Page 4A — WEDNESDAY, April 7, 2010 Columbia Missourian

Honor, surprise for award winners

Final three MU professors awarded with William T. Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence
By Kourtney Geers
news@ColumbiaMissourian.com
Chancellor Brady Deaton and a
gaggle of supporters entered profes-
sor Michael Ugarte’s cramped class-
room in Strickland Hall to announce
that he was a recipient of a top teach-
ing award at MU. For a moment,
he clapped for himself. Then, he
turned the attention to his students
and applauded them.
Ugarte was the fifth and final recip-
ient of the 2010 William T. Kemper
Fellowship for Teaching Excellence.
The fellowships are given annually
to five outstanding MU educators
and include a $10,000 award that
is funded by a $500,000 gift from
the family that founded Commerce
and United Missouri banks. William
Kemper was a 1926 MU graduate
before beginning his career in bank-
ing.
The first two award winners were
announced Monday and three more,
including Ugarte, received unexpect-
ed visits from Deaton, Commerce
Bank Chairman Jim Schatz and sup-
porters Tuesday.
The first award of the day was
given to department of classical
studies professor Michael Barnes in
the middle of his Classics in a Cross-
Cultural Context class. He also
teaches introductory and graduate-
level courses in the Honors College,
humanities sequence and languages.
Along with his role as a teacher,
Barnes is the editor of “Classical
and Modern Literature,” a journal
published by the department of clas-
sical studies.
The next award was given to Sri-
nath Gopalakrishna, the David and
Judy O’Neal MBA Professor and pro-
fessor of marketing in the Trulaske
College of Business. A marketing
meeting was interrupted to surprise
Gopalakrishna with the award.
Schatz said it was “particularly a
pleasure” for him to assist in giving
the Kemper award to a professor
in Gopalakrishna’s department, as
three of his own children graduated
from MU’s business school.
Ugarte, the final award winner,
was in the middle of an upper-level
Spanish poetry class when he was
surprised by the award group. Along
with teaching Spanish, Ugarte is the
Middlebush Professor of Romance
Languages in the department of
romance languages and literatures.
When Schatz was introduced,
Ugarte said, “I have one question for
this man: Where is my money?”
Schatz laughed, offered his con-
gratulations and his thanks on behalf
of the Kemper Foundation and Com-
merce Bank for Ugarte’s excellence
in teaching. He then pulled a sealed
envelope from his breast pocket and
presented Ugarte with a $10,000
award.
A shocked Ugarte covered his
mouth, turned toward the black-
board and, amid his class’s laughter
and cheers, said to Schatz, “Oh my
God. I was joking!”
Ugarte thanked Deaton, Schatz and
the rest of the guests and called the
presenters “good sirs” in Spanish.
Ugarte said he didn’t know what
to say in response to the award, but
offered to the guests in his class-
room, “If you want to stick around
for a great lesson, you are more than
welcome.”
Meet the recipients
Michael Ugarte
Middlebush Professor of Romance
Languages
Michael Barnes
Assistant teaching professor and Direc-
tor of Undergraduate Studies for the
Classical Studies Department
Srinath Gopalakrishna
David and Judy O’Neal MBA Professor
and professor of marketing
Gregory Triplett
Assistant professor, department of
electrical and computer engineering
Anand Prahlad
Professor of English

New owners,
same faces
at photo store
Columbia Photo will stay
open under the ownership
of Creve Coeur Camera.
By Lauren Rauth
news@ColumbiaMissourian.com
Columbia Photo has been operating
under new ownership since March 31,
according to a Tuesday news release.
Columbia Photo founder Tom Atkins
contacted Creve Coeur Camera of St.
Louis President Stephen Weiss after
the mid-February announcement of the
Columbia business’s closing.
Manager Dennis Stegall said there
MU faculty to visit diversity issues
A new association will
address gender and
sexual identity, and the
legal benefits for MU
faculty members.
By Katy Bergen
news@ColumbiaMissourian.com
The two had never met. But as
Greg Nelson and Barbara Willis sat
at a Boone Tavern table Tuesday
evening, the MU employees real-
ized they had much in common. The
MU health coordinator and Office
of Service Learning employee both
love fishing at Bennett Springs in
Lebanon, Mo. And the two Columbia
residents miss living in the country.
Nelson and Willis had come to par-
ticipate in an informational meet-
ing about a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,
Transgender and Queer staff and
faculty association that is in the
works at MU.
Social work faculty member Carol
Snively, an organizer of the meet-
ing, said that the need for such
a supportive group has been dis-
cussed for years on campus. Snively
organized the meeting along with
MU LGBTQ Resource Center Coor-
dinator Ryan Black and College of
Education associate professor Ale-
jandro Morales.
Chief Diversity Officer Roger
Worthington said he felt it is wrong
that there is no group addressing
LGBTQ issues for MU faculty and
staff. Worthington said the Chancel-
lor’s Diversity’s Initiative will sup-
port the LGBTQ association when it
establishes membership and bylaws.
The Chancellor’s Diversity Initia-
tive sponsors other staff and faculty
organizations, such as the Hispanic
and Latin American Faculty and
Staff Association.
Attendees discussed potential
group names before suggesting
activities for the association that
should be reflected in the bylaws.
Some, but not all, of the suggestions
included:
n Creating support for domestic
partnership benefits
n Adding “gender identity and
expression” into MU’s non-discrimi-
nation policy in addition to “sexual
orientation,” which is in the current
policy
n Comparing the MU LGBTQ
experience with those of other insti-
tutions
n Advocating exit interviews to
determine the reason LGBTQ com-
munity members leave MU
While attendees said they came
to the meeting to network and pro-
mote advocacy issues like domestic
partnership, many also showed up
for social reasons. Willis said she
saw the event as an opportunity to
network.
“I knew a few people, but I wanted
to know more,” she said.
The group plans to meet again,
but a date has not been set. They
will vote on a name at that meet-
ing or online. Those who want to be
involved with association activities
may contact the LGBTQ resource
center at 884-7750.

