Michael Gordon:  

Life Michael V. W. Gordon retired during the 2000-2001 school year after 26 years of service to Indiana University. He received the B.S. from Virginia State University, Master of Music from The Cleveland Institute of Music, Masters and Doctorate of Education from Columbia University's Graduate School of Education, Teachers College. After more than forty years of teaching, he is looking forward to a new way of dealing with learning and teaching in the arts in his retirement years. He was one of the original founders of the National Black Music Caucus, which for many years was an affiliate organization of the Music Educators National Conference. It is now called the National Association for the Preservation and Performance of African American Music. He served as its National President from 1978-1981. He is well known as a speaker and clinician and has published articles in professional journals and other publications. He still manages to perform as a choral conductor and baritone soloist with symphony orchestras and opera companies in the United States and abroad. He sang the role of Porgy in George Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess" with the Indiana University Opera Theatre in 1976. He continued to perform that role with a traveling company throughout the mid-west as well as in concert with the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra. Gordon has performed in and around Bloomington in a number of productions as a singer-actor and as actor. Notable among his performances have been "The Captain" in HMS Pinafore, "Othello" in the Shakespeare Play and as "Bynum" in August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" in March, 2000. In 2000, he was awarded the title Distinguished Hoosier by the Indiana State Legislature, the Herman Wells Image Award by the Indiana University Black Students Union which he founded in 1978, and the Silver Medal by the National Interfraternity Conference. The Indiana University All-Greek council named a chapter Innovation award the Michael Gordon Chapter Award. In March 2001, the Campus Life Division named their Annual Dean of Students Award for Faculty who contribute to Student Life in an admirable way, the Michael Gordon Faculty Award for Student Life Contributions. Over the last several years, he has received numerous awards from student groups and student life organizations nationally and from over 25 colleges and universities. He served as the first Executive Director of The National Pan-Hellenic Council International Headquarters, which he was instrumental in locating in Bloomington, Indiana in January of 1992. The National Pan-Hellenic Council has been since 1930 the national umbrella organization for International historically African American Fraternities and Sororities whose undergraduate and graduate chapters comprise 1.5 million members. He served Indiana University as Vice Chancellor and/or Dean of Students 1981-91. As Chief Student Advocate for more than 35,000 undergraduate and graduate students his responsibilities included Residence Life, Student Activities, Fraternity and Sorority Affairs, Student Rights and Responsibilities, Career Development, Disabled Student Services, Veterans Affairs, Health Service, Child Care, Commission on Multicultural Understanding, Racial Incidents Team, Gay, Lesbian & Bi-Sexual Students Concerns, Student Advocates Program, The Campus Personal Safety Commission, and the Campus Recreational Sports Committee. During his tenure as Vice Chancellor/Dean of Students he established or developed a number of new programs, including the Alcohol-Drug Information Center, The I.U. Chapters of BACCHUS and SADD, the Residential Education Programs, Faculty Fellows Programs in all Residence Centers, The Foster International Living-Learning Center, The Commission on Racial Understanding, The Student Advocates Office, The I.U. Parents Association, The Robert Shaffer Endowment for The Quality of Student Life and the I.U. Chapter of the Golden Key National Honorary S...Expand for more