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Columns::March 4, 2002
Former U.N. commissioner wins Delta Prize for Global Understanding
Office of Institutional Diversity holds open house
Setting priorities: Annual management conference focuses on budget, partnerships
Limited hiring freeze goes into effect
There are bones about it
Campus Closeup
Head of food services department wins Silver Plate Award
Kudos
Visions of Middle-earth
Workshop for two-year colleges
UGA vs. Oxford Union
Campus News
McBee, emeritus vice president, will receive state humanities award
By Larry B. Dendy
ldendy@uga.edu
State Rep. Louise McBee of Athens has been chosen to receive a Governor’s Award in the Humanities, partly in recognition of
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her support for the humanities during her 25-year career as a top University of Georgia administrator.
McBee, vice president emeritus for academic affairs at UGA, will be the first member of the Georgia General Assembly and the first elected state official to receive the award, given annually by the Georgia Humanities Council to recognize outstanding support of the humanities in Georgia. She is the 11th person associated with UGA to receive the award since it was started in 1986.
Louise McBee has dedicated countless hours to bolstering the humanities foundation of our state,” says Jamil S. Zainaldin, president of the council. “She is a hero. She cares about higher education, and she sees the connection between everyday life and the humanities. She is straight, ethical and she never stops.”
Gov. Roy Barnes will present the award to McBee and 11 other recipients March 6 at a luncheon at the Old Georgia Railroad Freight Depot in Atlanta.
McBee retired from UGA in 1988 and was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1992. She has been re-elected to four successive terms and is the dean of the Clarke County legislative delegation.
She joined UGA in 1963 as dean of women and over the next quarter of a century held several other positions, including dean of student affairs and assistant and associate vice president for academic affairs.
When she retired as acting vice president for academic affairs, she was the university’s second-highest ranking official.
McBee says she is “pleased and surprised” by her selection, since the award usually goes to poets, writers, artists and scholars.
“My mother used to repeat an old saying that if you have two loaves of bread, sell one and buy hyacinths,” McBee says. “That’s the way I feel about the mind and the spirit, where the humanities reside.”
The Georgia Humanities Council is an independent, non-profit organization funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the state of Georgia and contributions from private sources. The council supports educational activities that help Georgia citizens learn about their heritage and understand how they can serve the common good.
According to the council, McBee was chosen for the award in part because she was largely responsible for starting UGA’s Center for the Humanities (now Center for Humanities and Arts) and the Women’s Studies Program.
Both programs helped link the humanities with other disciplines such as the sciences and social sciences.
McBee likens her support of the humanities to that of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill who, at the height of the London bombardment during World War II, was urged to eliminate funds for arts and humanities programs. Churchill’s response: “Never.”
“He reminded his critics that history and culture were the source of idealism and democracy, and represented the freedom his country was fighting for,” McBee says. “I think we need that, in this time of trauma for our country. Humanities hold the things that are dear to us.”
McBee has received numerous other honors for her university and community service, including the university’s Faculty Service and Blue Key Awards, and the Athena Award from the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce.
She was named the 1997 Woman of Distinction by the Northeast Georgia Girl Scout Council.
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