The Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) announced the recipients of its top
annual academic and leadership awards for 2015. Elizabeth H. Tobin, provost and dean
of the college at Illinois College, was recognized with the 2015 CIC Chief
Academic Officer Award. The Council’s 2015 Academic Leadership Award was
presented to John Churchill, secretary of the Phi Beta Kappa
Society.
The awards ceremony took place at the CIC
Institute for Chief Academic and Chief Advancement Officers, held November 7–10
in Baltimore, Maryland. The honors were conferred by the chief academic officers
of CIC’s 645 member colleges and universities.
Tobin was awarded the 2015 CIC Chief
Academic Officer Award in recognition of her significant support of colleagues
at independent colleges and universities. She served for three years as a
coordinator of the CIC Mentor Program for new CAOs, helping many of her
colleagues as they began their tenure in this position. In addition, Tobin has
made numerous presentations at the Institute for Chief Academic Officers on a
variety of topics that reflect her interest and expertise in issues of faculty
workload, curriculum reorganization, and the equitable treatment of part-time
faculty members. CIC President Richard Ekman congratulated Tobin for her
“exceptional contributions to academic leadership” and thanked her for helping
“literally hundreds of independent colleges and universities nationwide.”
Churchill received CIC’s 2015 Academic
Leadership Award for his role as a leading national advocate for liberal arts
education as an intrinsic good and as preparation for a life of purpose, value,
meaning, and civic responsibility. In announcing the award, Ekman said, “John’s
leadership of the Phi Beta Kappa Society since 2001 has promoted a higher level
of educational aspiration on campuses nationwide, and a noteworthy increase in
quality.” Ekman added that Churchill’s “guidance of the Society’s National Arts
& Sciences Initiative has enhanced the national conversation about the value
of a liberal arts education.” In recognition of his unfailing devotion to the
liberal arts and liberal arts colleges and universities, the chief academic
officers of the Council of Independent Colleges paid tribute to Churchill’s
contributions and honored his distinguished record of achievement.