Annual Awards

The Allen W. Edson award is presented annually in recognition of a student's total contribution to campus life. The award was established in 1960 from funds donated in memory of Allen W. Edson, superintendent of the West Central School of Agriculture from 1948 until his death in 1958, for whom Edson Auditorium is named.

The award recognizes outstanding achievement, scholarship, leadership, and character. The participation of the student in campus activities, along with his/her executive service and nature of offices held, are two of the suggested indications of a student's potential to receive a nomination.

Nomination

To nominate someone for this award, please fill out the online form.

During each academic year, University of Minnesota Morris students, faculty, and staff may be selected to receive the Bill and Ida Stewart Award for Racial Justice. Bill Stewart touched the lives of thousands of Morris students and championed the concerns, needs, and accomplishments of students of color. Under his leadership, the Minority (now Multi-Ethnic) Student Program provided academic assistance, financial aid, and student support services to improve minority student opportunities on campus. Bill’s wife, Ida Stewart, served the campus as a faculty member, education coordinator, and academic advisor. She is known for establishing World Touch Cultural Heritage Week and the Women of Color Association as well as connecting the campus to broader communities.

This award recognizes faculty, staff, and students who have displayed exemplary service on our campus in support of promoting racial justice, a supportive climate for all people, and positive, lasting change. The recipients’ names will appear on a plaque to be located in the TMC. More than one recipient in the same university affiliation may earn the award.

Eligibility

All current students, faculty and staff, no matter their length of employment or study, are eligible for nomination of this award. Tenured and tenure-track (regular) faculty, term (non-regular) faculty, P & A, Civil Service, AFSCME Clerical, AFSCME Technical, Teamster, Law Enforcement (LELS), and temporary and casual staff may be nominated for the Bill and Ida Stewart Award for Racial Justice. Students, faculty, and staff may also nominate themselves. Previous nominees who did not receive the award may be re-nominated. Previous winners of this award may not be re-nominated.

Criteria

Nominees will be evaluated on the basis of documentation of outstanding contributions to the support and enhancement of racial justice at UMN Morris. The documentation should provide specific evidence of outstanding performance in one or more – not necessarily all – of the criteria listed below, but the list should not be considered exhaustive or restrictive. The selection committee will consider any and all kinds of outstanding contributions to UMN Morris's diverse community so identified and demonstrated by the materials provided. The magnitude of an outstanding contribution in one area may compensate for little or no contribution in other areas. The Award will be based on sustained efforts over the course of the nominee’s Morris time, rather than a single accomplishment, in areas such as:

• promotion of racial justice at UMN Morris
• involvement in intercultural activities
• activism in promoting diversity
• engaging peers/colleagues in diversity activities
• achievement in the area of recruitment and retention of underrepresented students, faculty and staff for the Morris campus

Additionally, the dossier will be evaluated with respect to effectiveness, impact, sustainability and initiative. In all cases, it is not the activity in itself, but the energy, the creativity, and the effectiveness of the activity that constitute outstanding contributions to diversity at UMN Morris.

Dossier Guidelines and Selection Process

Any faculty, student, and staff can nominate themselves or any other faculty, student, or staff. Awards need not be made each year if no candidate is deemed worthy. The award recipients will be announced at the Awards program in April. They will further be recognized at the appropriate spring honors events. The dossier must contain the following items. At the minimum, a total of TWO letters (each 1-2 pages with a 12-point font type) is required.

Nomination Letter

A statement letter making a convincing and detailed case for the nomination based on the nominee’s outstanding contributions to enhancement of diversity over the course of his/her time at UMN Morris. It should describe the nominee’s qualifications with specific reference to the criteria above (or others being used) and their relevant activities and accomplishments. Examples should be provided that relate clearly to the above stated criteria.

