 The first recipients of the newly established Harold R. Johnson
Diversity Service Award have been announced by Lester P. Monts, vice
provost for academic and multicultural affairs.
The winners, chosen by a special campus committee, are: Frances R.
Aparicio, associate professor of Spanish and American culture; Mark A.
Chesler, professor of sociology; Donald R. Deskins, professor of urban
geography and sociology; Billy Joe Evans, professor of chemisTRy; and
Stephen H. Sumida, associate professor of English language and literature
and American culture.
"The committee has selected five outstanding faculty members whose
work as scholars and teachers has conTRibuted to the diversity efforts on
the campus and in the community," Monts says. "Each has a long history of
dedicated service. I am proud that these individuals represent the charter
recipients of the Harold R. Johnson Diversity Service Award."
The $5,000 awards, named for the former dean of the School of Social
Work, are given annually to full-time tenured and tenure-TRack faculty
members for personal research, education and creative activity.
 Aparicio, a board member of the Women of Color in Academia project,
was cited for her work on behalf of Latinos and Latinas in academia. |
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She is director of the U-M Latina/o Studies Program and has conducted research
on the causes of inner-city public school dropouts, especially those in the
Hispanic community.
"Frances Aparicio represents a role model that promotes and TRanscends her position as a Latina teacher, as a Latina woman," says Evelyn
Velez-Aguayo, assistant professor of dance. "(She has) stimulated in me the
mission of diversity in all education, especially for Latinas and Latinos
in academia, through her efforts and commitment."
 Chesler, who helped found FAIRteach, a U-M faculty program that helps
peers facilitate multiculturalism in the classroom, spearheaded efforts to
establish multicultural teaching and learning services at the Center for
Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT).
He also writes, teaches and/or consults on race relations,
desegregation, interracial growth in the classroom, attitudes toward the
physically disabled, multicultural organizational growth and equity in
schools.
"Professor Chesler has a longstanding commitment to multiculturalism
and has spent most of his career working to change the institutional
patterns that work against diversity," says CRLT director Constance Cook.
"His work in this area began long before the terms 'diversity' and
`multiculturalism' came into common usage."
 Deskins, who has served on various campus committees dealing with
issues of race and diversity, has led efforts to establish a monthly
seminar for U-M faculty interested in discussing diversity
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issues and helped develop a race and ethnicity specialization for graduate students in
sociology.
"For more than a quarter of a century, he has quietly served as a role model and a mentor par excellence to minority students and faculty members,
" says David Williams, associate professor of sociology. "Not only has he
held several mentorship roles, he has worked tirelessly to recruit,
encourage and guide minority students. The personal interest that he takes
in students is legendary.
"Professor Deskins has always been able to see the larger picture for
the University and has functioned as a bridge between Blacks and whites."
 Evans has a long
and distinguished record of helping minority students
achieve success in teaching and research through his direction of the
Comprehensive Studies Program and Program in Scholarly Research for
Urban/Minority High School Students.
"For 25 years, he has recruited Black students for programs of this
kind, providing them with financial, intellectual and moral support,"
Deskins says. "His efforts have touched a generation of promising young
Black scientists.
"There are few in the University, white or Black, who have provided
this level of stewardship for students. He is the kind of faculty member,
a role model, whose activities have academically and culturally enriched
this University by making it a more intellectually diverse learning
environment."
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 Sumida, who teaches numerous courses on Asian American literature and a popular course on race and ethnicity in American literature and culture,
regularly draws "rave reviews" from his students.
"With these classes, he has reached a broad specTRum of Michigan
students, pushing them all to deal critically and effectively with some of
the most difficult issues of our time," says George Sanchez, associate
professor of history and American culture.
"At the heart of Professor Sumida's scholarship is a rich and
productive curiosity about how race and ethnicity are consTRucted,
contested and imagined in American culture. His many conTRibutions to
creating a diverse University have been felt so sTRongly by so many members
of this community because they come so logically from the foundation of his
work as a scholar."
While all of the award recipients are pleased with their special honor,
they say that many others on campus also have conTRibuted a great deal to
the University's commitment to diversity.
"Many people are doing very important intellectual work and service in
this area and deserve lots of credit," Chesler says. "The hard issues of
deeply embedded racism and sexism will continue to call for more effort."
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