Spectrum - Volume 17 Issue 30 April 27, 1995 - Woman of the Year named

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Woman of the Year named

By Donna Eileen Lisker, The Women's Center

Spectrum Volume 17 Issue 30 - April 27, 1995

The Women's Center at Virginia Tech has recognized Patricia Hyer, associate provost for academic administration, as the first recipient of its Woman of the Year award.

The award, given at the closing reception for Women's Month, recognizes outstanding service to women faculty and staff members, and students at Virginia Tech, and will be given annually.

Penny Burge, director of The Women's Center, presented a plaque to Hyer; another plaque will hang in The Women's Center showing all the recipients over the years.

Burge said The Women's Center decided to create the award because they want to call attention to accomplished women in the university community.

Hyer, who was instrumental in founding The Women's Center at Virginia Tech in the summer of 1994, has a long history of supporting women and diversity at Virginia Tech and at other institutions. The Women's Center at Virginia Tech is actually the second that Hyer has helped to found; as assistant to the dean of continuing studies at Old Dominion University, she created and established their Women's Center in the mid-1970s.

At Virginia Tech, Hyer has been involved in policy initiatives such as family leave and the revision of the sexual-harassment policy.

She has also coordinated professional development programs for women administrators, worked on gender equity salary studies, established the Commission on Administrative and Professional Faculty Affairs, and assisted with the recruitment of women and minority faculty members through the Exceptional Opportunity Program.

Hyer also taught Introduction to Women's Studies in fall 1994, and will teach it again in fall 1995.

Burge thanked Hyer for her dedication and leadership in the first year of operation of The Women's Center.

The Women's Center's mission is to improve the culture and climate at Virginia Tech for women by focusing on gender equity, with the expectation that the entire community will benefit from these efforts.