President's Excellence in Academic Advising Award
1. General Policy
Two levels of awards are offered in this program, which is intended to encourage, recognize, and reward excellence in academic advising by faculty and/or staff. An individual award for excellence in academic advising may be given to a maximum of two individuals per year. A team award for excellence in academic advising may be given to a maximum of one team per year. No awards are required to be given in any year.
a. Eligibility
For the individual award, by September 1 in the academic year of the award, nominees must
- have been continuously employed as benefits eligible faculty or staff for at least two years;
- be up to date in all training and employment requirements for the university and state;
- have been an academic advisor for at least two years and have received positive annual evaluations or appraisals for the past two years;
- not have received the individual advising award during the past two years.
For the team award, by September 1 in the academic year of award,
- all team members must be up to date in all training and employment requirements for the university and state;
- the team must not have won the team award during the past two years;
- the core members of the team must have been academic advisors for at least two years and must have received positive annual evaluations or appraisals for the past two years. That is, it is acceptable if a few team members have not been employees for two years, particularly in a large group, as long as most team members have been employees for two or more years. Furthermore, it is also acceptable if some members of the team are not themselves academic advisors as long as their work is essential to the excellence of the academic advising team, as in the case, for example, of a computer support person who manages all of the records for the advisors or some other support staff member who answers basic questions related to advising, handles advising materials, and directs students to the proper advisor. It is not required, however, that a nominated team include on its team roster individuals who are not academic advisors. (Excellent work by those who are not advisors can be recognized through other programs such as the Quality Service Award.)
- all individuals who are part of a unit's advising team must be included in a nomination. That is, for example, it is not acceptable to nominate three advisors as a team if there are four advisors in the advising unit, just as it is not acceptable for a team that has decided to include non-advisors as team members to nominate fifteen advisors and one receptionist as a team if there are fifteen advisors and two receptionists in that advising unit
Anyone who is being considered as an individual nominee may also be considered at the same time for a team award. However, a person may win only one award per year, and selection as part of team award will take precedence over selection for an individual award.
b. Definitions of Academic Advising and Advising Team
For purposes of this award, the term academic advising is intended to be applied in a broad sense to the work of any individual whose duties include academic advising of students. Academic advisors can be faculty or staff. Usually, but perhaps not always, a staff person who is an academic advisor is a full-time advisor. Usually, but perhaps not always, a faculty member who is an academic advisor provides academic advice as part of a workload that also includes teaching. Academic advisors may work with undergraduate and/or graduate students. Questions about what constitutes academic advising for purposes of this award may be directed to the chair of the reviewing committee. A supervisor's signature on the cover sheet of the nomination packet will indicate that the supervisor considers the nominee to be an eligible academic advisor.
The nature and composition of academic units and academic advising teams may vary across campus. Common sense and fairness should prevail in a nominated group's self-definition of what constitutes its advising team. Questions about the appropriate constitution of an advising team for purposes of this award may be directed to the chair of the reviewing committee. A supervisor's signature on the cover sheet of the nomination packet will indicate that the supervisor considers the nominees to constitute an eligible academic advising team.
c. Criteria
Eligible nominations will be evaluated on the basis of specific examples of advising excellence provided in the award application statement, in the supporting letters of nomination, and in any other supplemental material that may be provided within the nomination packet. A history of excellence in academic advising is important in individual nominations, but is essential in team nominations. The two required letters of nomination should be dated in the current academic year, but additional materials, if any, such as notes of appreciation from students, may be from past years. See Attachments A and B for the nomination forms and additional instructions.
d. Timetable
Nominations will be due by February 15. The review committee (see below) will make its recommendations to the Provost by March 15. The Provost will announce the award winners, if any, in April.
[In 2006 only, an expedited timetable will be in effect: nominations will be due by March 31, and the committee will make its recommendations to the Provost by April 14.]
2. Administration of Program
This award program will be administered through the Office of the Provost. Applications will be evaluated by the Rump Group of the Associate Deans Council or, if the Rump Group so prefers in a vote conducted each year, by a subset of at least five faculty and staff members of the Rump Group. The review committee must be comprised of both faculty and staff and must have at least five reviewers. The Senior Academic Advisor will direct and chair the evaluation process and may count as one of the five reviewers. Any member of the review committee who has been nominated for the award should recuse himself or herself from the evaluation process; if the recusal would cause the number of reviewers to be fewer than five or would remove the committee chair from his or her duties, a substitute will be recruited from the Rump Group. The review committee's evaluations will constitute a recommendation to the Provost, who will choose the award winners, if any.
3. Nomination Process
Nomination packets for advising awards should be assembled and submitted in a manner similar to the way in which nomination packets for other campus awards are assembled and submitted. In some units, the nominee is typically responsible for his or her own materials, while, in other units, the chairperson, an awards committee, or some other individual or group takes responsibility for putting together a packet and submitting it for the nominee.
Anyone may initiate a nomination for the President's Excellence in Academic Advising Award simply by writing a letter of nomination. For example, a student might write a letter of nomination and give that letter to the advisor or to the advisor's supervisor (usually a department chair or dean). Likewise, a faculty or staff member might provide a letter of nomination to the advisor, to the advisor's supervisor, or to the unit's awards committee. The administrative supervisor might write a letter of nomination. An advisor might approach a supervisor or colleague and ask if that person would consider nominating him or her. A departmental awards committee might agree to put together a nomination and solicit letters of nomination. Other variations are possible.
The preferred addressee on the nominating letters will be the Advising Award Review Committee (Office of the Provost, Mail Stop 2019), but the letters should be actually be given to the advisor or to the advisor's supervisor.
The required components of a nomination packet for the President's Excellence in Academic Advising Award include the designated cover (which includes a statement by the nominee and the signatures of the nominee and the nominee's supervisor) and two letters of nomination. The letters of nomination may be from students, parents, alumni, faculty, staff, or administrative supervisors. Additional materials may be included in a nomination packet, such as, for example, advising brochures developed by the advisor; statistics about numbers of students advised; information about GOT successes; evaluative comments compiled by the advisor or by the academic unit; or notes of appreciation from students. The packet may not exceed 20 pages in length.
Completed nomination packets should be submitted to the Office of the Provost. The packet can be submitted by the nominee, the nominee's designee, a supervisor, or a supervisor's designee.
4. Award Descriptions
Two levels of awards may be presented each year.
- a. A maximum of two individual awards will be presented each year. Individual awards will include the following:
- A cash award of $1000 (cash awards are processed through Payroll with appropriate deductions taken); and
- An award plaque.
- A maximum of one team award will be presented each year. Team awards will include the following:
- A cash award of $5000 to be divided equally among the individuals named in the nomination (cash awards are processed through Payroll with appropriate deductions taken);
- An award plaque for the team; and
- An award certificate or letter for each individual named in the nomination.
5. Future Changes
After the first review cycle in 2006, the guidelines in this proposal will be reviewed by the President and the Provost who will take into consideration any recommendation for change made by the 2006 evaluation committee. This document will then be amended as appropriate and submitted for inclusion in the university OP manual. Any changes thereafter can be made as needed through the OP review process.
Documentation
| Download Full Document (including Nomination Forms) | MS Word | |
| Download Individual Nomination Form | MS Word | |
| Download Team Nomination Form | MS Word |