Dr. Dorothy Binder was a faculty member at Saint Xavier University from 1964-1994. She served as director of the Education Center (equivalent to current dean of the School of Education). She initiated the Learning Disabilities Center, now known as S.T.A.R. Learning Academy, to meet the needs of local children with disabilities and to provide an incubator for graduate students to become special education teachers. Dr. Binder also hired founding faculty and commenced the graduate program in learning disabilities (now the multicategorical special education program). In addition, Dr. Binder inaugurated the continuing education program at Saint Xavier University, with a unique interdisciplinary curriculum to meet the needs of returning adult students. Dorothy Binder expected a great deal of herself and not much less of her colleagues and students. Dorothy was dedicated to excellence*. Dr. Binder was probably most renowned as a remarkable teacher of statistics, a course dreaded by many graduate students and dubbed by Dorothy as "sadistics." Yet, Dr. Binder's careful instruction and patient explanation led student after student to successful acquisition of statistical skills. Not only available during her generous office hours and many additional hours at the University, Dr. Binder regularly invited students to her home for review sessions or additional instruction, where a cup of tea or coffee and homemade Austrian pastry reduced the anxiety of mastering math. Dorothy's gracious hospitality* helped students feel comfortable enough to concentrate and learn. Dorothy Binder also reached out to individual students, colleagues, and families in need. For twenty years, Dorothy and her family provided Christmas meals and gifts for a family on the west side. Sincere and unadvertised, Dorothy encouraged those she helped not to worry about repayment, but rather to "pay it forward" if they were ever in a position to do so. In acknowledgement of Dorothy's assistance in a financially troubled time, one of her colleagues has since paid for students' doctor's appointments, paid certification test fees, and even paid the security deposit and first several months' rent to help a graduate student when she and her young children became suddenly homeless. Dr. Binder believed that the essence of living is giving. The hallmarks of Dorothy's life were compassion* and service.*
* Core Values of Saint Xavier University
The committee of the Dr. Dorothy Binder Endowed Graduate Scholarship in Education seeks to honor Dr. Binder by helping an admitted School of Education (except MATL) graduate student who possesses the critical qualities of Dorothy, or who has been the recipient of the qualities of Dr. Binder and is cultivating them in response, to finance a part of a graduate education at Saint Xavier University. The scholarship will be a tuition grant of approximately $1,300.
The tuition award this year will be approximately $1,699*. The 2009 Binder Scholarship has been awarded to Kathleen Griffin, of Chicago, IL, a graduate student in the Multicategorical Special Education program. A recommender noted that Ms. Griffin’s service experiences as well as her roles as a special education teacher aide and teacher have been offered to a diverse array of persons: “Her acceptance of others and her desire to learn as much as possible to provide effective service speak to her initiative in being hospitable to others.” The Scholarship Committee recognizes Ms. Griffin’s commitment to excellence, hospitality, compassion, and service to others---qualities that Dr. Binder personified in her life.
*Exact amount of tuition grants depends on available funds from endowments and individual student’s account status.
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