two years and held his first statewide office as Vermont’s attorney general from 1969 to 1973.
Throughout his tenure in Congress, Jeffords championed legislation to strengthen the nation?s education system and to increase opportunities for individuals with disabilities. In 1975, he co-authored what would later be known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which has provided equal access to education for millions of students with disabilities.
He was a leading advocate in Congress for environmental protection and helped ensure the passage of the 1990 Clean Air Act. More recently, Jeffords introduced legislation that would clean up dirty power plants and create incentives for investments in clean, renewable power.
He also worked to improve Vermont?s ground transportation system and co-authored a five-year, $286.5 billion highway bill, which will increase send more than $1 billion to Vermont and increase the state’s share of total highway dollars by 40 percent.
In 1980, then-Rep. Jeffords co-founded the Congressional Arts Caucus and throughout his career fought for financial support of the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute for Museum and Library Services. In addition to his legislative work in the arts, he sponsored the Congressional High School Art Competition in Vermont for 25 years.
Jeffords is the author of My Declaration of Independence and An Independent Man: Adventures of a Public Servant. Currently a distinguished James Marsh Professor-at-Large at the University of Vermont, Jeffords is working to develop a policy institute focusing on education and the environment.
The David C. Knapp Award for Trusteeship
Michael AudetMichael Audet served on the board of trustees of the Vermont State Colleges, the largest institution of higher education in Vermont, for 24 years and as the board’s chair from 1996 to 2006.
Audet led the Vermont State Colleges through both exciting and difficult times and has been the organizational “rudder” for several college presidents and system chancellors, multiple governors and thousands of graduates of the Vermont State Colleges.
A lifelong resident of Vermont, Audet operates the 800-acre Ledge Haven Farm in Orwell, Vt., with his brother Tom. The farm includes 180 acres of corn, 530 acres of hay and 100 acres of pasture, as well as 450 head of Holstein, which includes 250 active milking cows and 200 replacement heifers. The farm produces 1,300 gallons of maple syrup available through mail order and local stores. Audet is a member of the AgriMart-Cabot Cooperative, a farmer-owned cooperative based in Methuen, Mass., through which he markets all fluid milk produced at the farm. He is a member of the Vermont Farm Bureau and served as a member of the Agricultural Advisory Committee for the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board.
Audet is also a founding member of the Mt. Independence Coalition and was instrumental in getting state funding for the Mt. Independence Museum in 1994. He is a past director and chair of the Orwell Village School and a founding member of the Orwell Historical Society. He has served as Orwell Town Moderator since 1984.
Audet served six years in the U.S. Navy, including a tour of duty in Vietnam.
The Robert J. McKenna Award for Program Achievement
Frederick Hutchinson Center at the University of MaineThe Frederick Hutchinson Center opened its doors in 2000 with a mission to provide high-quality undergraduate, graduate and professional development education, as well as cultural opportunities, in a supportive and flexible environment for the people of the region. The center is named for former University of Maine President Frederick E. Hutchinson, who headed the university from 1992 to 1997.
The Center provides resident of Maine’s Midcoast, one of the state’s fastest-growing areas, with opportunities to pursue a college degree, professional development and lifelong learning. The center now serves more than 20,000 students annually with on-site courses and distance-learning technologies designed to respond to the learning needs of local citizens, businesses and public agencies.
In 2001, the center initiated a weekend Master’s in Social Work Program with a nontraditional format allowing students, including working adults, to earn their degrees close to home and at convenient times. The program has proven so successful that the center now also offers a Bachelor in Social Work and a Master’s in Special Education.
Building upon the work of Maine’s Center for Tourism Research and Outreach, the Hutchinson center also launched a series of evening courses that will lead to a University of Maine Certificate in Tourism. Additionally, last fall the center initiated the Black Bear Bridge Program, which offers the first two years of a UMaine bachelor’s degree, emphasizing smaller class sizes, free tutoring, state-of-the-art technology, affordability and accessibility.
The Hutchinson Center also introduced The Midcoast Leadership Academy, a year-long program for individuals from Knox and Waldo that pairs emerging community leaders with established leaders to sharpen skills and to foster the relationships and networking that are essential for community development.
The School of Community Economic Development at Southern New Hampshire UniversitySouthern New Hampshire University’s School of Community Economic Development (SCED), the only school in the country to offers master’s and doctoral degrees in community economic development, is recognized internationally as a center of excellence and a leader in education, training, public policy and research..
