St. Lawrence University recently honored several employees with awards for their service and promoted a number of faculty members.

The awards and promotions were granted during the fall convocation, which marks the start of another academic year.

Mary M. Hussmann, associate professor of English, received the Louis and Frances Maslow Award. The Maslow Award was established in 1980 and goes to the faculty member who has shown the most interest in and understanding of the education and welfare of the student body as a whole.

Hussmann regularly teaches community-based learning (CBL) courses, classes in the Adirondack semester program and helped St. Lawrence secure an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation environmental grant.

She “is a highly sought out academic adviser, mentor and professor and is often seen with a long line of students waiting to discuss their four-year plan, abroad programs, papers and SYE (senior-year experience) projects as well as to compare notes on the best places in the North Country to go cross-country skiing or to buy locally grown kale,” according to one nominator.

Cynthia Bansak, professor of economics, received the J. Calvin Keene Award.

The Keene Award was established in 1975 and is given to a faculty member in recognition of high standards of personal scholarship, effective teaching and moral concern.

Bansak is an active member and leader in the New York State Economics Association and the Eastern Economic Association; she has been involved with the American Economic Association’s mentoring program for junior female faculty; she was a recent research fellow at IZA, and the Institute for the Study of Labor in Bonn, Germany.

Bansak was also instrumental in St. Lawrence being chosen to house the Eastern Economic Journal’s editorial office and was appointed co-editor of the journal.

She “is accessible to students, passionate about her field, dedicated to the ideals of a liberal arts education and clearly loves to work with undergraduate students,” said one nominator.

Patrick Gagnon, assistant vice president for security and safety and emergency management, received the John P. “Jack” Taylor Distinguished Career Service Award.

The Taylor Award was established in 1995 and recognizes distinguished service to the university by an administrator who has worked at least 12 years at St. Lawrence.

He has initiated many new programs on campus and with our sister institutions, all to the betterment of the 12,000-plus students in Canton and Potsdam. Gagnon is a key member of the team charged with ensuring the university complied with new Title IX mandates.

Timberly Hewitt, specialist in student activities and leadership, received the Thomas F. Coakley Distinguished Career Service Award.

The Coakley Award was established in 2010 and honors distinguished service to the university by an active, permanent hourly employee who has worked at St. Lawrence for a minimum of 10 years.

“Hewitt has a strong affinity for St. Lawrence, and she is an avid supporter of its students. She has a high sense of integrity, a terrific work ethic and a wonderful sense of humor,” according to a press release from the university.

The following faculty received tenure and were promoted to associate professor:

• Christopher Buck, associate professor of government

• Howard Eissenstat, associate professor of history

• Wendi Haugh, associate professor of African studies and anthropology

• Karin Heckman, associate professor of biology

• Xiaoshuo Hou, associate professor of sociology

• Ivan Ramler, associate professor of statistics

• Lisa Torrey, associate professor of computer science

• The following faculty were promoted to professor:

• Cynthia Bansak, professor of economics

• Erika Barthelmess, professor of biology

• Evelyn Jennings, professor of history

• Michael Schuckers, professor of statistics