Rufus D. Kinney Receives Distinguished Service Award

JSU English instructor Rufus D. Kinney receives the Phi Eta Sigma Distinguished Service Award, which is presented by Grand Vice President Molly Lawrence.

1 February 2005 — Phi Eta Sigma, the nation’s oldest and largest freshman honor society, presented its Distinguished Service Award to Jacksonville State University English instructor Rufus D. Kinney, chapter adviser at JSU.

Kinney has assisted approximately 1,300 academically motivated JSU students with membership in Phi Eta Sigma during his 20 years of service. The chapter has had nine Founders Fund scholarship recipients in the past 20 years, including one in each of the last six years. The JSU chapter is usually represented at the Phi Eta Sigma national conventions.

Kinney was co-recipient of the first annual JSU College of Arts and Sciences Core Curriculum Award for Teaching Excellence in 1992. He is a long-time environmental activist with the Sierra Club and other organizations and received the Sierra Club Alabama Chapter’s 2002 Coosa Pit Bull Award “for outstanding work for environmental justice and public health.”

Phi Eta Sigma was founded at the University of Illinois on March 22, 1923. It has more than 300 chapters throughout the U.S. and more than 700,000 members. Phi Eta Sigma induction is an outward recognition of personal accomplishment and serves as an incentive for continued high scholarship. It provides members the opportunity to meet freshman scholars from all academic disciplines on their campuses and to join them in promoting academic excellence. Members may apply for scholarships available from national and from local chapters. 

JSU's current inductees can be viewed at http://www.jsu.edu/news/jan_june2004/04212004d.html.

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