Nominees for the 1996 Perkins Prize for Interracial Understanding and Harmony are now being accepted by the Dean of Students Office at Cornell.

The $5,000 annual prize was established last year by Trustee Thomas W. Jones and was presented at an award ceremony in the A.D. White House on Thursday, May 4. Participating in the ceremony were Jones, President Emeritus James A. Perkins, then-President Frank H.T. Rhodes and Dean of Students John L. Ford.

Seth Meinero, event coordinator of the Cornell Political Forum, received the first Perkins Prize for his efforts in developing an annual series of "Civil Rights in America" symposia. Two nominees received certificates of recognition: Sabra Brown, an undergraduate in the College of Arts and Sciences, for her leadership in the Cornell Women's Handbook Project, and Yvonne Singh, artistic director of the Cornell Africana Studies and Research Center's Black Drama Workshop for 1994-95.

Jones established the James A. Perkins Prize to promote efforts for the advancement of campus interracial understanding and harmony and to honor a past president's "historic decision" to increase the enrollment of minority students during the tumultuous 1960s. The annual award is intended to be presented to the student, faculty, staff or program making the most significant contribution to furthering the ideal of university community while respecting the values of racial diversity.

Prize money will be used to support activities that promote "interracial respect, understanding and harmony on campus," Jones said in announcing the award, adding, "President Perkins made the historic decision to increase very significantly the enrollment of African American and other minority students at Cornell. He did so in the conviction that Cornell could serve the nation by nurturing the underutilized reservoir of human talent among minorities, and in the faith that the great American universities should and could lead the way in helping America to surmount the racial agony which was playing out in the civil rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s. He made a courageous and wise decision and deserves recognition for it."

Perkins served as Cornell president from 1963 to 1969. Jones, who was an undergraduate at Cornell during a student takeover of Willard Straight Hall in 1969, is president and chief operating officer of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF), the world's largest pension fund.

In his 1995 announcement, Jones said, "On a personal level, I simply want to thank President Perkins for trying to open the doors of opportunity and acceptance to African Americans, and I want to atone, to the extent that I can, for the hurt and anguish he and Cornell suffered as a result of the racial tensions which boiled over in April 1969." The Perkins Prize grant is administered by Dean of Students John Ford. Winners are selected by a nine-member executive committee of the Student Community Fund, made up of students, faculty and administrators.

Criteria for the prize include the number and diversity of students participating in a sustained level of involvement that leads to a set of accomplishments, the extent to which these accomplishments promote common values and shared community standards among diverse students and the extent to which these accomplishments enhance the abilities of students to work with, live with and learn from individuals from a wide range of backgrounds, beliefs and cultural perspectives.

Faculty, staff and students are invited to apply for the award; members of the Cornell community may nominate applicants. Nomination and application forms are available at the Office of the Dean of Students, 401 Willard Straight Hall (255-6839 or 255-1115). Completed applications must be received by March 29. Award recipients will be notified before the award ceremony on Monday, May 6.