2012 Faculty Governance Awards
Citation for Berhanu Abegaz
Professor Abegaz has built an impressive record of service over nearly thirty years at the College of William and Mary. He has served on, and sometimes chaired, a number of College and Arts and Sciences committees, including the Affirmative Action Advisory Committee; Educational Policy Committee; Faculty Affairs Committee; Faculty Assembly; Faculty Compensation Board; International Studies Committee; International Advisory Committee; Committee on Nominations and Elections; Committee on Retention, Promotion, and Tenure; Student Body Size Committee; and Study Abroad Committee. He has also served on the advisory committees for the programs in Africana Studies and in Russian and Post-Soviet Studies; as Academic Director for the Reves Center for International Studies; and on the search committee for the Dean of Arts and Sciences. Throughout his many contributions, Professor Abegaz has demonstrated a deep commitment to a system of governance with transparency and with shared responsibility through participatory decision-making. He was also responsible for shepherding the 2009 merger of the programs in Black Studies and African Studies into the current Africana Studies Program; and currently serves as a mentor in the Africana House, which he was instrumental in establishing, and as director of the Africana Studies Program.
