James
T. Harris III Receives Penn State University’s Highest Award
Penn State University honored
Widener University President James T. Harris III on June 1 with the
Distinguished Alumni Award for his support of higher education and his role in
bridging Widener with the city of Chester.
The Distinguished Alumni Award, the
university’s highest award for an individual, salutes the achievements of
outstanding Penn State alumni whose personal lives, professional achievements
and community service exemplify the university’s objectives. Recipients are
selected by the Penn State Board of Trustees.
Harris, who earned his doctoral
degree in higher education from Penn State in 1988, has been president of
Widener since 2002 and has transformed the university into one of the nation’s
leading civic engagement institutions.
During his tenure as president,
Widener has been ranked among the top service-oriented universities in the
nation by Newsweek and Washington Monthly, and was among the
first U.S. universities classified as a “community engagement institution” by
the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Widener has also been
named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll every
year since 2006, and was a Presidential Award finalist this year.
“I’m very honored to receive this
award from Penn State University,” Harris said. “Widener has been able to accomplish
great things because of the strong leadership of the Board of Trustees, a
university community that shares our mission and goals, and wonderful people in
the Chester community with whom we have built strong partnerships to make the
city a better place.”
At Widener, Harris has created
robust partnerships to engage Widener with the community. Harris brought
together the presidents of five local colleges and universities to form the
Chester Higher Education Council and establish the College Access Center of
Delaware County, which helps youths and adults gain access to higher education.
Harris also partnered to create the
Widener Partnership Charter School, the state’s first university-based charter
school. The school partners interdisciplinary teams of Widener faculty members
and graduate students to work with school children and their families to
promote social, emotional, and intellectual development.
The Widener Small Business
Development Center, which opened in 2007, incubates more than two dozen
businesses each year, and was recently honored by the Small Business
Administration with the 2013 SBDC Excellence and Innovation Award for Eastern
Pennsylvania and the entire Mid-Atlantic region.
Harris has also championed the
economic development of Chester, leasing university property for $1 per year to
private developers to create University Crossing, a commercial and residential
initiative that has attracted the first hotel, full-service bank, and
convenience store to Chester in recent memory. The initiative has created
numerous jobs and boosted tax revenue in the city.
Now, Harris is helping expand to
other U.S. cities the concept of universities as anchor institutions. Chester
is one of six pilot cities for the White House’s Strong Cities, Strong
Communities Initiative. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is
using Widener as a case study on the positive impact colleges and universities
can have in stabilizing and improving the nation's struggling communities.
Harris earned a bachelor’s degree
from the University of Toledo, a master’s degree from Edinboro University, and
his doctoral degree in higher education from Penn State.
No comments:
Post a Comment