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The Graduate School at the University of Missouri–Columbia (Mizzou)

2008 Outstanding Departmental Contributions to Graduate Education Award

Deadline for nominations: November 12, 2008

This award serves to recognize both well-established and highly innovative contributions that departments or interdepartmental units make to enhance the quality of MU graduate programs and the careers of their graduate alumni. Made possible through the support of the Office of the Provost, the award provides the winning department with $30,000 ($10,000 a year for three years) to recognize and support efforts to further enhance the quality of graduate education. At the end of the three-year award period, recipients must submit a report to the Offices of the Provost and Dean of the Graduate School describing the impact award funds have had in furthering the quality of both the graduate program and graduate student experience.

Departments that have won this award in the past five years are not eligible for this year's competition.

Nomination packets should include:

  1. A completed nomination form as the cover sheet. If electronic signatures are unavailable, this form should be scanned and submitted as an electronic file or submitted in hard copy to the Graduate School.
  2. A nominating letter that is no longer than 5 typed pages. The letter must address the following:
    • successful graduate research mentoring, as evidenced by a pattern of collaboration and co-authored publications with graduate students
    • special advising or mentoring efforts, including but not limited to assistance with the development of career goals and successful job placements
    • professional development and career-planning programs that prepare graduate students for employment not only in major research universities, but also in community or liberal arts colleges or in non-academic settings; placement patterns over the past 2–5 years
    • innovative pedagogy and/or innovative pedagogical preparation of students
    • retention patterns over the last 2–5 years; innovative retention programs
    • success in the recruitment of students from under-represented groups
    • application and admission patterns over the last 2–5 years that show evidence that the program is nationally competitive
    • quality of graduate faculty
    • evidence of the department’s current or potential national reputation
  3. Minimum of 3/maximum of 6 letters of support written by graduates of the degree program and/or by current graduate students
  4. No more than 3 letters from non-MU graduate faculty colleagues who can speak to the quality of the program and the preparation graduates have received to begin their careers or go on for further study
  5. A letter of endorsement from the college/school dean

The award recipient will be selected by the Graduate Faculty Senate Awards Committee. Nomination packets should be sent either on disk, flash drive, or by e-mail attachment to: