Thanks to everyone who's commented so far! We want as much feedback as possible, so if you haven't weighed in yet, get your comments up on the blog or shoot us an e-mail at willmemorial@gmail.com.

There's been a lot of conversation going on so far. Here's what we've taken from the comments that have been made:

1. It sounds like a lot of you want to see a memorial book donation in Will's name, in addition to a prize given out at Honors Convocation.

2. It sounds like people want the prize at Honors Convocation to be a prize for students.

3. Many of you would also like to recognize community members in general (especially faculty) with a second prize. On this end, we're doing research into what's feasible in terms of how the College awards prizes on an annual basis. To the best of our knowledge all the prizes awarded at Honors Convocation are monetary prizes, so if people are interested in an honorary, non-monetary prize for the non-student community at Wells that may be separate from a prize given out at Honors Convocation.


We've been talking to Development at Wells and working specifically on developing a memorial prize that honors Will that will be given in some form during Honors Convocation every year. In order to get one established we need to figure out the terms of the prize. Because we want to establish this prize to be awarded for the first time at the end of the 2007 - 2008 academic year, setting up the terms and fund for the prize is our #1 priority. So to move forward, these are the questions we still need to answer:

1. Do we have a wording and a name for the prize that everyone agrees on? We haven't seen other suggestions for wording besides Carrie's suggestions (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.) Should we move forward with this? Do people have specific objections or other suggestions?

2. It's really important that we establish a prize with longevity. This is part of the reason that we've set up the poll on fund raising goals. We need to know that the monetary fund that is established is easily replenished each year, and we need to set dollar amount to award at Honors Convocation every year. Do you plan to donate on an annual basis? Will you commit to donating every year or even a few times a year?

3. Should only students be eligible to win the prize given at honors convocation, or should the whole community be eligible? Opening up the prize to the whole community means that anyone from a student to a professor, to a housekeeper to an employee of the bookstore can win. If the prize is student-only, obviously, it is restricted to the student body. (Look for a poll on this question in the right hand column.)

4. Who should the judges be? There has been a lot of talk about alums judging. We can find out if that is possible. If it is, who wants to volunteer to do it every year? If it's not who should be in charge of making the decision?

Finally, in terms of donating books in Will's name... if people want to get started on that, it's a wonderful idea. Is there someone interested in taking the helm, and finding out the feasibility of the project? We are committed to setting up the prize fund, which we'll have to do directly through the Office of Development. If someone else is interested in contacting the library, or taking charge of doing this book thing as a separate project that would be great. Perhaps the best way to organize book donations would be to set up a separate memorial project and there's definitely room for discussion about how to do that here--or even on a separate, linked blog.