The Dean’s Awards in Excellence Program stands as a prestigious acknowledgement of exemplary accomplishments within the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources (CAFNR), comprised of the tripartite mission, Agriculture, Nutrition and Human Ecology (academics), Cooperative Agricultural Research Center (research), and the Cooperative Extension Program (extension). The College also consists of areas that provide administrative support and service to the overall mission. This awards program signifies the pinnacle achievements of our faculty, staff, students and our partners within the CAFNR community and beyond.

Eligibility and Nominations

Faculty/Staff Awards: Any employee within the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources at Prairie View A&M University is eligible for nomination provided that he/she has been employed with CAFNR for at least one (1) year before the date of nomination. Team members with less than one year of service are eligible to participate in a team award. However, one-half or more of the team members must have at least one year of service as specified. It is strongly encouraged that team nominations do not exceed five members. The Dean’s Awards in Excellence are intended to recognize individuals for current and sustained productivity over time and, therefore, are not intended to serve as a lifetime service award. An individual is eligible to win a category once every three [3] years (for example, if an individual receives an award in 2022, they are not eligible again until 2026), but may be considered for team awards at any time. Previous awards winners can be viewed here. if you are unsure of the eligibility. Nominations for each award must be made on the appropriate nomination forms, submitted electronically and must be completed in its entirety. Only one nomination per award category may be forwarded from the nominator for consideration. The nominee must be considered in good standing at the time of nomination. Good standing includes: mandated trainings must current, had a meets expectation (3), above expectations (4), or significantly exceeds expectations (5) on the most recent performance evaluation, must not be on a performance improvement plan or has had one in the last year before the date of nomination and/or received a written reprimand in the last year before the date of nomination.

Award Process and Selection Advisory Committee

The CAFNR Training and Development team is responsible for administering the awards program to include the distribution, publication and receipt of nomination information, guidelines, and forms. An anonymous selection advisory committee of CAFNR employees and/or stakeholders will be appointed by the CAFNR Training and Development Team, with approval from the Dean. Each member will serve for one (1) year and can serve up to three (3) years; new members will be appointed each year at the discretion of the Training and Development team and the Office of the Dean. The selection advisory committee will serve to guide the selection process and make recommendations, as appropriate, regarding policy and procedures for the nomination/evaluation process. The selection advisory committee will review nominations to the awards program, determine appropriate procedures for evaluation and make recommendations on winners to the Dean. The Dean has the discretion to veto any applications for any reason. Members of the committee are traditionally ineligible for nomination in any award category during their term of service. Committee members are discouraged from submitting nominations or providing letters of support for nominations while serving on the selection advisory committee.

Nomination and Requirements

A COMPLETE NOMINATION includes the following:

1. Nomination Form (submitted on the provided form)

2. Letter of nomination (limited to 2 pages; self-nominations are acceptable)

3. Abbreviated Vita and/or Resume (limited to 2 pages for individual nominations; limited to 4 pages for team nominations)

4. Publications List (required for research nominations; optional for all other awards)

5. Letters of support/recommendation (no more than three; two-page maximum each)

1. NOMINATION FORM: Utilize appropriate form as provided. The nomination form is available in fillable PDF format below. There are three different forms:

1). Individual Award Form

2). Team Award Form

3). Partnership Award Form

2. LETTER OF NOMINATION: A letter of nomination must be submitted summarizing the contributions of the nominee and impact of the nominee’s contribution(s) as it relates to the criteria for the specific award. This letter should not exceed two (2) pages (12-point font).

3. ABBREVIATED VITA AND/OR RESUME: An abbreviated vita and/or resume must be submitted. Information should be submitted in 12-point font and limited to two (2) pages for individual award nominations and four (4) pages for team nominations. For individual awards, include education, employment/experience, awards, honors, professional memberships, committee/teaching assignments if applicable, and other related information as appropriate. For team awards, include a brief summary of the team’s activities, accomplishments, and the impact of the team’s contributions along with a listing of any type of recognition, awards or honors the team may have received (do not include individual vitas on team members). For partnership awards, include a brief summary of the partner’s activities, accomplishments, and the impact of the partner’s contributions.

4. PUBLICATIONS LIST: A list of publications and/or supporting evidence of the publications should be included for all nominations in the research categories. Publications list is limited to one (1) page, 12-point font. List in chronological date order and bold the author/nominee’s name. This is required for research categories only, however, is in encouraged in other applicable categories.

5. LETTERS OF SUPPORT/RECOMMENDATION: No more than three (3) letters of support/recommendation (limited to two pages maximum) may accompany the nomination.

Submission Requirements

Please submit nomination packets to cafnr-td@pvamu.edu. All information should be presented in no smaller than 12-point font size. Nomination must be compiled in order as outlined above and saved in a PDF format. Name each nomination file as follows: Award category – first and last name of nominee.pdf (Example: Administration – Jane Doe.pdf)

Nomination Deadline

Each nomination should be submitted in one (1) PDF file by 5:00 PM on Friday, May 31, 2024 to be considered. A complete application should be submitted in order to be considered. No late applications will be accepted.

Judging Criteria

Employees that do not meet eligibility and/or incomplete and late applications will be immediately vetted from consideration.

The scale of 0-5 will be used for each category outlined in the awards. 0 – no evidence displayed; 1 – unsatisfactory, performance consistently falls below expectations, requiring immediate attention and improvement; 2 –Needs improvement, demonstrates areas requiring development or improvement; 3 – Meets expectations, performs satisfactorily in most areas with occasional areas of improvement. 4 – Frequently exceeds expectations, consistently performs at a high level. 5 – Consistently exceeds expectations, demonstrates exceptional performance and impact. Scores of each award committee member will be totaled to an overall score. Nominees with the highest overall score will be selected as the finalist for that category.

Tiebreaker criteria: Additional feedback will be sent to the employee’s supervisor regarding overall performance. This information will be used to rescale the scores to conduct recalculation on the overall score.

Finalists are to be sent to Dean for review. The Dean reserves the right to veto any application for any reason at any time.

Presentation of Awards

Individual recipients of a Dean’s Award in Excellence shall receive a monetary award and a physical award. Members of a team that are recipients of the Dean’s Award in Excellence shall share in equal distribution of a monetary team award; each team member shall also receive a physical award. Due to distribution restrictions, the Excellence in Partnership recipient will only receive a physical award.

All monetary awards are contingent on the availability of funding and at the discretion of the Dean.