Supporting Letter

At least one supporting letter citing specific examples in support of the case. At least one of the letters must be from a UMN-Morris student, faculty, or administrator. Additional letters may also be from either UM-Morris community members or outside of the UMN-Morris campus community

Nominations

Nominate someone for the Bill & Ida Stewart for Racial Justice Advocacy Award

Curtis Larson was UMN Morris's first class speaker in 1964. He entered the Peace Corps after graduation and died in an automobile accident in Ecuador. Candidates for this award should be actively involved in the campus community, have the ability to represent the views of the graduating class and of UMM as a whole, and be a capable speaker. Nominations are sought electronically each spring, after which a ballot is prepared and distributed to faculty and graduating seniors.

Upon receipt of the e-nominations, an e-ballot will be distributed to you and all graduating seniors. The senior who receives the most votes is the recipient of the Curtis H. Larson Award and is thereby named the student speaker at commencement.

Nomination

To nominate someone for this award, please fill out the online form.

Established by the family, students and friends of Edith Rodgers Farrell, late professor of French and advocate of undergraduate student research, this award is granted annually to a graduating senior whose research is judged by a jury of faculty to be excellent. The Edith Rodgers Farrell Memorial Award for Undergraduate Research will include a certificate and $500.

Criteria for the Award

1. The research project must be student-initiated

2. The results of the research project are to have been presented in a public forum such as:

• • the publication of one's scholarly or original work or a performance/exhibit of one's interpretive/creative work in a recognized public forum beyond campus;
• • a presentation at a local, regional, national, or international conference devoted to undergraduate student research;
• • a presentation on campus open to the public of the results of one's scholarship or of original or interpretive work in the creative and performing arts

3. The recipient must be a graduating senior with a GPA of at least 3.0

4. Preference will be given to students who aspire to graduate or professional school

5. The award is independent of financial need

Nomination Procedure

1. UMN-Morris faculty members are invited to nominate one or more students who fulfill the expectations of the award
2. A brief statement describing each nominee's qualifications and providing a basis for their selection shall be submitted through the designated online form.

Selection Process

The award will be determined by a faculty jury appointed by the Staff of the Academic Center for Enrichment. The award will be given as part of the Student Honors Ceremony.

Nomination

To nominate someone for this award, please fill out the online form.

This award serves as a continuing tribute to those pe rsonal qualities and many and varied contributions made by Mary Martelle, a senior secretary in the Office of Student Activities from 1965 until her death in 1976.

Eligibility

Only full-time students are eligible for the student award. Students are NOT eligible to receive the Mary Martelle Award more than once. (The student will receive a certificate and a check for $300.) All United Staff Association (civil service and bargaining unit) personnel are eligible for the staff award. USA staff are eligible to receive the award more than once, but preference will be given to someone who has not received it previously. A list of previous recipients is available on the USA website. The staff recipient will receive a certificate and $500 via payroll.

Students, faculty, bargaining units, non-bargaining units, and organizations may make nominations to the Functions and Awards Committee. To be considered, nominations must include written substantiation.

Criteria for the Student Honoree

The award is presented in recognition of a student's extracurricular activities through which they found a way to enrich the campus community. Qualities to consider are initiative, creativity, responsibility, cooperation, leadership and concern for others. The nominee should be sensitive and knowledgeable about campus needs and should add freshness and a new dimension to either their organization(s) or to the people with whom the nominee has been involved.

Criteria for the Staff Honoree

Nominees for this award should be members of the United Staff Association (USA) who have found a way to reach beyond their particular duties and responsibilities to make contributions to the campus community as a whole. While it is important that they exemplify in their daily work a commitment to the University, the primary purpose of the Mary Martelle Award is to recognize contributions above and beyond assigned job duties. Examples of this include, but are not limited to, University (UMN-Morris and all-University) and USA committee work; supporting students and student organizations; actively pursuing personal growth and knowledge (via classes, workshops, lectures, etc.); or any other fo rm of contribution that demonstrates a nominee's willingness to 'go the extra mile.'

Nomination

To nominate someone for this award, please fill out the online form.

Purpose

The purpose of this award is to honor individual University of Minnesota Morris faculty members for their outstanding contributions to undergraduate education. By calling attention to their education philosophies, objectives, and methods, the University of Minnesota Morris Alumni Association hopes to encourage and enhance teaching effectiveness of other faculty members.

