(May 26, 2009, New Orleans, La.) - Fredrick "Rick" Barton, former University of New Orleans Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs and former Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, was awarded an honorary doctorate by Valparaiso University on May 17 in recognition of his achievements as a writer and educator.
Barton, professor of English, is the author of seven books, including Rowing to Sweden, a selection of essays to be published later this year. He has received wide critical acclaim for his four novels, The El Cholo Feeling Passes, Courting Pandemonium, With Extreme Prejudice and A House Divided, which won the William Faulkner Prize in fiction.
His film column in the newsweekly Gambit won the New Orleans Press Club's annual criticism prize on 11 occasions as well as the Alex Waller Memorial Award, the Press Club's highest honor for print journalism. His honors also include the Stephen T. Victory Award, the Louisiana Bar Association's annual prize for feature writing about legal issues and a Louisiana Division of the Arts Award in Literature.
Barton's essay "Breaches of Faith," which related the story of UNO's response to Hurricane Katrina, was awarded the 2008 first place Award of Excellence prize in the feature essay category by the National Association of Religious Journals.
As a long time UNO administrator, Barton oversaw the implementation of new undergraduate programs in women's studies and international studies and the Creative Writing Workshop, UNO's distinguished graduate program in imaginative writing where he now concentrates his teaching. As provost, Barton led the university through its reaccreditation process by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and its painful exigent recovery process in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Barton also initiated the Katrina Narrative Project, which engaged UNO students in gathering the personal stories of Katrina survivors, and resulted in Rebeca Antoine's Voices Rising, a volume that Library Journal hailed as the single most important book published about Hurricane Katrina. Barton's essay "Breaches of Faith" appeared as the Afterward in Voices Rising.
The University of New Orleans (UNO), the urban research University of the State of Louisiana, provides essential support for the educational, economic, cultural and social well-being of the culturally rich and diverse New Orleans metropolitan area. It opened its doors in 1958 as part of the Louisiana State University System "to bring public-supported higher education to Louisiana's largest urban community." Today, UNO offers 43 undergraduate degree programs, 37 masters, and 11 doctoral programs. The 340-acre main campus sits on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain, offering easy access to all parts of the metro area. For more information, visit
http://www.uno.edu/.
Johanna M. Schindler