Ruling overturned, hog farm can expand

will still be “familiar faces” in the
store, and most of the employees from
Columbia Photo will be staying. Stegall
has been with Columbia Photo for more
than 34 years.
Columbia Photo has been offering
advice and selling equipment to Colum-
bia residents for more than 42 years,
and will continue to do so under the
new management.
Stegall emphasized the store will still
provide the same services to customers,
including the photography classes.
The store will be bringing in a variety
of new products and manufacturers,
including Canon, Pentax and Nikon,
along with expanded camera bags, tri-
pods, lighting and other accessories,
according to the release.
“We are excited to move forward with
Creve Coeur,” Stegall said.
Managers from Creve Coeur Camera
have been in the store the past few days
working with the employees on under-
standing the new computer system the
store will be using, Stegall said.
Columbia Photo will remain at 111 S.
Ninth St.
An expired permit
led to case
dismissal for the
Arrow Rock farm.
By CHRIS BLANK
The Associated Press
JEFFERSON CITY — A
Missouri appeals court on
Tuesday overturned a rul-
ing that blocked a proposed
hog farm from expanding
near Arrow Rock.
A Cole County judge
blocked the farm from
expanding so near the his-
toric central Missouri vil-
lage, but a three-judge panel
of the Missouri Court of
Appeals, Western District
dismissed the case because
the permit required to
expand the farm expired
village. She later narrowed
the buffer to two miles and
C u r r e nt ly,
larger live-
“I am in
favor of more
more than a year ago. barred existing farms in stock farms “I am in favor of p r o t e c t i v e
The Kansas City-based that radius from expanding. must be set off
from public
more protective buffer zones
around state
appeals court also ordered The parks association’s
opponents of the farm expan- president had not read the or inhabited buffer zones parks, recre-
buildings. The ational water-
sion to pay court costs. appeals court ruling when around state
biggest farms ways, historic
The Missouri Parks Asso- contacted for comment
ciation and village of Arrow Tuesday. An attorney who have a 3,000 parks, recreational sites and other
foot buffer sites of cul-
Rock sued after state envi- represented Arrow Rock and
ronmental officials granted the Missouri Parks Associa- zone. waterways, historic tural signifi-
a permit in 2007 for a hog tion has said the village set The
souri
Mis-
Farm
sites and other cance,” said
Koster. “How-
farm to expand several on Missouri River bluff is
miles from the historic vil- a national historic site that Bureau, which sites of cultural ever, creation
sought to join of such buffer
lage. That permit expired in
August 2008.
the Department of Natural
Resources has a duty to pre- the lawsuit
significance.” zones is the
Cole County Judge Patri- serve. but initially Chris Koster province of
was denied, Missouri attorney general the Legisla-
cia Joyce in 2008 blocked a The Department of Natu-
concentrated animal feed- ral Resources estimates applauded ture and not
the appellate the courts.”
ing operation from being there are more than 400
located within 15 miles of concentrated animal feed- court’s ruling. The appeals court also
“We have thought from raised several other con-
the historic central Missouri ing operations in Missouri.
the start that it would be a cerns about Joyce’s ruling
dangerous precedent to let that it said would also could
courts and judges regulate have been grounds to over-
agriculture without any con- turn her decision.
sideration of sound science One was that the ini-
and best management prac- tial lawsuit was filed only
tices,” Farm Bureau Presi- against the Department of
dent Charles Kruse said. Natural Resources and did
Attorney General Chris not include Gessling, who
Koster, a democrat who filed would have been affected
the appeal, said Missouri’s by the outcome. Requests to
agriculture industry would join the case by the Missouri
“grind to a halt” if judges Farm Bureau and Missouri
drew their own buffer zones Cattlemen’s Association also
around farms. were denied.

Sunday, may 2, 2010, 2 p.m. Jesse Auditorium Columbia, mO

Tickets at (573) 882-3781, (800) 292-9136 and www.concertseries.org