PULLMAN, Wash. — Washington State University has created a new award to formally recognize faculty members who advance diversity through their teaching, research and community service.
While WSU faculty members have traditionally been recognized along with students, faculty and staff as part of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Distinguished Service Awards program, university officials want to elevate the stature of the faculty award to better reflect the importance of their contributions to the institution and community.
The university is also accepting nominations for its annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Distinguished Service Awards presented to a WSU staff member, student, community member or community organization.
The idea for the Diversity Faculty Award stems from the work of a university working group that is devising strategies to help WSU succeed in recruiting more faculty of color. The group’s chair Alex S. Tan was hired this past summer as the university’s first Diversity Faculty Fellow.
Tan said most major universities and colleges have similar awards to recognize faculty for this important work.
“We have many faculty members at WSU that are doing outstanding things in their classrooms, in their research and in our community to advanced the understanding of diversity,” he said. “It is important for them to know their efforts are recognized and appreciated by the highest level of the university.”
Nominations and applications for the Inaugural Faculty Diversity Award can be submitted online by visiting www.thedivision.wsu.edu. Similarly, nominations for the WSU Martin Luther King, Jr. Distinguished Services Awards can be submitted online at https://mlk.wsu.edu.
“We have made the nomination process really easy this year and we expect this will result in many more people in the pool for consideration for these prestigious awards,” said Gail Stearns, who is leading the selection process. “We know there are many deserving people out there for these awards, but we need help identifying who they are.”
Both Web sites outline the award criteria. The deadline to submit for the Faculty Diversity Award is Dec. 14 while people have until Jan. 7, 2008 to submit nominations for the Distinguished Service Awards.
The recipients for both awards will be recognized during the university’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Convocation on Jan. 19.
