Frances W. Kaye's Pound-Howard Acceptance Speech

Erin Chambers Author

05/11/2016 Added

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Frances W. Kaye received the 2016 Louise Pound - George Howard Distinguished Career Service Award. The award was presented to her at a Faculty Senate meeting on Tuesday, April 26, 2016 in the UNL City Campus Union Auditorium.

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[00:00:05.438]In order to recognize individuals
[00:00:07.622]with a distinguished career of service
[00:00:09.809]to the University of Nebraska - Lincoln,
[00:00:11.750]the Faculty Senate established the
[00:00:13.446]Louise Pound-George Howard
[00:00:15.025]Distinguished Career Award in 1990.
[00:00:18.534]This award is conferred upon an individual
[00:00:21.137]or individuals who, during his or her
[00:00:23.899]career at UNL, has made an exceptional
[00:00:26.385]contribution to the University.
[00:00:28.657]The individual's contribution
[00:00:30.449]may have been made through teaching,
[00:00:31.953]research, public service, administration,
[00:00:34.534]or a combination of these factors
[00:00:36.859]and should reflect a long-standing
[00:00:39.035]commitment to the University.
[00:00:40.689]This year, the Faculty Senate
[00:00:41.873]is presenting the award to
[00:00:43.174]Professor Fran Kaye, English.
[00:00:45.094]Chancellor Harvey Perlman will receive
[00:00:47.163]his award at the March 1 meeting.
[00:00:50.001]Professor Kaye's career is distinguished
[00:00:52.273]by amazing breadth.
[00:00:53.595]She is a distinguished scholar;
[00:00:55.761]a caring and innovative classroom teacher;
[00:00:58.406]has been deeply engaged in service to her
[00:01:01.563]department, the university,
[00:01:03.697]and her profession;
[00:01:05.393]and is committed to outreach activities
[00:01:07.227]promoting social justice.
[00:01:08.966]Her interdisciplinary focus on the
[00:01:11.334]cultural history and the literature and
[00:01:14.150]geography of the Great Plains
[00:01:15.750]has greatly enhanced the University's
[00:01:17.819]reputation in Plains Studies,
[00:01:19.857]environmental and ecological criticism,
[00:01:22.758]and ethnic studies. Professor Kaye's
[00:01:25.083]role as a classroom teacher
[00:01:26.779]has been driven by a deep understanding
[00:01:28.731]that literary and cultural studies
[00:01:31.473]are critical to the knowledge of
[00:01:32.859]our own and other communities,
[00:01:34.278]and that such understanding is
[00:01:36.155]critical in a complex world.
[00:01:38.299]Her work as an editor for the
[00:01:39.761]Great Plains Quarterly and the
[00:01:41.851]Encyclopedia of the Great Plains
[00:01:43.750]elevated the scholarship in these
[00:01:45.233]important publications. And, as many
[00:01:48.091]of her supporting letters attest,
[00:01:50.513]perhaps Professor Kaye's most significant
[00:01:52.625]work has been an outreach to individuals
[00:01:55.174]incarcerated in the Nebraska state prison
[00:01:58.246]system, where she has run reading and
[00:02:00.123]creative writing circles for many years.
[00:02:03.025]She was appointed to UNL as an
[00:02:04.881]assistant professor in 1977,
[00:02:07.804]and rose to the full professorship in '93.
[00:02:10.662]Fran is an excellent teacher and has
[00:02:12.497]received a distinguished teaching award
[00:02:14.289]from the College of Arts & Sciences,
[00:02:16.497]and the Sorenson award for teaching
[00:02:18.075]in the humanities, one of the highest
[00:02:20.251]awards the University can give.
[00:02:22.438]In her administrative work,
[00:02:24.113]Dr. Kaye headed the Indian Studies
[00:02:26.427]division of Ethnic Studies for some years,
[00:02:28.753]and was editor for the Great Plains
[00:02:30.513]Quarterly for 12 years, a period in which
[00:02:33.115]it became a very distinguished outlet
[00:02:35.835]for seminal reviews and articles.
[00:02:38.694]Other on-campus services includes years
[00:02:41.521]as the faculty advisor for undergraduates
[00:02:43.686]majoring in English, but it is her
[00:02:46.075]off-campus service that truly warrants
[00:02:48.113]special attention and recognition.
[00:02:51.270]She has been tireless as a
[00:02:52.625]visiting speaker for audiences ranging
[00:02:54.971]from small town middle school students
[00:02:56.774]to assembled academics at national
[00:02:59.238]conferences. She has also been tireless
[00:03:01.883]in serving prisoners in correctional
[00:03:04.347]institutions both here in Lincoln and
[00:03:07.345]in Tecumseh, Nebraska.
[00:03:09.435]The humane mission of helping
[00:03:11.110]incarcerated individuals to find
[00:03:13.339]their voices as writers, as women or men
[00:03:16.070]in communities, as participants in
[00:03:19.462]spiritual and cultural traditions -
[00:03:22.780]this is a vibrant and challenging
[00:03:24.646]outcome of work in the humanities,
[00:03:27.078]and Fran Kaye has wholeheartedly
[00:03:29.126]devoted herself to it, knowing that
[00:03:31.867]the most meaningful change often comes
[00:03:34.491]from within.
[00:03:35.931]Her service is evident in the
[00:03:38.417]difference she has made in the lives of
[00:03:41.222]many prisoners and their families
[00:03:43.291]and communities.
[00:03:45.094]It is with pleasure that the Senate
[00:03:46.886]awards Dr. Kaye with the Louise Pound-
[00:03:49.393]-George Howard Distinguished Career award.
[00:03:52.177]Dr. Kaye.
[00:03:53.457][ standing ovation ]
[00:04:14.406]Thank you very much.
[00:04:17.211]Thank you, very much to the Senate
[00:04:19.515]for this award
[00:04:20.998]and thank you everyone for coming today.
[00:04:23.995]On February 28, 2006, Robert Grey Owl
[00:04:28.934]was released from the Nebraska State
[00:04:30.822]Penitentiary after serving 11.5 years
[00:04:34.139]on two counts of burglary and one count
[00:04:36.763]of criminal mischief.
[00:04:38.598]Within a year, he would adopt me
[00:04:40.411]as his sister, because he needed my
[00:04:42.918]pragmatic assistance with dealing with
[00:04:45.403]the free world. And I would adopt him
[00:04:47.398]as my brother, because I needed his
[00:04:50.491]witness to dispossession.
[00:04:53.041]My brother is, in all important ways,
[00:04:55.622]the reason I am receiving this award today.
[00:04:58.406]When he first came to the Maza Tipi -
[00:05:00.891]the Iron Lodge - the Pen -
[00:05:03.046]the men of the Native American Spiritual
[00:05:05.393]and Cultural Awareness society
[00:05:07.046]elected him president, because of his
[00:05:09.062]idealistic vision for developing cultural
[00:05:12.102]awareness, which included bringing
[00:05:14.310]Native American Studies professors
[00:05:16.166]from the university to the prison
[00:05:17.979]to share their knowledge. And so I came.
[00:05:22.022]The United States imprisons more people
[00:05:24.966]both proportionately and absolutely
[00:05:27.195]than any other country in the world.
[00:05:29.915]People of color are overrepresented
[00:05:31.654]in the prisons, and underrepresented
[00:05:33.884]in the universities. It is easy for
[00:05:36.625]many Americans to write off
[00:05:38.225]the incarcerated as 'human scum'
[00:05:41.201]that needs to be separated from the
[00:05:42.961]rest of us, and mass incarceration rates
[00:05:45.819]make sense in our economic system.
[00:05:49.276]Fear of prison and its frequent aftermath,
[00:05:52.326]homelessness, keeps others working in
[00:05:54.502]poorly paid, often dangerous, often
[00:05:57.734]dead-end jobs. Those are the angry folk,
[00:06:01.233]crying out against our current political
[00:06:03.185]system. We live in a culture of guilt,
[00:06:05.926]blame, punishment and vengeance.
[00:06:09.531]Once, in the courthouse, someone asked me
[00:06:11.569]if I were not ashamed to be seen
[00:06:14.011]with my brother.
[00:06:15.590]"No," I answered,
[00:06:17.190]"but I am ashamed to be part of a society
[00:06:19.771]that turned such a happy little boy into
[00:06:22.278]such a tortured and troubled man."
[00:06:24.966]My brother spent most of his life in
[00:06:26.875]institutions: Indian boarding school,
[00:06:29.755]juvy, federal prison, and state
[00:06:31.867]penitentiaries. By his own account,
[00:06:34.577]he was sometimes a "knucklehead."
[00:06:37.201]The schools and prisons gave him an
[00:06:39.249]extended education in making bad decisions
[00:06:42.982]and yet he maintained always some
[00:06:45.819]private reservoir of joy and
[00:06:49.051]compassion, wisdom and desire.
[00:06:50.854]He learned that all authority is corrupt.
[00:06:55.174]"Subvert the rules,
[00:06:56.710]whether they serve you well or not."
[00:06:59.291]"Truth is powerful. Never waste it when
[00:07:01.915]you might be able to get by with a lie."
[00:07:04.838]"Never trust anyone. It just makes you
[00:07:07.249]vulnerable."
[00:07:09.158]"Planning ahead is meaningless, because
[00:07:11.334]someone else controls your decisions."
[00:07:14.406]"Seize any opportunity that comes your
[00:07:16.358]way, no matter the consequences."
[00:07:19.302]But brother always managed to be
[00:07:21.969]better than he was taught. And surely,
[00:07:24.593]none of us wants any fellow citizens
[00:07:26.619]to internalize such messages.
[00:07:29.755]Not the people who write the laws.
[00:07:32.635]Not the people who work in the institutions.
[00:07:35.910]I've been greatly honored to
[00:07:37.905]question those parameters for everyone.
[00:07:42.054]Volunteers and other prison educators
[00:07:44.571]can be a lifeline to the world for people
[00:07:46.545]who are incarcerated. Both vocational
[00:07:50.022]and classroom education are crucial
[00:07:52.251]for people to maintain their humanity
[00:07:54.459]behind bars, and to have a chance
[00:07:56.315]to stay out once they get out.
[00:07:58.961]But volunteers also serve as role models
[00:08:01.169]and mentors, as well as purveyors of
[00:08:03.025]skills and information. We provide another
[00:08:05.787]point of view than the official one,
[00:08:07.761]and we are the eyes for society to see
[00:08:10.182]within the dark places our institutions
[00:08:12.774]create. When I bring my students to
[00:08:15.174]prisons, as I did earlier this month
[00:08:17.425]when 12 of us attended a NASCA powwow,
[00:08:20.955]they learn the innate humanity of the
[00:08:23.462]incarcerated, especially the men who
[00:08:25.894]choose to work through the inmate clubs
[00:08:28.006]to better themselves. And these are
[00:08:30.171]the students who will be the judges
[00:08:31.867]and juries, the lawyers and state
[00:08:33.958]legislators of the future.
[00:08:36.273]We all benefit when inmates and students
[00:08:38.758]meet as allies. I am most enormously
[00:08:41.894]grateful to my department
[00:08:43.473]chair, Marco Abel, and to my colleague
[00:08:45.894]and nominator Julia Schleck,
[00:08:48.123]for putting me forward for the
[00:08:49.276]Pound-Howard award; for saying in public
[00:08:51.739]what my department has always let me know
[00:08:54.246]in private: that a land-grant university
[00:08:56.710]is supposed to serve especially
[00:08:59.665]the most under-served populations
[00:09:02.587]of our state, including the dispossessed
[00:09:05.254]heirs whose land was granted for the
[00:09:07.814]university, the men and women in NASCA.
[00:09:10.918]I'm grateful to my husband, Howard,
[00:09:13.403]for letting me go to prisons, and for
[00:09:15.846]letting me bring the prisons home when
[00:09:17.958]someone like my brother comes to stay.
[00:09:20.742]I am enormously grateful to those who
[00:09:22.993]wrote letters on my behalf, especially
[00:09:25.318]my beloved friends who are behind bars
[00:09:27.569]and who, despite what they have done
[00:09:29.147]in the past, are champions of justice
[00:09:31.889]and the human spirit.
[00:09:33.819]I thank the people from the prisons who
[00:09:35.793]let me in, especially Shar Most at York,
[00:09:38.854]who is the most creative and innovative
[00:09:40.646]administrator I know.
[00:09:42.822]And I thank the Faculty Senate
[00:09:45.286]and the University itself
[00:09:47.121]for affirming the inviolable humanity
[00:09:50.001]of those who are incarcerated
[00:09:51.900]by giving me this award.
[00:09:54.897]My brother, Robert Grey Owl, died on
[00:09:57.105]September 20, 2014. He died of lung
[00:10:01.212]cancer. He died of living out the hand
[00:10:03.675]life dealt him. His fundamental good
[00:10:06.353]gives on; and this award is only one
[00:10:08.923]of its more tangible effects.
[00:10:12.198]I hope that as we grow this university,
[00:10:14.865]we grow this university as a place
[00:10:16.987]that will heal people as they come out
[00:10:20.486]of the prisons - that among our
[00:10:22.694]10,000 new students, we will have
[00:10:25.713]many alumni of NSP and LCC,
[00:10:30.267]of Tecumseh and York;
[00:10:32.443]the students who need us;
[00:10:34.022]the students who benefit from us.
[00:10:36.049]I hope that this is the beginning
[00:10:37.983]of a new partnership. I'm very grateful
[00:10:40.529]to Mr. Frakes, and Miss Smith for
[00:10:43.590]coming today. I think you may have seen
[00:10:46.374]more of the University as an institution
[00:10:49.233]than you were planning to, but now that
[00:10:51.974]you know us, I hope you will come back
[00:10:54.139]again - and now that you know Mr. Frakes
[00:10:56.849]and Miss Smith, I hope that the University
[00:10:59.430]will welcome students from the prisons.
[00:11:02.908]Thank you very much.
[00:11:05.550][ applause ]

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Frances W. Kaye's Pound-Howard Acceptance Speech

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