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During its May
10 meeting, the Oklahoma State University Faculty
Council recognized departing members for their
years of distinguished service. The honorees
included outgoing chairman Lionel Raff, who was
awarded a special commendation from Gov. Brad
Henry, and former chairwoman Carol Moder.
OSU
System CEO and President David J. Schmidly presented
Raff the governor’s commendation. Raff
has admirably served his fellow faculty since
being elected council vice chairman in 2003 and
becoming chairman one year later, according to
Schmidly.
“Lionel
has been presented with many interesting and
challenging issues during his tenure,” Schmidly
said. “Each time a new issue arose, he
very carefully considered all aspects and views,
which was evidenced by his thorough responses.
“I’ve
appreciated Lionel’s calm and rationale
approach throughout all sorts of discussions
and am especially pleased to present him this
commendation on behalf of Governor Henry,” he
said.
Raff
spearheaded Faculty Council efforts to bring
about changes to the retirement benefits program
for OSU faculty and staff. The council’s
work to improve program options led ultimately
to passage of House Bill 2226, the Alternative
Retirement Plan for Comprehensive Universities
Act. The 2004 legislation was hailed for bringing
needed flexibility to retirement investment programs
for university employees and allowing the state’s
major schools to recruit competitively top faculty
and staff.
Henry
acknowledged Raff as an outstanding
Raff,
a Regents Professor of chemistry, has been a
member of the OSU faculty since 1964. His honors
include the Award of Merit from the Oklahoma
Academy of Science and the Oklahoma Foundation
for Excellence Award for teaching at a college
or university. In 2002, OSU alumni founded an
eponymous scholarship in physical chemistry in
his honor. The author of the essential textbook, “Principles
of Physical Chemistry,” Raff’s research
interests include theoretical studies of reaction
dynamics and mechanisms and theoretical investigations
of gas-solid interactions, gas-phase energy transfer
and reaction dynamics in the solid state. Of
late, he has collaborated with Ranga Komanduri,
Nelson Chair in mechanical engineering, on materials
surface polishing and cutting at the nanometric
level.
Moder,
associate professor and head of OSU’s English
department, served as vice chairwoman of the
Faculty Council from 2002-2003 and chairwoman
from 2003-2004. She held the position of past
chairwoman this year.
Other
council members completing posts in 2005 who
were recognized during the meeting included Shida Henneberry, Don Murray,
Dale Toetz, Alyson Greiner, Dennis Mott, Suzanne
Bilbeisi, Andrea Arquitt, Terry Lehenbauer and
Jami Fullerton.
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