Advising Award Guidelines

THE COLLEGE OF NATURAL SCIENCES OUTSTANDING ADVISING AWARDS 
Application Criteria and Guidelines

Deadline: February 9, 2024

The CNS Outstanding Academic Advisor Award recognizes the important role played by advisors in promoting and ensuring student success.

Eligibility

  • Faculty or professional staff advisors, whose primary duties are advising,and have been an employee of UMass Amherst for a minimum of three years are eligible.
  • Advisors can be nominated by faculty, staff, or students.dents.
  • A nominee who has received, or is scheduled to receive, a cash award from any similar department, college, or university employee recognition program within the past three years is not eligible.

Award Criteria

Successful nominees will have demonstrated outstanding advising to CNS undergraduates through the following:

  • mastery of the advising process and knowledge of best professional practices,
  • dedicated use of Navigate tools to improve student success,
  • availability to students,
  • effectiveness and creativity,
  • positive impact on students,
  • appropriate referral activity,
  • advising with integrity and dedication,
  • integration of diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice practices and strategies to address disparities in student success metrics and/or experience, and
  • mastery of institutional regulations, policies and procedures.

AND at least one of the following:

  • commitment to student success through tracking of student success metrics,
  • development of strategies or approaches to address shortcomings in student success,
  • growth in advising responsibility,
  • contributions toward improving the advising skills of colleagues and CNS, or
  • participation in professional development opportunities on campus, or at the regional/national level.

The Nomination Process

The following documentation should be assembled into one pdf document (12-point font, single-spaced, one-inch margins).

  1. A nomination letter advocating and outlining the case for how the nominee has engaged in the activities described above and made significant contributions to the success of CNS undergraduates. (Maximum three pages.)
  2. Up to three letters of support from colleagues or students that demonstrate how the nominee meets the criteria for the award (maximum of two pages each). The letters should:
    • Provide specific examples of the contributions of the nominee with regard to the criteria outlined above.
    • Describe the relationship between the letter writer and the nominee.
  3. A statement of advising including both the nominee’s advising philosophy and their advising contributions at UMass.

Deadline

Nominating materials for the CNS Outstanding Advising Award are due to CNS no later than 5:00 p.m. on Friday, February 9, 2024.

Submission

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