2016 Leon A. Henkin Citation for Distinguished Service

The Leon Henkin Citation for Distinguished Service is awarded by the Committee on Diversity, Equity, and Campus Climate (DECC) of the Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate.  It is given in recognition of an “exceptional commitment to the educational development of students from groups who are underrepresented in the academy.”

Leon Henkin was an Emeritus Professor of Mathematics who was a founder of the Committee on Special Scholarships in 1963, a Committee of the Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate whose goal was to enable students from underrepresented groups to attend and excel at the University of California, Berkeley.  Professor Henkin remained a member of this same but renamed Committee on Student Diversity and Academic Development until his death. (SDAD merged with the Status of Women and Ethnic Minorities to form the DECC in 2014).   Professor Henkin worked tirelessly throughout his career to increase equity and access to higher education, and to promote the academic, personal and professional success of Berkeley students from groups traditionally underrepresented in the academy.  He was the first recipient of this Citation from the Academic Senate, and the Citation bears his name as testimony to his distinguished service. 

The nominee for the Leon Henkin Citation shall be:

Any current or retired faculty member—or pairs/teams of faculty—Senate or non-Senate whose careers have been marked by a sustained effort to increase the academic success of students from groups traditionally underrepresented in academic disciplines.  DECC members are ineligible while serving on the committee.

William Drummond
Professor, School of Journalism

William Drummond

The Committee on Diversity, Equity and Campus Climate would like to congratulate Professor William Drummond of the School of Journalism for his exceptional and extraordinary service towards the academic development of students from groups who are underrepresented in the academy. Professor Drummond has a lauded history of service to the university; he has served two consecutive terms as Chair of the Academic Senate (2006-2008). He has also served as the Chair of the School of Journalism (2011-2014). Throughout his career as an academic and journalist, Professor Drummond has worked tirelessly to mentor and foster the participation of underrepresented minorities in the field of journalism and in the academy; these journalists include a Pulitzer Prize winner, and the New York Times principal China correspondent. In the 1990’s Professor Drummond was among the first to introduce courses on race and media in journalism school general curriculum.

Professor Drummond is equally involved in community journalism efforts. He created the successful local website richmondconfidential.com. This site, staffed by journalism students, provides reliable local news coverage to the diverse city of Richmond, a community long underserved by Bay Area media. The website encourages the participation of local youth, giving them access and exposure to journalist methods. He has fostered two student newspapers in minority communities, one in Oakland, another in Marin City. Recently, he has developed a series of writing and journalism courses for the Prison University Project, housed at San Quentin Prison. These courses have provided the foundation for the development of a prison newspaper, written and edited by inmates.

History of the Leon A. Henkin Citation