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James R. Coffman has been a great benefactor of and advocate for the Kansas State University College of Architecture, Planning, and Design.

A professor of Clinical Sciences at K-State, Dr. Coffman has served as a faculty member at the University of Missouri-Columbia and at K-State, where he chaired the Department of Clinical Sciences and directed the Veterinary Teaching Hospital. He was dean of the K-State College of Veterinary Medicine before becoming provost in 1987. He retired from his position as provost in 2004.

Dr. Coffman has authored or co-authored more than 100 scientific papers and has served as an editorial board member or editor of three major journals. He has also chaired a National Research Council Board on Agriculture subcommittee on the use of drugs in food-producing animals.

In 1978 and 1979, Dr. Coffman was president of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine and in 1986 of the American Association of Equine Practitioners. In addition, Dr. Coffman has held numerous positions in national scientific and professional organizations. He served on the Faculty Policy Review Project, a collaborative group sponsored by five national higher education organizations.

As the provost or chief academic officer at K-State, Dr. Coffman's interests included developing flexible approaches to the application of faculty time and talent, and rethinking the faculty role and reward system so that outstanding research, teaching and other work in the academic environment could be more effectively assessed and rewarded. The resulting policy change regarding faculty tenure, promotion and post-tenure review "raised the bar" for faculty performance throughout the university and affirmed the practice of our college's faculty to use the scholarship of teaching as an intellectual endeavor.

A strong advocate for the academic programs of our College of Architecture, Planning and Design, Dr. Coffman valued classroom teaching and believed the college's primary method of instruction, the design studio, to be the epitome of student/faculty interaction. By helping our college make the best of resource shortfalls as well as allocating resources to the college at critical times, Dr. Coffman facilitated what our faculty does best--classroom teaching. The growing effectiveness of our faculty's instructional efforts, in which he was so instrumental, has been demonstrated many times through the numerous awards our students and faculty have received.

Dr. Coffman was also interested and active in developing more effective means of furthering diversity among faculty, staff and students with emphasis on connecting multicultural perspectives with faculty roles and rewards. Always approachable on a wide variety of issues, Dr. Coffman's guidance and counsel were always thoughtful and wise.

Because he played a substantive role in helping to create a college that has four academic programs currently ranked in the Top 10 in the nation, the faculty, staff and students of the College of Architecture, Planning and Design are proud to present a 2005 Kansas State University Distinguished Service Award to Dr. James R. Coffman.