Process

Nominations will be taken until the nomination deadline. Faculty nominated for this award will then be notified and have the option of putting together the required dossier (described below) if they wish to be considered for the award.

Eligibility

Tenured and tenure-track (regular) faculty, term (non-regular) faculty, and professional and administrative instructional staff salaried through the University and holding a 66 2/3% time or greater appointment, who have been at the University of Minnesota Morris for at least three years, including the current year, may be nominated for the UMM Alumni Association Teaching Award. Previous nominees who did not receive the award may be re-nominated. Previous winners of this award may not be re-nominated. Previous winners of the all-university Horace T. Morse Minnesota Alumni Teaching Award may not be nominated for the University of Minnesota Morris Alumni Association Teaching Award for at leas t four years after receiving the all-University Horace T. Morse Minnesota Alumni Association Award.

Awards

During each academic year one University of Minnesota Morris faculty member may be selected to receive the UMM Alumni Association Teaching Award, with the announcement of the award recipient to be made by the first of April. Recipients will receive $1,000. In addition, the recipient’s discipline will be given $500 to be used by the recipient.

Criteria

Nominees will be evaluated on the basis of documentation of outstanding contributions to undergraduate education. The documentation should provide specific evidence of outstanding performance in one or more – not necessarily all – of the five categories listed below, but the list should not be considered exhaustive or restrictive. The selection committee will consider any and all kinds of outstanding contributions to undergraduate education so identified and demonstrated by the materials provided. The magnitude of an outstanding contribution in one area may compensate for little or no contribution in other areas.

Categories

1. Teaching: direct contact with students in undergraduate courses and programs and in co-curricular activities. Teaching activities include instructing groups of students in classes, seminars, and l aboratories; and mentoring or supervising individual activities, such as practicums, internships, field learning experiences, tutorials, and independent study, including MAP supervision of UROP projects. The activities listed are representative, not exhaustive.
2. Research and Artistic Activities: such activities should be documented and discussed in terms of relationships between these activities and the nominee’s contributions to undergraduate educa tion, which may itself include students’ research or artistic activities of kinds appropriate to the discipline.
3. Advising: for example, activities that aid individual students with course and major selection, career plans, and personal development, especially in ways that go beyond formal curricular advising and instill values of the liberal arts and lifelong learning; and those that provide guidance to student organizations or groups. Documentation should include information about accessibility to students, which ordinarily includes but is not limited to office availability.
4. Academic Program Development: such activities as contribute to the planning, design, or development of curricular or co-curricular improvements in undergraduate education. Contributions in these a reas include, for example, new courses or a cluster of courses, general education options in the undergraduate curriculum, and valuable programmatic innovations of any kind.
5. Educational Leadership: extra-programmatic activities of any kind and at any level that constitute leadership and contribute substantially to undergraduate education; for example, presenting paper s, holding a position such as national or regional officer or program chair in a professional association – activities where students are actively involved.

In all cases, it is not the activity in itself, but the energy, the creativity, and the effectiveness of the activity that constitute outstanding contributions to undergraduate education.

Selection of Nominees

Nominations are to be initiated by a student or faculty member by forming a nominating committee made up of at least one student and one faculty member. In years when there are none or only one nomination received by the deadline date, nominations will be re-opened for a period of no longer than two weeks.

Organization and Presentation of Dossiers

1. A statement of no more than three pages, presenting the case for the nomination. This statement forms the basis of the recommendation and is extremely important for the review process. It should describe the nominee’s qualifications with specific reference to the criteria listed (or others being used) whenever appropriate. This statement needs to set out convincingly and in detail the case for the nominee’s outstanding contributions to undergraduate education.
2. Personal statement by the candidate of no more than two pages, describing teaching style, methods and objectives, and, as appropriate, examples of the integration of teaching with research, schola rship, or artistic creativity.
3. The candidate’s curriculum vitae.
4. No more than five supporting letters from students, faculty, administrators, and non-University references, citing specific examples in support of the case. In most cases, at least two lette rs from individual undergraduate students, past or present, will be expected to be included among the five, along with at lease one from a faculty colleague.
5. A list of courses taught at the University of Minnesota, Morris, during the past three years, including semester and approximate enrollment.
6. The numeric summary of the student evaluations of the candidate’s teaching during the past three years, along with no more than two pages of student comments.
7. Supporting documentation of no more than five pages, such as the nominee’s course syllabi and examinations.

