Members of the LHU Environmental Focus Group are joined by Interim President Barbara Dixon and presenter Albert Jones. Left to right: Barbara Dixon, Ralph Harnishfeger, Barrie Overton, Md. Khalequzzaman, Bob Myers, Lenny Long, Jeff Walsh and Albert Jones.

LOCK HAVEN, Pa.
The Lock Haven University Environmental Focus Group received the university’s Outstanding Collaboration and Teamwork (CAT) Award at the opening meeting on August 26. The CAT Award recognizes those group efforts that make a notable contribution to the advancement of university goals, mission, and service. The award recognizes groups, departments, or committees that demonstrate collaboration and teamwork.
Team members named in the award were Dr. Robert M. Myers, Professor and Chair, English Department; Dr. Md. Khalequzzaman, Professor of Geology; Dr. Jeffrey A. Walsh, Professor, Recreation Management Department; Dr. John D. Crossen, Building Maintenance Foreman, Maintenance Department; Dr. Sandra L. Barney, Professor of History; Dr. Ralph L. Harnishfeger, Associate Professor of Biology; Dr. Barrie E. Overton, Assistant Professor of Biology; Leonard K. Long, Assistant Professor and Chair, Recreation Management Department; and students Danielle Holton and Clayton Snyder.
Presenter Albert Jones, Assistant to the President and Associate Director of Human Resources, read a portion of the award nomination which described the Environmental Focus Group as “an eclectic group of faculty, students and staff, all of whom are dedicated to outreach to the Lock Haven University community and the wider community in Clinton County regarding issues associated with the culture and context of Clinton County and wider central Pennsylvania region.”
The Environmental Focus Group has arranged a public forum on the effects of Marcellus Shale drilling; have encouraged and effected the planting of hemlocks in front of Russell Hall and near the pottery shed; have produced an online journal, The Hemlock; arranged a performance of local music connected to the first Pennsylvania Culture Day, and have developed an interdisciplinary Environmental Studies minor program.
According to the nominator, “The initiative for doing this has been self-generated – just a bunch of like-minded people sitting around and talking about what can be done and then doing it.” The nominator concluded, “It’s grass roots university community people from staff, faculty, students and administration working together for a common end.”