The William Nicholas Liberi Memorial Prize

Friday, October 5, 2007

Ok, a second option. How do people feel about:

The William Nicholas Liberi Memorial Prize: Awarded annually to the member of the Wells College Community who has demonstrated a commitment to transgender and queer issues, especially through hir services as an ally to the tlgbq community.

and another aspect to think about, should it be open to the whole college community or just to students. check comments on my last post for more discussion on that topic.

10 comments:

Queednie said...: I LOVE THIS! I'm having a hard time not crying as I read it. Selfishly, I want WS to play a central role in ensuring the Prize is awarded each year, but it occurs to me that what might be really cool (and possibly logisitcally very difficult!) is to have the prize committee comprised of Wells Alum who themselves have been directly involved in Will's life and in tlbgq activities while they were at Wells. Of course, that also restricts faculty or staff from serving on the committee, so maybe my idea isn't so great after all. For example, I want to be on this committee. *WAAAA*

Also, I kind of like the Prize having two components: the monetary prize to honor students, and a Community Recognition Prize for any member of the Community. The Community Recognition Prize could be a book or a plant or a tree planted in Will's and their name, or something else.; October 5, 2007 at 2:01 PM
Queednie said...: I have another idea. It's unrelated, an maybe not very realisitc, but I sort of like the idea.

Does the Wells Library allow people to make book donations in the name of someone else? And if they do, will they put a marker in said book with the person's name?

I'm asking because I think it would be a HOOT to blitz the library with book donations in Will's name. We could generate a list of titles on transgender/queer topics and then each select one or two we want to donate. Not only will the library suddenly have a sizeable collection of tg/q books, but we'd also get to be sure Will's name is present on campus for a long time. :):)

If I'm being unrealistic, just shoot me down gently. ... And then let's talk about doing this with the WRC library as an alternative! ;); October 5, 2007 at 2:04 PM
Eliza said...: I think that the monetary prize should go to a student and not faculty or staff. Although, a faculty or staff member could also be recognized. But first and foremost I think it should be a student. Overall I agree with with Ednie.; October 5, 2007 at 2:07 PM
Eliza said...: ps this is Eliza, I accidentally posted from my work account.; October 5, 2007 at 2:12 PM
Chelle said...: I'm going to throw my voice in as another fan of the two-tier prize system. In conjuntion with that, I LOVE the book idea! Perhaps the faculty/staff donation could be a book with the faculty/staff recipeint's name and Will's name with some kind of tag like: "Given in honor of Will Liberi & ______ . Both of whom [insert whatever description we decide on here]." In enough years, we could even have a Will Liberi book collection!

As far as a selection committee, here's my suggestion: a contingent of students, faculty and staff who were at Wells with Will that does not change from year to year (perhaps these people could be nominated and then elected?), as well as two additional seats that are determined as follows: 1 for the current WS chair and 1 to be nominated/elected by the current queer group (equivalent to LBQTA in our day) on campus.

As far as choosing somebody, we could call for nominations, applications, etc and choose from those with the help of the 2 currently at Wells members, and if we do not get enough applications (of course we would have to qualify 'enough'), we could rely on the 2 currently at Wells members for additional names. Just a suggestion. Another thing to think about is whether or not a person can get the prize more than once.

Also! Is anybody keeping tangible track of all this stuff? I smell an archive coming on... ;)

Sorry this was so long!; October 5, 2007 at 2:29 PM
Queednie said...: Just for Vic:

Don't you love it when your hard work pays off? They're talking about archives and we haven't even made it a requirement!!!

LOL

Xo
Ednie; October 5, 2007 at 2:41 PM
Unknown said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; October 5, 2007 at 6:39 PM
Unknown said...: I am so moved by everyone's love and efforts to recognize such a wonderful and missed individual. To everyone who has contributed---thank you so much for taking the time to put your thoughts and fantastic ideas into motion. This is very powerful. I am very much in love with the book idea.; October 5, 2007 at 6:43 PM
Meghan Roberson Sommers '05 said...: I also think the book idea is great... And Chelle, the idea of having one each year with the staff/faculty member's name I think is a great way to tie everything together.; October 6, 2007 at 10:34 AM
Unknown said...: I love the book idea, I think Will would be thrilled to have a contribution of literature that was so lacking when we were in attendance at Wells.

I also like the two-tier award, and agree with all that the monetary award should go to a student.

Is there a way to also recognize Will's commitment to Psychology?; October 6, 2007 at 7:20 PM