Each year the Saint Anselm College Chapter of the American Association of University Professors solicits faculty nominations for the Excellence in Faculty Accomplishment Award. The award is given "For excellence in teaching and scholarship, contributions to the academic community through active and positive relations with colleagues and students--and an involved concern for humanity. . ." This is a complicated way of saying, a person who embodies the teaching, research, service and collegiality ideals against which outstanding faculty are usually measured.  This year's winner particularly struck the committee because of their special willingness and ability to meet all the parts of that ideal.

Our winner began teaching at Saint Anselm College in the late 1960s, when the student body was still all male.  Within two years they were named chair of the department, where they served for twenty one years, with three years off for good behavior. While serving as department chair, our winner finished their Ph.D. at Boston College, served four terms on the Faculty Senate, hired multiple members of their department, taught such memorable courses that alumni still wax poetic about them, and served as a research consultant to nonprofit, town, state and professional organizations that wished to utilize our winner's research skills. By the mid 1990s, our winner had achieved a very comfortable and respected place in the college community for their outstanding teaching, applied research and service.

However, a stubborn and competitive individual, our winner noticed that some colleagues at the college were not only teaching well and serving their community, but were publishing peer-reviewed academic research.  While this is now expected of most young faculty, it marks a significant change in the expectations at Saint Anselm College where teaching and service are still highly valued. Reinventing oneself in any profession is a difficult task, but our winner did it with aplomb and a wicked sense of humor. The result is six professional presentations and four peer-reviewed publications since the year 2000, including one this year, our winner's 37^th year at Saint Anselm College

Well, actually, our winner arrived at Saint Anselm a little bit before that, since he is a graduate of the college.  In 1966, he sat as a student rather than a faculty member at a Commencement much like this, and probably wondered what he was going to do with his life.  Today we honor what he has done.  This year's Excellence in Faculty Accomplishment Awardis presented to Professor of Sociology, Dr. Michael Dupre.