Annual University Service Council Award

When the University Service Council was established, its first order of business was to establish an award that would recognize one of their peers for outstanding service. The award's purpose was to foster and encourage service to the community, UNC Asheville, and to our professions at large. From the USC charge: Service to the UNC Asheville community contributes directly to the welfare and development of students, faculty, and staff at UNC Asheville by enhancing learning for UNC Asheville students, promoting professional development opportunities for faculty and staff, or otherwise working for the betterment of the UNC Asheville community. Service to the profession or academic discipline contributes directly to the advancement of learning, teaching, scholarship, or practice in that faculty member's profession or discipline. Service to the wider community contributes directly to serving people in need or serving the natural environment in the wider world beyond the UNC Asheville campus: Asheville, Buncombe County, the state, the nation, and the world. In May 2002, the First Annual University Service Council Award was presented during the last faculty meeting of the 2001-2002 academic year.

 CITATION

 This year's recipient of the University Service Award has an undergraduate degree from UNC Asheville and an MBA from UNC-Chapel Hill. She has been a member of the Department of Management and Accountancy since 1978 and has a long and shining record of outstanding service to UNC Asheville and the community. The Department of Management and Accountancy owes its gratitude to her for the creation of the Accounting program at UNC Asheville. She pushed the program from conception to reality and overcame many obstacles and difficulties. Her students were the first ever to present papers on accounting at the National Council on Undergraduate Research. Our recipient is the Co-chair of UNC Asheville's NCAA Committee of Physical Integrity and Co-authored the committee report which made recommendations for procedures and controls that were so thorough that they were adopted by many other institutions. She has participated in several major searches, including those for Chancellor and VCAA. She is the first woman member and officer of the Asheville Breakfast Rotary Club and presented two scholarships each year to deserving UNC Asheville students. She is also a member of the Pack Place Board of Directors. Her colleagues and associates describe her as an "organizer," a "doer," one who is "good at getting things done," and one who is "never hesitant to provide council and assistance to colleagues and students alike."

On behalf of the University Service Council, it is my pleasure to present the 2003 University Service Award to Linda Nelms.

CITATION

I am pleased to present the first annual University Service Award for UNC Asheville. The first USC award recipient stands out by maintaining a concerted, sustained service effort over his entire adult life. This person is an award-winning teacher and active scholar as well, but I will center my comments on service. Student welfare and academics emerge as primary foci of this person's activities, which include many acronyms, UTC, NCUR, URPAC, ABCCM, NCAA. This is appropriate, for his life includes distinguished service in the military, which seems to communicate solely in acronyms. As his recommenders put it, he is "devoted to serving students", which is abundantly evident from the three scholarships of $10,000 minimum each that he and his wife have personally endowed. He is helping establish a fourth also. He and his wife have made 166 separate gifts to UNC Asheville in the form of scholarships and other donations, prompting another recommender to state that "his efforts at raising scholarship money for students is the most extraordinary example any faculty member has made." On the Student Athlete Welfare Council, he was a "champion" and strong advocate for student athletes and continues to be a voice for them on the Steering Committee for NCAA Recertification. At their home, he and his wife commonly welcome students for the North Carolina-Israel Exchange program and other groups. He helped the NCUR Proceedings become solvent and self-sustaining, publishing on CD instead of paper, which improved the quality of the articles and saved large amounts of operating funds.

His current activities are telling:

Service to his department: Scholarship Acquisition and Awards Committee chair, Student Achievement Awards Committee chair, Admission Liaison Coordinator for Industrial and Engineering Management Service to the University: NCAA Division I membership certification review committee chair, University Teaching Council Co-chair, UNC Asheville Foundation board, Center for Jewish Studies, Undergraduate Research Program Advisory Council, university-wide search committees, and Faculty Advisor to the Campus Crusade.

Service to the community: member of Etowah Society (Inter-Tribal Veterans Association), volunteer for Asheville-Buncombe Community Christian Mission, arbitrator for the Better Business Bureau of Asheville and Western North Carolina, and active in his church.

Service to his profession: Editor of the NCUR Proceedings since 1991, editorial board member of the International Journal for Industrial Engineering Theory, Application, and Practice, editorial board member of the International Journal for Human Resource Management, and regularly session chair at professional conferences.

Service to our country: various awards for his service to our country, including 6 awards of the Bronze Star for "valor."

One of his letters summed it up, saying he was "one of the most dedicated individuals to both UNC Asheville and our students I have encountered in my 10 years at UNC Asheville."

I am pleased to present the first annual University Service Council Service Award to Robert Yearout.