Southeastern NEWS

                                                       Southeastern Louisiana University
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                                           SLU 880, Hammond, LA 70402
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    Date: 5/16/98
      Contact:                           Christina Chapple  26

SLU AWARDS DEGREES, HONORS ALARIO
     HAMMOND -- In 1965, John A. Alario Jr. of Westwego was among the students is caps
and gowns who exuberantly claimed diplomas at Southeastern Louisiana College's
commencement exercises. Saturday, Alario again donned academic regalia to accept another
Southeastern Louisiana University honor.
     President Sally Clausen presented the veteran Louisiana legislator with the university's
"Golden Ambassador Award." A member of the state House of Representatives for seven terms,
Alario is the second recipient of the award, created in 1996  to recognize outstanding service,
achievement and/or humanitarian efforts. 
     "There isn't a day in my life when I'm not grateful for the education I received in this state
and the opportunities it has afforded me," said Alario in accepting the award before 750 spring
semester graduates and several thousands of their family members and friends at the SLU
University Center. "I'm so proud of the honor."   
     Clausen praised Alario as one "who looks for solutions rather than headlines" and who
has been "a friend of higher education in Louisiana for a long time." 
     Now in his seventh tern as District 83 state representative, Alario is chairman of the
House Ways and Means Committee, the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget, and the
House Executive Committee. "He has made a difference in Louisiana, in our country, and an
extraordinary difference for Southeastern," Clausen said.
     Clausen also recognized the faculty and staff winners of the university's most prestigious
faculty/staff honor, President's Awards for Excellence. Awards winners were David C. Wyld,
associate professor of management, for research; Barbara Forrest, associate professor of
philosophy, for teaching; David C. Hanson, associate professor of English, for artistic activity;
John O. King, professor of marketing, for faculty service, and Stephen Soutullo, registrar, for
staff service.
     Centering his keynote speech around the need to "aim for excellence in a global
community, Dr. Benjamin F. Payton, president of Tuskegee University, told graduates to "make
use of what you learned here, seek excellence and work for opportunities for all."