Founded in 1982, SCED has trained more than 2,500 community development practitioners from more than 100 countries. The school?s mission is to provide education and training to a diverse group of community economic development practitioners, policymakers, community leaders and change agents, and to equip them with the knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to improve the economic and social well-being of their communities. Graduates build affordable housing, run community development-oriented financial institutions, promote microenterprise programs and develop commercial projects and small businesses in poor communities.
SCED houses an Applied Research Center that provides support to professionals and policy-makers through research, colloquia, institutes and publications; a Center for Community Economic Development and Disability, which leverages resources, infrastructure, techniques and expertise to serve people with disabilities; and the Financial Innovations Roundtable, which develops ideas that link conventional and nontraditional lenders, investors, and markets in order to provide increased access to capital and financial services in low-income communities.
SCED founder and dean Michael Swack, has more than 25 years experience in the fields of community economic development, development finance and development banking and is considered a pioneer in the field of community development lending and investment.
Baden-Württemberg-Connecticut Higher Education ExchangeThe Baden-Württemberg-Connecticut Higher Education Exchange (BW-CT Exchange) originated from a legislative partnership between the state of Connecticut and the German state of Baden-Württemberg in spring 1989. The BW-CT Exchange provides opportunities for students from all disciplines to receive credit for studies at institutions in the partner state and promotes the larger goals of economic developmenAbAt and cooperation.
Home to 10 million people and some of Europe’s oldest universities, Baden-Württemberg is the third largest of 16 German states and one of the most prosperous regions in Germany. It is the center of major automotive, electronic and biomedical industries. A number of these have subsidiaries in Connecticut, including Trumpf (laser technology), EBM Papst (air moving technology) and Boehringer-Ingelheim (pharmaceutical).
Both public and private higher education institutions in Connecticut participate in the BW-CT Exchange, including: Central Connecticut State University, Connecticut College, Eastern Connecticut State University, Fairfield University, Southern Connecticut State University, Trinity College, the University of Connecticut, the University of Hartford, Wesleyan University, Western Connecticut State University and Yale University.
Since 1991, the program has facilitated the exchange of more than 1,000 students and 75 faculty members and administrators from the partner states. In 2005-2006, the program placed 49 college and university students from Connecticut at German universities for a full semester or academic year of study. An additional 36 students from Connecticut participated in short-term programs at Baden-Württemberg universities in summer 2006. Thirty-five German students spent the academic year 2005-2006 at higher education institutions in Connecticut.
In addition to student exchanges, the program promotes faculty exchanges, cultural exchanges and internship opportunities in business, industry and government.
The Onward Program, University of MaineThe University of Maine’s Onward Program, a college readiness program, has taught and supported nontraditional students for 36 years. Most Onward Program students are low-income, first-generation or disabled and face readiness challenges that are different from those of traditional students.
The Onward Program rose out Civil Rights-era efforts to expand access to higher education In 1970, the program’s first year, 15 students were admitted and provided with support services and academic advising; since then, about 7,000 students have entered UMaine through this program.
The Onward Program provides academic skill development through testing and appropriate placement into developmental courses in English composition, analytical reading, one of three levels of algebra and biology, zoology or chemistry. Upon completion of these courses, students transfer from the Onward Program to the major of their choice anywhere in the university. Students have earned degrees in nursing, education, social work, liberal arts, engineering and business, as well as pre-medical and pre-dental studies.
Irving FradkinIrving Fradkin, a Fall River, Massachsetts optometrist, is the founder of the 50-year-old Scholarship America.
In 1957, Fradkin ran for the school board in Fall River, Mass., on a platform of establishing grassroots scholarship support for the town?s students and getting community members to donate “Dollars for Scholars.” He lost the election but maintained his determination, embarking on a letter-writing campaign to various local and national luminaries; Eleanor Roosevelt donated the first dollar to Fradkin’s effort, which blossomed throughout New England and eventually turned into America?s first national grassroots scholarship movement.
A half-century later, the organization he founded has grown into one of the largest nonprofit, educational support foundations in the country. Scholarship America, which encompasses Dollars for Scholars and several other programs, has awarded nearly $1.5 billion to 1.5 million students over the course of its history. Through it all, Fradkin?s dream and purpose have endured—giving America’s youth the opportunity for postsecondary education by reducing dropout rates, prison populations, drug abuse and crime and by building a better America, one community at a time.
