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Ruel Tyson likes to say that the Institute for the Arts and Humanities -- an organization he founded and directs -- thrives on the three C's: conversation, collaboration and community building.
Through the three C's, University faculty who become institute fellows exchange ideas about their research interests, get fresh perspectives on their work and the work of colleagues, and get to know faculty members from other departments and disciplines.
"Rarely do members of one scholarly guild get friendly, close-up criticism from outside that specialty," Tyson said. "The benefit is bringing to bear unaccustomed perspectives on their work."
For a decade Tyson has overseen the operation of the institute in addition to his work as a professor of religious studies. In that time more than 180 faculty members have received not just the institute's gift of time to dig deeper into their research, but have benefited from Tyson's ability to, according to a colleague, "challenge professors who need help in explaining their work to others and in redefining their own intellectual objectives."
All that work led to a fourth "C" for Tyson, one he didn't know existed: the Chancellor's Award.
"The chair of the committee called and told me I'd won and I said I'd never heard of the award," Tyson said. "But when he told me about it, I thought it was a wonderful idea.
"And it was particularly wonderful to be in the company of other winners, people of various stations and duties," he added. "It was good company to be in."
Tyson won the Chancellor's Award in the category of "Human Relations," which recognizes those who have "made outstanding contributions toward enhancing the quality of the workplace or creating a better public image of state government."
The Chancellor's Award was established in 1991 by former Chancellor Paul Hardin to recognize meritorious or distinguished accomplishments that go beyond normal job duties. The awards come with $500 and 24 hours paid leave.
"I think the award was more a recognition of the institute than of me," Tyson said. "It's a recognition that we've come of age. It was a wonderful affirmation of our 10 years of effort."
Tyson joined the faculty in 1967 and has served three different terms as department chair. But it was while spending a year as a senior fellow at the Center for the Humanities at Wesleyan University that Tyson got the inspiration for the Institute for the Arts and Sciences.
"I saw what a difference that program made in connecting distant sections of faculty," Tyson said. "I came up with the idea when the University was really in danger of losing professors to competing universities. It was a way of retaining our best faculty."
The institute works by "buying" the teaching time of 10 faculty members each semester from their respective departments. These fellows then use that extra time to focus on research and improving their teaching.
The heart of the institute, though, are the Tuesday Fellows Seminars, Tyson said. That's when the fellows gather to discuss topics of University-wide importance, share lunch and then hear a presentation from one of the fellows. That's when the cross-discipline exchange of ideas occurs.
In nominating Tyson for the award, Lloyd Kramer, professor of history, said Tyson's work at the Institute for Humanities had enabled other faculty members to do more in the ways of research, publishing and teaching.
"I have never encountered a colleague who was so willing to give his time and energy and talents in the service of other professors," Kramer wrote. "This extraordinary service to our collective life as faculty deserves a new form of public recognition from the University, especially since he could have published far more of his own work if he had not been creating the infrastructure to help others write and publish their work."
Tyson's top project at the institute is securing funding and design of a new building, which will be located near Vance/Pettigrew. But even with the larger facility in his future, Tyson has another batch of fellows to learn from.
"For me it's built-in continuing education," Tyson said. "I get lifelong learning."
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