Cheryl Tennant, academic program specialist for student services in the School of Library and Information Science at Kent State University, has received the President’s Excellence Award from University President Lester A. Lefton. [Lester Lefton & Cheryl Tennant]
Tennant received five nominations from SLIS faculty members at the Kent Campus and at the Columbus location. The nominators described her as "the wonderful glue that brings faculty and students together," and the "go to" person and primary communicator for faculty and students who are part of the Columbus program. She was also called a "walking definition of efficiency and effectiveness" who accomplishes all she does with professionalism and respect, and is a "solid, central pillar in our school."
Nominators also noted that Tennant serves on numerous committees, including the School of Library and Information Science Accreditation and Steering committee, the Library Disaster Response Team and the Student Recruitment Committee.
[Lester Lefton, Cheryl Tennant, SLIS faculty and staff] Tennant has worked at the university for nearly 16 years. She came to SLIS in December 2001, having previously worked in Human Resources. Tennant is originally from Northwood, Ohio, near Toledo, and attended Lake High School in Millbury, Ohio. She currently resides in Kent.
A total of eight university employees were honored last month and received a visit from Dr. Lefton and a check for $1,000.
The President’s Excellence Award recognizes full-time, classified and unclassified employees who demonstrated exceptional performance in advancing the university’s strategic goals during the previous fiscal year. There were 197 nominations received, representing 137 staff throughout the university’s multicampus system.
The criteria included actions, initiatives or projects related to student success, diversity and inclusion, effectiveness and efficiency, excellence in customer service, collaboration and serving as an ambassador for the university.
The School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) at Kent State University has the only American Library Association-accredited Master of Library and Information Science degree program in Ohio, offering courses in Kent, Columbus (State Library of Ohio) and through a fully online option. SLIS also offers a Master of Science in Information Architecture and Knowledge Management and participates in an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in the College of Communication and Information. The school is recognized by U.S. News and World Report as one of the nation’s top 20 LIS graduate programs, with a youth librarianship program that is ranked 13th. It is one of the largest library schools in the country, with more than 650 students enrolled.