February 1, 2024

Dear UVM community,

I am pleased to announce the call for nominations for the Our Common Ground staff award. The award recognizes staff members who have made extraordinary contributions to our university and who exemplify the values expressed in Our Common Ground. Each recipient receives a $1,000 prize, and the awards are recorded on a permanent plaque in the Waterman Building.

I encourage faculty, staff and students to nominate staff for this important award. This year, in an effort to encourage more nominations, submissions will be collected on a rolling basis between now and June 7. Please visit the award webpage for more information, as the nomination criteria have changed in an attempt to recognize as broad a cohort of nominees as possible.

All nominations should be submitted using the nomination submission form. Questions concerning nominations should be sent to the Human Resources Information Team, at HRInfo@uvm.edu. Recipients will be announced in August and their awards will be celebrated at a breakfast on Thursday, September 19.

Your nominations make these special awards possible. I hope that you will take advantage of this opportunity to recognize a member of our staff for their outstanding service to our university.

Best wishes,

Suresh Garimella
President

Nominees for the President’s Our Common Ground Staff Award are recognized for their sustained and exceptional fulfillment and expression of the values contained in the University of Vermont’s Our Common Ground. It is expected that nominees will excel in many of the values of Our Common Ground and reflect the totality of the values and aspirations expressed in the statement. The award recognizes a commitment to the values of Our Common Ground rather than a specific act or achievement.
 

Nominees for the President’s Our Common Ground Staff Award must be current, regular, on-going staff members (full time, part time, represented or non-represented) in good standing, who have worked at the University of Vermont for more than three years. Temporary employees, student employees, post doctoral fellows and associates, faculty members, and previous recipients within the last five years are not eligible for consideration.

The Awards Committee will be made up of one staff member from each college and school nominated by the Dean (College of Arts and Sciences, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, College of Education and Social Services, Larner College of Medicine, College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Grossman School of Business, Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, Libraries, Honors College, Graduate College, and Continuing and Distance Education) and one staff member from each administrative unit appointed by the senior officer for the unit (University Communications, Finance and Administration, Enterprise Technology Services, Research, Operations and Public Safety, Athletics, three from the Provost’s Office representing the Student Affairs, Enrollment Management, and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion areas, President’s Office), two undergraduates nominated by the Student Government Association, and two graduate students nominated by the Graduate Student Senate. Committee members each serve for a three-year, staggered term (with the exception of the undergraduate and graduate students, who serve for one year) and are eligible for reappointment to a second term.  Deans and senior officers are encouraged to consider nominating previous award recipients. The University President appoints the Committee from the nominations received.
 

The President of the Staff Council will be a member of the Committee and serve as the Committee Chair. The Committee recommends candidates for the President’s Our Common Ground Award to the University President, who will make the final decision on award recipients.

Members of the Committee may nominate individuals and/or provide letters of support; however, they will be asked to recuse themselves from deliberations on these individuals. During their service on the Committee, members may not be nominated.

Any member of the University of Vermont Community (faculty, staff, and students) may nominate staff members for the President’s Our Common Ground Staff Award. Staff members may self-nominate. The nominator should submit a letter explaining the qualifications of the nominee and a description of how the nominee exemplifies the values expressed in the Our Common Ground statement. The nominator will be responsible for submitting a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 5 letters of support. A diversity of perspectives from letter of support writers is encouraged. Letters of support should provide examples and evidence of how the Our Common Ground values are integrated into every aspect of the nominee's work at UVM.

Submit a nomination

At the conclusion of the selection process and as part of recognizing employees, the nominees (both those selected and those not selected) will be presented copies of the nomination letter and supporting documents.

This year, in an effort to encourage more nominations, submissions will be collected on a rolling basis between now and June 7.

Recipients will be announced in August and their awards will be celebrated at a breakfast on Thursday, September 19.

Tips on Writing Letters of Nomination or Support

The Presidential Staff Recognition Award Planning Committee has provided the following information to the UVM community in order to help letter writers brainstorm ideas and then craft a recommendation that can reflect the value they place on their nominated colleagues:

• Give context: Be sure to detail what the person does in the UVM community, how you have seen them in their role, and why their actions/contributions to the UVM community are worthy of recognition.
• Tell a story: Paint a picture in the reader’s mind of why these contributions are so important. Telling a story that can serve as a microcosm for what this person does in the UVM community helps the reader get a deeper understanding of and appreciation for why the nominee is outstanding.
• Discuss the nominee’s impact: Connect the dots between the role this person fills in the UVM community and how that role is reflected in the six values of Our Common Ground.

Try to think of your letter as a supportive argument on behalf of the person who has been nominated; your goal is to use context and detail to lead the reader to the conclusion that the person you’re writing on behalf of should be recognized. A helpful letter structure could be:

Month Day, Year

To Whom it May Concern:

FIRST PARAGRAPH: Introduce the person you’re nominating; their position, their department, where they work in the UVM community (it could be on campus or at an off-campus location). In addition, introduce how you know this person: Is it a close colleague in your department? Is it someone you’ve partnered with on a project? Is it someone you’ve never directly worked with, but maybe you interact with quite a bit and they’ve had a positive impact on your experience at the university? Give the reader some context for how you know the person; it will help the reader to start to form a picture in their mind of who this person is and what their role is in the university community.

SECOND PARAGRAPH: State why you are nominating this person: Why have they stood out to you as an exemplary member of the UVM community? Tie your reasons back to the values of Our Common Ground. These reasons can be anything from ensuring that the UVM community remains a safe place to work and live, to fostering new projects or ideas, or to consistently being a well-respected pillar of your work environment.

THIRD PARAGRAPH: Give the reader some additional context for the reasons you state above. A helpful way to do this can be to tell a story about this person. Bring them to life through their actions by recalling one or two experiences you had with them that made you think, “Wow, this person really is the epitome of respect/integrity/innovation/openness/justice/responsibility.” Then, tell that story; show the reader how the actions or ideas of this person made you think of them as outstanding. That story can be a powerful way to paint a picture in the reader’s mind for who this person is and what their impact is on our community.

FOURTH PARAGRAPH: Discuss impact. Build off the story you’ve told and highlight that as an example of how this person reflects Our Common Ground. Think of discussing impact in up to three ways: 1) On the individual level: How has this person’s actions/contributions to the UVM community had an impact on you? 2) How have you seen this person’s actions/contributions have a positive impact on those around them? 3) How does this impact on those around them have a positive impact on the university? Remember that the President’s Our Common Ground Staff Award is designed to recognize staff members who have a very wide variety of roles at the university, so think about how a person’s work and/or your day-to-day experience with them reflects the six values of Our Common Ground.

Sincerely,

Your Name
Your Department
(Note: This sample letter is 444 words)

A few final tips:

• Keep it conversational: An effective letter does not need to be overly-formal. The tone for this story can be casual; think of it as you’re explaining this person to a friend/colleague over coffee, and you just want to give them a clear explanation of why you admire the person you’re writing for.
• Don’t feel obligated to address every single value of Our Common Ground: Know that your letter is one of several that are submitted on behalf of an individual. Other letter writers will be supporting this person in different ways.
• Read your letter once over: Make sure you’ve said what you want to say. You may also want to find a friend or colleague to read your letter as well; sometimes fresh eyes can be helpful to pick up on tiny spelling or grammatical errors.
• Upload your letter: You can draft your letter at a university computer and then upload the file as a .docx, a .pdf or a .jpeg file. In addition, a letter may be written directly into the online form.