Roberto Pomo, director of Sacramento State’s Honors Program and professor of theater and dance, is this year’s John C. Livingston Award winner.

The award is given annually to faculty members who transcend their disciplines and positively impact the students at Sac State through teaching, service and creative and scholarly activities.

“From among the three nominees, the Livingston Lecture Committee was extremely impressed with Dr. Pomo’s overall professional record in service to students and scholarship, reinforced by outstanding letters of support written by colleagues on his behalf,” said George Paganelis, member of the Faculty Senate and curator for The Tsakopoulos Hellenic Collection in the University Library.

Originally called the Distinguished Faculty Convocation Address, the award was renamed in 1985 in honor of the late John C. Livingston, professor of government, who was highly respected at the university for his strong moral convictions and dedication to faculty.

“I’m honored and humbled, because Professor Livingston was really and truly an institution in itself,” Pomo said. “(Livingston) basically symbolizes, in my estimation, what the CSU is all about, which is equality for all, quality of education and freedom of governance.”

As part of the award, Pomo presented a speech to the campus community Tuesday at the Alumni Center discussing the measures that need to be taken in order to fix California’s unprecedented crisis in higher education.

Pomo said he believes higher education is experiencing the worst economic period that he has ever seen.

“I’ve never experienced such chaos as we are facing right now. We are in dire straits and we’re really staring into the abyss,” he said.

Pomo focused Tuesday’s speech on three main points: the reorganization of the general education curriculum, the need for new teaching methods and the importance of a respectful environment in campus dialogues.

“We have to re-energize ourselves and we need to find new paradigms because what we had three years ago is never going to come back, and mind you, it’s going to get worse next year,” he said.

Pomo’s speech was intended to encourage faculty members to be more creative with limited resources in order to improve the success of the higher education system.

As a professor himself, Pomo recognizes the difficulties that teachers face. The rewards of teaching, however, outweigh the struggles, he said.

“The engagement that I have with the students, particularly of this great state, keeps me energized and in touch with society as opposed to just sitting behind a desk,” he said.

Throughout his 11 years working at Sac State, Pomo has been a well-liked professor and administrator, said Jeffrey Brodd, professor of humanities and religious studies and coordinator of the liberal arts master’s program.

“Now and previously, he’s held important administrative positions and sometimes those positions require that one tells colleagues what they don’t necessarily want to hear and yet everyone seems to like Professor Pomo,” he said.

Pomo said Sac State’s history and core values are what attracted him to the university.

“This institution was always at the forefront of social change, and I go back to Dr. Livingston who really lived it, and so this institution for me was always an example of progressive thinking, progressive ideology, a quest to change the social fiber of our nation,” Pomo said.

Pomo said he is fortunate to be a part of a university that serves students that may not have had the opportunity to acquire a college education if not for Sac State.

“Many of the students here are first generation students,” Pomo said. “To me, that’s really important because I come from an immigrant family. We moved from Argentina when I was 13 years old.”

Greg Wheeler, associate director of undergraduate studies, feels Pomo’s background had a positive impact on him and allowed him to relate to students.

“He’s extremely well-rounded. He speaks Italian and Spanish, of course English and French, so he’s very knowledgeable in terms of his understanding of world cultures,” Wheeler said. “(Pomo) is a very skilled, very dedicated educator.”

Pomo encourages current students to keep trying to find the balance between school, work and family.

“You, the students of today, are not going to be leaders of tomorrow, you are the leaders of today; you’re here,” he said.

Inna Gritsak can be reached at [email protected].