Ingrid LemaireIngrid Lemaire is vice president for research and government relations at Granite State Management and Resources, one of the four New Hampshire Higher Education Assistance Foundation (NHHEAF) Network Organizations. Lemaire oversees the organizations’ Marketing and Communications, School Services and the Center for College Planning.
During her 24 years of service to the Organizations, Lemaire has been instrumental in the creation of the Center for College Planning and the formation of the NHHEAF Network Educational Foundation. She has represented the NHHEAF Network Organizations on various committees formed to develop early college awareness programs in the state. In 1999, she organized the first higher education summit in New Hampshire, which ultimately led to the creation of the New Hampshire Forum on the Future and continues to collaborate on an ongoing basis with like-minded statewide organizations to promote access to higher education.
For the past six years, Lemaire has chaired the New Hampshire Partnership for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education (NH PAPER), a research collaborative that conducts an annual survey of graduating seniors by measuring their aspirations and participation in postsecondary education.
Prior to 1983, she served as director of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation’s Student Aid Program and held administrative positions at two national foundations in New York City. She is a former Peace Corps Volunteer and remains active in community volunteer efforts.
Peter V. SampoPeter V. Sampo founded Thomas More College of Liberal Arts with Mary Mumbach in 1978, then served as its president for 28 years until 2006. Today, he is president emeritus and distinguished professor of political science at the college.
Sampo has dedicated his work to the importance of the formation of youth through initiation into Western culture and the urgency for education institutions to provide a transformative experience through an exclusively liberal arts education. His own work has been in the recovery of the Classical tradition of political science from a Christian perspective.
Before founding Thomas More College of Liberal Arts, Sampo served as founding president of Magdalen College, dean of St. Francis College and founding chair of the politics department at St. Anselm College.
Sampo has authored articles on Machiavelli, Thomas More and on “Educating the Man and the Citizen.” He contributed to The Recovery of American Education and Life and Family. He was awarded a commendation by the Society of Catholic Social Scientists, was named an Exemplary Alumnus by the University of Notre Dame, and is listed in Who’s Who Among Italian Americans.
The Initiative to Educate Afghan WomenWhen Paula Nirschel, wife of Roger Williams University President Roy Nirschel saw the images of Afghan women covered head to toe in burkas—denied the right to health care, freedom and education—but still so desperate to learn that some of them studied secretly in their basements under penalty of beatings or worse, she knew she had to do something.
In 2002, she created the Initiative To Educate Afghan Women to help educate and strengthen the lives of the women of Afghanistan.
Roger Williams became the first university in the country to offer a full scholarship to a woman from Afghanistan; in fact, four women traveled to the United States for education that first year.
The Nirschels challenged college and university presidents across the country to match a commitment made by Roger Williams University to offer one full room-and-board scholarship to an Afghan woman. This year, there are 30 students in the program at 14 universities around the United States.
Afghan women who are accepted to the program receive full or partial four-year scholarships at American universities around the country. They are a close group of students who are brought together, with the director and supporters, during semester intersessions to tour the United States and bond as an organization. Every summer, Mrs. Nirschel travels to Afghanistan to meet with the families of the students and to interview new candidates.
All the students return home together every summer to work toward reconstruction of Afghanistan and help support their families. The students are held to high academic standards and English skills; they are also dedicated to returning home after graduation to use their education to improve life for all in Afghanistan.
The Hon. James H. DouglasGovernor James Douglas has been serving the people of Vermont for 30 years.
Elected to the Vermont House of Representatives in 1972—the same year he graduated from Middlebury College—Douglas quickly gained influence as a legislator, and became assistant majority leader in his second term and majority leader in his third term, at the age of 25.
He retired from the state Legislature in 1979 to become a top aide to Gov. Richard Snelling. In 1980, Douglas was elected secretary of state, a post he held until 1992—winning re-election five times and receiving the nomination of both parties on three occasions. He was elected state treasurer in 1994, receiving the nomination of both parties and winning with 94 percent of the vote. He served as treasurer until he was elected governor in 2002.
Douglas has been a member of the Middlebury Republican Town Committee for 30 years. His counterparts elected him as president of the National Association of Secretaries of State and as president of the National Association of State Treasurers.
Over the course of his career, he has received more votes than any other person in Vermont history—a testament to his appeal to voters of all political persuasions.
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© 2009 New England Board of Higher Education. All rights reserved.
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