Nomination

To nominate someone for this award, please fill out the online form.

The Scholar of the College awards are selective and are presented annually to students who have demonstrated distinguished contributions to scholarship (e.g. research, artistic endeavor, performance) in one or more of the academic disciplines. Students are nominated by faculty. The Division Chairs will review nominees and put together a slate of potential recipients and forward it to the Steering Committee for approval, which will then make it an action item on the agenda of the March 30th meeting of the Campus Assembly.

Nomination

To nominate someone for this award, please fill out the online form.

These awards recognize graduating seniors that have displayed exemplary service on our campus to advance our sustainability initiatives and campus sustainability conversation. The efforts of these students have been sustained over the course of their tenure at Morris and have helped to create positive change with leadership that has been a model to others. Sustainability is a big idea that connects with our liberal arts leadership. These students have asked “big questions” and have worked to find solutions.

Award process: eligible students may submit a dossier for the Morris Sustainability Champion Award. Multiple students are eligible to earn recognition as a Morris Sustainability Champion. From the eligible pool of Champions, up to two Morris Sustainability Leaders will be chosen based on the exceptionality of their accomplishments and contributions.

Dossiers for this award should be prepared in collaboration between the student and a faculty or staff person. Students who wish to be considered should identify a staff or faculty person to write a brief statement on their behalf. OR: Faculty or staff can identify a student candidate/s that they believe should apply for the award, and then the faculty/staff member would work with the student on the dossier. Dossiers should be submitted electronically.

General Criteria

1. Any Morris student who is a graduating senior.
2. The award will be based on sustained efforts over the course of their Morris tenure, rather than a single accomplishment.
3. A wide variety of sustainability initiatives and efforts should be considered. While there is no single definition of sustainability, it is useful to think of sustainability as a way of systems-th inking, which engages a multidisciplinary education in social, environmental, and economic decision making.

Some examples may include:

• -Efforts to improve the social and environmental impacts of the University of Minnesota and surrounding communities
• -Efforts to improve food/water systems that improve human health and ecosystems health
• -Efforts to conserve resources that improve our financial performance, benefit the environment and build social capital

Dossier Guidelines and Selection Process

A dossier for the award should be completed, in partnership, between the candidate and a faculty or staff member. The dossier for the award must be sent to the Office of Student Activities, Conferences and Events. The Morris campus Green Team will review the dossier materials and select the award recipients.

The Dossier

The candidate's application should contain two items:

1. A statement of no more than one page by a faculty or staff person (using a 12-point font type), explaining the case for the nomination. The statement should briefly describe the nominee’s co ntributions to advancing sustainability on campus over the course of their tenure at Morris.
2. A personal statement by the candidate of no more than three pages (using a 12-point font type) describing the contribution of the candidate as a champion of sustainability during their tenure at M orris. The statement should also include a description of what “sustainability” means from her perspective, and also what, “A renewable, sustainable education” means from her perspective.

The Award

The Morris Student Sustainability Champion/s and Leader/s Awardees will have the option of wearing special cords at graduation, if they so choose. The Awardees will also be given a certificate identifying them as a Sustainability Champion/Leader, respectively, signed by the Chancellor. Champions will be recognized at the Student Leader Award Celebration. Leaders will be recognized at the Honors and Awards Ceremony and will be invited to cross the stage. Both Champions and Leaders will be listed in the Honors and Awards Ceremony written program.

Nominations

Nominees should create a dossier as described above and submit it in electronic copy to Troy Goodnough.