University of Wisconsin–Madison

Academic Staff Excellence Awards Nominating Procedures

For the 2025-2026 academic year

The Professional Development and Recognition Committee (PDRC) of the Academic Staff Assembly invites the nomination of eligible academic staff for the 2025-2026 UW-Madison Academic Staff Excellence Awards.

These guidelines pertain only to the UW-Madison Academic Staff Excellence Awards.

Eligibility

Nominees must meet the following eligibility requirements:

  • Employed 50% time or greater during the academic year in which they are nominated.
  • Have at least five years of service (as defined in ASPP 1.03, Years of Academic Staff Service) as an academic staff member, limited appointee with an academic staff backup appointment, limited appointee with no backup appointment, or a limited appointee with a university staff backup appointment.

Except for the teaching awards, individuals may be nominated for only one of the UW-Madison Academic Staff Excellence Awards. Individuals may be nominated for both teaching awards (The Chancellor’s Hilldale Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Mary Lucy Clark Distinguished Teaching Award), though nomination materials must be tailored to each award.

Resubmissions are accepted and encouraged to include updated materials.

General Award Criteria

The following criteria, in addition to the specific criteria listed with each award, will be considered in the review of nominations:

  • Outstanding Achievement and Performance: consistently and substantially exceeds the expectations of the position; has made important and significant contributions to the departmental unit; has furthered the mission of the university; has become a distinguished member of their profession campus-wide, system wide, nationally, or internationally.
  • Personal Interaction: consistently and substantially demonstrates ability and willingness to work positively and effectively with others; demonstrates ability and willingness to manage changes in work priorities, procedures, and organization.
  • Initiative and Creativity: consistently and substantially demonstrates an innovative approach to the job, thereby improving productivity and the quality of the work assigned; demonstrates efforts to expand work responsibilities.

Nomination Materials

The nomination materials shall contain supporting documents in the following order (please note a cover page is no longer necessary):

  1. Letter of nomination. Any staff member, faculty member, student, or member of the community may initiate the letter. To give the candidate the most favorable consideration, the letter of nomination should: a) describe how the nominee demonstrates excellence in the specific award category, and b) address the general award criteria.
  2. Supporting letters. These letters of support (no more than four) shall come from people such as other staff members, faculty members, students, and members of the community and shall address the candidate’s qualifications for the specific award, not simply excellence of performance. Letters demonstrating a broad spectrum of support are often most effective.
  3. A résumé or curriculum vita of applicable professional experiences and accomplishments.
  4. Additional supporting material (not additional letters of support), provided at the discretion of the nominator.

For teaching awards:

  1. A succinct summary of teaching or course evaluations (rather than a collection of actual evaluations).
  2. A one or two-page reflective statement by the nominee on their teaching and learning philosophy, practices, and objectives and how these have evolved over time.

Review Process

Nomination materials are reviewed by a committee including previous Academic Staff Excellence Award winners and members of the PDRC. All nomination materials are confidential.

Awards

Award recipients will receive a plaque and monetary award. They will also be honored at an awards ceremony in April, as well as at the May Academic Staff Assembly meeting.