Advising Award Guidelines

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

Deadline: February 7, 2025

The CNS Outstanding Academic Advisor Award recognizes the important role played by advisors in promoting and ensuring student success. Recipients receive a $1,000 honorarium.

Eligibility

  • Faculty or professional staff advisors, whose primary duties are advising, who have been employed by UMass Amherst for a minimum of three years are eligible.
  • Advisors can be nominated by faculty, staff, or students.
  • 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

Use this form to submit a nomination (Nomination Form). You will be asked to provide:

  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. Optional letters of support: You may submit one letter of support from a colleague and/or one letter of support from a student (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 (written by the nominee) including both the nominee’s advising philosophy and their advising contributions at UMass.

Deadline

Nominations for the CNS Outstanding Advising Award are due to CNS no later than 5:00 p.m. on Friday, February 7th, 2025.