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Cormican Receives Coveted Crisafulli Award
36-Year Veteran Professor "Intensely Fair-Minded"
Written By Miranda McKee '11. PR Intern
English professor receives award at College's Commencement Ceremonies
Contact - cleogrande@utica.edu
Utica, NY (06/01/2010) - John D. Cormican, professor of English, received the Dr. Virgil Crisafulli Distinguished Teaching Award May 16 at Utica College’s 61st commencement ceremonies. The ceremonies were held at the Utica Memorial Auditorium and Provost Judith Kirkpatrick presented the award, considered the finest tribute to a faculty member.“This year’s recipient is practically an institution, both at Utica College and in the community,” Kirkpatrick said. “[He] was nominated for this award by an impressive array of students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members … one nominator spoke for everyone when he described him as an ‘entertaining, iconoclastic, and intensely fair-minded professor.’”
The coveted award was instituted in 1974 through a gift from a friend of the college. Colleagues and students nominate faculty members to receive the award and a selection committee makes its final choice based on demonstrated teaching excellence over a period of at least five years.
Cormican earned both a bachelor’s and a master’s from Ball State University. He received his doctorate in English language from the University of Michigan and also holds a master’s in social work from Syracuse University. Cormican has been a professor of English at Utica College since 1974 and his areas of publication include Old English, medieval language and literature, child language acquisition, and language and social work practice. He is locally known for growing blue potatoes, raising chickens that lay green eggs, and his intensity on the racquet ball court.
“I appreciate receiving the award,” Cormican said with his characteristic humility, “but there are many other qualified and distinguished professors at Utica College who also deserve it.”
About Utica College – Utica College, founded in 1946, is a comprehensive private institution offering bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees. The College, located in upstate central New York, approximately 90 miles west of Albany and 50 miles east of Syracuse, currently enrolls over 3,200 students in 37 undergraduate majors, 27 minors, 21 master’s and two doctoral degree programs.
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