Honors Day racks in the awards

     The 56th annual Honors Day Awards were held in Russell Auditorium on April 20, 2007. The tradition recognized prestigious GCSU faculty members who had displayed excellence in their academic field throughout the previous year.
     Faculty are nominated by other faculty members, students or supervisors based on the criteria outlined on each award application. Each award has its own committee, which are composed of faculty representatives from each academic school as well as a representative from the library.
     “The committee is the one who’s reviewed all the materials, compared, and narrowed them down to the top two. They do all the discussion, but the actual voting is secret. Then the recommendation, from the committee, goes forward to Dr. Gormly,” Donna Douglas, grants coordinator for Grants and Sponsored Projects, said.
     Douglas currently organizes the committee for the Excellence in Research/Publication Award, as well as the Artistic Endeavor Award.
     “There are three recipients of the Research/Publication [Award] and one of the Artistic Endeavor. [All awards are granted] for the previous calendar year, and are selected in February. The committee takes it very seriously. They’re pretty competitive,” Douglas said.
     After approval for award has been granted, Academic Affairs notifies the GCSU Foundation.
     “The money supporting the award comes from the Foundation,” Douglas said.
     The GCSU Foundation works closely with Academic Affairs in planning Honors Day.
    “The Foundation is the primary fundraising arm of the institution. We support the faculty awards with monetary gifts and other tokens when they’re selected,” Amy Nitsche, vice president for External Relations and University Advancement, said.
     Money is raised through fundraisers such as the Phonathon which is currently going on now through November. The Phonathon is run by students who call alumni asking for their support.
     “We do traditional fundraising [by] asking for support from Foundations and Corporations, and Alumni and Friends to support. Some of that money is used for these awards. These were the awards that the GCSU Foundation supports,” Nitsche said.
     The faculty members are recognized at the annual Honors Day program for their distinguished marks and contributions they have done throughout the previous year. Last April, seven awards were presented to eleven faculty members and one program.
     “It’s things that they do above and beyond their faculty duties,” Douglas said.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 28 2007. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry