Call for nominations: honorary degrees, medals, distinguished service awards

The CU Board of Regents is calling for nominations for 2014 Honorary Degrees, University Medals and Distinguished Service Awards. Deadline is Nov. 15.

An Honorary Degree (Doctor of Humane Letters or Doctor of Science) is the highest award the University of Colorado can bestow. It is the policy of the Board of Regents to award Honorary Degrees in recognition of outstanding intellectual achievement in one or more of the following areas: intellectual contributions, university service, and/or public service.

University Medals are awarded in recognition of those persons whose achievements and contributions are particularly associated with the university, while Distinguished Service Awards are awarded in recognition of achievements and contributions particularly associated with the state and/or nation.

Nominations must meet the following criteria (Laws of the Regents, Article 9, and Regent Policy 9-A):

Nomination Process:

(a)  Each year the vice president, university counsel and secretary of the board will solicit names of nominees for these awards. Nomination deadline is Nov. 15, 2013.  Late or incomplete nomination packages will not be considered.

(b)  Honorary Degree, University Medal, and Distinguished Service Award nominations must be submitted on the award nomination form and supported by three and not more than five letters of recommendation. The nominator will provide the recommendation letters and the nominee's current vitae/resume, address, and telephone number. The complete nomination package must be submitted to the Office of the Vice President, University Counsel and Secretary of the Board of Regents by the deadline date.

(c)  Nomination Guidelines

• No person may nominate him/herself, nor may current university employees be nominated.
• Current public officials may not be nominated. Public officials are elected or appointed officials in policy making positions with the ability to directly affect the university through an official act.
• Public officials may be nominated two years after completion of their terms of office.

View the complete policy at https://www.cu.edu/regents/Policies/Policy9.htm

Nomination is no guarantee of an award.  All nominations will be considered confidential.  The list of approved honorees will be made public at a spring 2014 meeting of the Board of Regents.

Award selectees will be invited to attend commencement of the nominating campus, but can opt to attend any University of Colorado 2014 or 2015 commencement. Some of the expenses for the honoree to attend commencement ceremony activities will be funded by the host campus.

Nominations are due to campus canvassing committees prior to the Nov. 15, 2013 deadline, the date to be determined by the respective canvassing committee.

It will be the responsibility of the nominator to obtain the required letters of support, vitae or resume, and nominee data. Nominations received by the campus canvassing committees, and judged to be qualified and complete, will be referred to the 2014 Regents Awards Committee by Nov. 15, 2013.

Please direct questions about the process to the respective campuses canvassing committee:

For more information and to download award nomination forms, please go to:  https://www.cu.edu/regents/Awards/.  If you would like hard copies of the forms sent to you, please call the Board of Regents office at 303-860-5743.