Cherry Awards to Celebrate 10th Anniversary Oct. 2-3

Baylor University's Robert Foster Cherry Awards for Great Teachers, a program that honors non-Baylor educators who not only are renowned in their fields but also superb teachers in the classroom, will celebrate its 10th anniversary Oct. 2-3.
A symposium featuring talks by all former recipients of the Robert Foster Cherry Chair for Distinguished Teaching will begin at 7:30 p.m. Monday on the fifth floor of the Cashion Academic Center. The six speakers will address the topic "The Past as Prologue: Reflections and Projections."
On Tuesday, the former recipients will expand on their brief remarks during lectures sponsored by various academic departments.
"Our former recipients represent a good cross-section of academic disciplines - religion, biology, history, engineering, education and English - and these departments will host the Tuesday lectures," said Linda McGregor, coordinator of the Cherry Award program.
Dr. Mario Benitez, the 1997 Cherry Chair and Distinguished Teaching Professor in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Texas at Austin, will lecture at 8:15 a.m. in Bennett Auditorium on the topic "The 21st Century Family: Implications for School Achievement." At 10 a.m. in Miller Chapel, Dr. Franklin Hamlin Littell, emeritus professor of religion at Temple University and the 1993 Cherry Chair, will discuss "Religious Liberty and Genocide." Dr. Barrett Hazeltine, professor emeritus of engineering at Brown and the first Cherry Chair, will speak on "The Engineering Past as Prologue" at 3 p.m. in room 109 in the Rogers Engineering and Computer Science Building.
Lectures by Dr. Peter Beidler, the Lucy G. Moses Distinguished Professor of English at Lehigh University and 1995 Cherry Chair, and Dr. John Boles, the William Pettus Hobby Professor of History at Rice University and the 1999 Cherry Chair, will begin at 3:30 p.m.
Beidler, whose talk will be in room 101 in the Carroll Science Building, will focus on "The Blanket of Skawah-shish: Appropriating the Past in Three Prologues." In room 101 in the Tidwell Bible Building, Boles will speak on "In Praise of Revisionism: Keeping History Alive and Well."
The final speaker of the day, Dr. David R. Woods, formerly director of microbial genetics research units and deputy vice chancellor of research at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and currently Vice Chancellor at Rhodes University in South Africa, will focus on the topic "South Africa and the Challenges Facing Higher Education." Woods, who was the 1992 Cherry Chair, will begin his lecture at 4 p.m. in room 126 in Sid Richardson Science Building.
Robert Foster Cherry graduated from Baylor in 1929 and entered Baylor Law School in 1932, passing the state bar exam the following year. Before his death, he established the Cherry Chair for Distinguished Teaching and the Cherry Award for Great Teachers, which are awarded alternating years, to honor great teachers. Recipients of the Cherry Chair, who receive a $100,000 award and teach in residence at Baylor for one semester, have demonstrated extraordinary teaching abilities and a record of positive, inspiring and long-lasting effects on students. The recipients also are required to be scholars with national and international achievements.
The symposium and lectures are free and open to the public. For more information, call the Cherry Award office at 710-2923 or visit them online at https://www.baylor.edu/~Cherry_Awards/ .