Presentation remarks for Ward Scott's Lifetime Achievement Award

The winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award is someone who retired as this college’s longest serving faculty member. Some labeled him as a “Redneck Hippie” after he used his pet pig to win election as College Senate President – he is a walking contradiction – one who is enamored by both the classroom to develop the mind and the gym to develop the body. He is serious about his views but you can hear his laugh from across the room.
In his nearly 40 years of teaching Ward Scott has challenged his students. The Gainesville Sun honored his teaching in an article entitled “A Class Like No Other.” The article described how students from all over the nation returned to Gainesville to experience one more class with Ward. He also developed a new program called Critical Conflicts to encourage his students to apply classroom ideas to the public arena.
Ward has served on all levels of governance at Santa Fe. . He was on the committee that was instrumental in bringing Pres. Sasser to our college. Throughout his career and especially during his time as Senate President, Ward was one of the college’s staunchest advocates of academic freedom and of shared governance. Ward stood for obtaining additional benefits like fee waivers for our adjunct faculty and overturning the unfair practice of reduced adjunct compensation at the college’s centers.
Ward Scott recently received national recognition at NISOD in Dallas, Texas. At the state level Ward was actively involved with FACC. When the FACC Chief Executive Officer, Harry Albertson, retired, he cited Ward as one of the two most influential faculty members in the state. A few months later Harry almost killed Ward and me in a near boating accident but that is a story for another day.
Ward also served as the President of the statewide Community College Faculty Coalition. At one of the Coalition’s meetings he organized a uniting of forces between Community College faculty, State University faculty, and K-12 union leaders to support a Constitutional Amendment on governance that was approved by Florida’s voters.
Although Ward and I are on opposite ends of the political spectrum, I learned early on that it was best if you could get him on your side. And he has always been on the side of Santa Fe College. We will be opening the doors to its Alachua Center this fall. The opening of this facility represents a dream of Ward’s. He helped in getting the City of Alachua to contribute over $1 million dollars to the project. He also used his influence as Chair of the Economic Advisory Committee to aid the development of a 14 acre enterprise zone by the University of Florida.
To honor his extensive accomplishments and contributions to Santa Fe College and the communities we serve we present the Lifetime Achievement Award to Ward Scott.