Academics

Gouran honored with 2017 McKay Donkin Award

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Dennis S. Gouran, professor emeritus of labor and employment relations and communication arts and sciences in the College of the Liberal Arts, is the winner of the 2017 McKay Donkin Award.

Established in 1969 in honor of the late McKay Donkin, who served as vice president and treasurer of the University from 1957 to 1968, the award is presented to a full-time member of the faculty or staff or to a retiree who has contributed most to the “economic, physical, mental or social welfare of the faculty” of the University. The contribution should be for duties or services above and beyond the recipient’s regularly assigned duties.

Gouran has spent decades as a faculty advocate and has held multiple positions in the Faculty Senate including chair of the special senate committee on communication and shared governance and chair of the arts caucus of senators. In the latter, Gouran represented the faculty interests in the Senate and has often been an advocate on issues of shared governance and faculty benefits.

“Gouran is widely respected for his strong integrity and fairness,” said a nominator and colleague, “and for his exhaustive knowledge of University policies and for his unwavering commitment to reasoned augmentation in faculty governance.”

Colleagues say Gouran is committed to engaging faculty and using his knowledge to better shape programmatic planning and innovation. Recently, Gouran focused on developing the online curriculum, and he served as the professor-in-charge for the Online Program in Organized Leadership.

“Gouran has made outstanding contributions to the welfare of Penn State faculty colleagues, not only through the sheer number of individual committees or governance bodies or other roles in which he served, but also through his sustained, ongoing, generous and wise devotion to academic service, which goes immensely above-and-beyond the actual requirements of his job.”
 

Last Updated April 12, 2017

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