SU to host namesake of Willie Distinguished Lecture Series for March 8 conversation about ‘Building Community’

SU to host namesake of Willie Distinguished Lecture Series for March 8 conversation about ‘Building Community’March 02, 2006Matthew R. Snydermrsnyder@syr.edu

Syracuse University’s 2006 installment of the Charles V. Willie Distinguished Lecture Series will feature the man after whom the series is named. On March 8 at 4 p.m., Willie will appear in Maxwell Auditorium to speak on “Building Community in Higher Education.” The event is free and open to the public, with parking available in the University’s paid visitor lots; a reception will follow.

The Division of Student Affairs founded the series in 2003. Its name honors Willie’s contribution to the field of higher education administration and evokes the lectures’ purpose: to bring leading scholars in the field of higher education to share their expertise with the SU and broader communities. Previous speakers have been Richard J. Light, the Walter H. Gale professor of education at Harvard University, who spoke about maximizing the college experience; and John N. Gardner, executive director of the Policy Center on the First Year of College and Distinguished Professor of Educational Leadership at Brevard College, speaking on the creation of holistic experiences for first-year students.

Willie is the Charles William Elliot Professor of Education, emeritus, at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education. In Willie’s lecture, he will discuss his 60 years in higher education, including the boundaries he broke down as SU’s first African American professor and his leadership of the Division of Student Affairs during a period of rapid institutional growth and change. He will also explore ways in which students of the future will be more deeply engaged with their college experiences.

“By coming back and bringing back his great depth and breadth of knowledge to SU, Chuck Willie presents our students, faculty and staff with a phenomenal opportunity to interact with one of the great thinkers and doers in higher education,” says Barry L. Wells, senior vice president and dean of student affairs.

“Throughout his career, he has demonstrated the utmost commitment to making a difference in his field, with an even stronger commitment to supporting the growth of individual students and colleagues.”

Willie was SU’s vice president of student affairs from 1972-74. Before his appointment as vice president, Willie was affiliated with SU as a professor, chairing the sociology department. He earned a bachelor’s degree at Morehouse College in 1948, a master’s degree at Atlanta University in 1949 and a doctoral degree at SU in 1957, all in sociology. The grandson of slaves and a college classmate of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Willie has written more than 100 articles and 25 books on race, education and urban communities. His most recent work, co-authored with Richard J. Reddick, is “A New Look at Black Families” (Altamira Press, 2003).

In 2005, the American Sociological Association honored Willie with a Career of Distinguished Scholarship Award; he has also received a George Arents Pioneer Medal from SU, a Distinguished Scholarship Award from the Association of Black Sociologists, and 12 honorary degrees. He served from 1992-2000 on the advisory board of the Maxwell School.

For more information on the lecture, call 443-4357 or e-mail mjcuster@syr.edu.