Four on faculty are recipients of awards for student advising

By Linda Grace-Kobas

Isaac Kramnick, Cornell vice provost for undergraduate education, announced May 1 the first recipients of the Kendall S. Carpenter Memorial Advising Awards at Cornell.

The awards were established by Stephen Ashley, a member of the Cornell Board of Trustees, to honor his former adviser, Kendall S. Carpenter, a professor of business management at Cornell from 1954 until his death at the age of 50 in 1967.

President Hunter Rawlings, in announcing the establishment of the awards in February, said, "These awards reinforce the Cornell commitment that advising undergraduate students is a top priority at the university." The $5,000 awards recognize "sustained and distinguished contributions of professorial faculty and senior lecturers to undergraduate advising."

The 2002 recipients are:
Glenn Altschuler, dean of continuing education and the Litwin Professor of American Studies
Graeme Bailey, professor of computer science
Cynthia Hazan, associate professor of human development
Carol McFadden, senior lecturer in biomedical sciences

Nominations were accepted from students, student groups, university staff, college deans and associate deans, alumni and department chairs. Committees composed of faculty members, students and associate deans involved in undergraduate education advised Kramnick on the selection of finalists. Rawlings made the final selection of winners.

Kramnick called the awards "incentives for change" in improving the quality of advising for undergraduate students. Altschuler is a former dean in the Academic Advising Center in the College of Arts and Sciences from 1981 to 1991. Among the letters of support for his nomination from students, one student wrote, "[He] has been an integral part of my college education. ... [he] helped me to look to the future, to think about what I wanted to get out of my time here at Cornell. ... His guidance helped me foresee what I wanted to accomplish here."

A member of the Cornell faculty for four years, Bailey helped in the development of a freshman colloquium series called "Great Ideas from Computer Science." In 2000 the Association of Computer Science Undergraduates awarded him its highest honor, "Faculty of the Year." His letters of nomination included many references to his "almost limitless appetite for working with students," in advising, in the classroom and in many extracurricular activities.

Among qualities named by students in endorsing Hazan's nomination were the fact that she "always challenged me to challenge myself," she was "very supportive of my personal growth," she "displayed the perfect combination of patience and support" and "she is approachable, kind, interested and extremely respectful of students and their ideas." McFadden has taught freshman biology classes since 1976 and has served as faculty adviser for biology majors and premedical students for the past 20 years. Students wrote of her "genuine desire to see students succeed." One student wrote: "Her continuous support for Cornell academia and athletics is a constant reminder of how proud I am to be a Cornellian. ... She truly is an icon of higher education excellence."

Ashley graduated from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in 1962 and received his master's degree in business administration from Cornell's Graduate School of Business and Public Administration (now the Johnson School) in 1964. He is chairman and chief executive officer of The Ashley Group, a family of related companies focused on management, brokerage, financing and investment in commercial and multifamily real estate. Ashley was elected as a Cornell trustee fellow in 1998. Ashley and his wife, Janice, have been named Cornell Foremost Benefactors, and in 1991 they established the Stephen B. and Janice Ashley Graduate Fellowship in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.