By Bendik Sorensen
Staff Writer
At the end of the month, the second round of Campus Life’s revamped student and club awards are selected; the nominations are due the last week of each month. Campus Life started rolling out a revised version of the “Student Leader of the Month” award, as well as the new “Student Organization of the Month” award. The awards are meant to shed light on student leaders and student organizations that have done something special either on or off campus.
Director of Campus Life Michael Berthel says they want to emphasize students and organizations that have not necessarily gotten any feedback. “It could be a leader of a club, an RA, an athlete, or any student who has made a significant contribution to the community,” he said. “We want the submissions to come from faculty, staff, and students. Our goal is to highlight student efforts [that] might normally be under-recognized. The established process allows all students the opportunity to be nominated.”
The awards procedure, Berthel said, is now completely digital. “The new process is built around getting the word out to all of campus for nominations. In addition, the former process was built around student organizations, whereas the new awards are hoping to catch a wider range of students. Also, the entire process is online now via electronic submissions. We hope that this will also increase the amount of received nominations.”
The submissions are due the last week of every month. The first nominations were due on Nov. 7. Winners will be announced the week after nominations are submitted. “The winner will be chosen by a committee primarily from Campus Life, including Campus Life Coordinators, but it will also include people from LIU Promise, and maybe faculty from different departments,” Berthel said.
Campus Life received nine nominations for the first of the monthly awards: seven for students, and two for campus organizations. “That’s about what we hoped to get this first time,” Berthel said. In the future, Campus Life is aiming for more nominations, but Berthel viewed the number of November nominations as a success.
Campus Life hopes to add more than just the two awards for “Student Leader” and “Student Organization.” “Event of the Month” is one possibility, according to Berthel. After the winners have been chosen, Campus Life will showcase the winners online, both on Post’s homepage as well as on social media on both Post’s and Campus Life’s Facebook and Instagram pages. The winners will also be honored at the Student Leadership Reception held every December.
“I think it’s good that they get [these] out. I’ve never heard of it before, so it’s good that they try to get it more out,” said Kamilla Martinsen, a senior Broadcasting major. “Students and organizations will be encouraged by it. It’s good that they’ll be recognized for their hard work and get something back for it, and [the fact] that students [can] submit is good, so [they] will feel like their voice counts.”
Next semester, the awards will be given in February, March, and April. Berthel is hoping to give three monthly awards next fall, during September, October, and November. The prizes, Berthel said, will vary between gift bags and gift certificates. Winners will also receive a custom certificates to validate their respective award.
More information about the awards will be distributed to students through campus wide emails in addition to Post’s social media accounts, which can be found at facebook.com/LIUPost and instagram. com/LIUPost.
The Campus Life award winners were announced on Nov. 18; Student Leader of the Month went to Tia-Moná Greene, and Organization of the Month went to the Commuter Student Association.
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