Valdosta State University recently presented its seventh annual Dr. Philip Gunter Faculty Author Reception in the University Center Magnolia Room.
 
The Dr. Philip Gunter Faculty Author Reception is a recognition of the wide range of scholarly activity produced by faculty from all disciplines and every department on campus. During the event, VSU faculty shared their published scholarly works, including everything from journal articles, books, and book chapters to poems and short stories to artwork, video and sound recordings, and much more, from the previous calendar year.
 
Dr. Darrell Ross first developed the faculty author reception when he was named head of what was then known as the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice, with Marriage and Family Therapy in August 2010. (Marriage and Family Therapy is now part of the Department of Psychology, Counseling, and Family Therapy within the James L. and Dorothy H. Dewar College of Education and Human Services. The Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice is in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.)
 
Ross wanted the opportunity to recognize his department’s faculty research efforts.
 
Ross said that it was Gunter who supported his plan to expand the faculty author reception to the entire university, to include every faculty member from every department.
 
When Gunter died unexpectedly on May 20, 2012, a little less than a year before the inaugural event, Ross named the campus-wide faculty author reception in his memory, a tribute to his unwavering support of faculty research at VSU.
 
Gunter joined the VSU family in 1993 as head of what was then known as the Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders. (The Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders and Special Education, as well as the Department of Elementary Education, are both in the Dewar College of Education and Human Services.) Ten years later, he was named dean of the college. In 2010, he was named provost and vice president of the Division of Academic Affairs, having already served one year as interim.