It’s that time of year again.
No, not midterms; it’s nomination time for Bellevue College’s Margin of Excellence Award. The Margin of Excellence Award is Bellevue College’s employee recognition program. It is a prestigious award that has been presented to exceptional faculty and staff members for the past 30 years. Since 1984, 139 of these awards have been presented.
The awards—the title of excellence as well as $1,000 are given to recipients in the following four categories of staff: Full time faculty, part-time faculty, classified staff and administrative exempt. Members of the college’s president’s cabinet are not eligible to be nominated. Nominations are currently being accepted, and will be until Nov. 7 of this year.
After nomination applications are closed, Bellevue College Foundation members and volunteers from within the community review the submissions. Nominees are judged by their work performance, their contribution to campus life and the community, their leadership, their commitment to diversity, their professional achievement and their cooperative spirit.
Recipients will be chosen by the end of November. They are unaware of either their nomination or award until the first full week of January, when a surprise visit personally headed by the college president is conducted. Dr. Nancy Golin, a previous winner, described the experience, “I was in my classroom teaching and a band of people came in led by the president of the college … along with the people in the Bellevue College Foundation came, the person who nominated me … a bunch of faculty from the social sciences, and the Dean of Social Science … They just came in my class with a bunch of balloons and gifts and good will.” The Margin of Excellence Awards Ceremony was held later in the year.
All BC members can nominate faculty for the award. This includes students. “We would love to see more student
participation in the nomination of faculty members,” says Susan Kingsbury-Comeu, the program administrator, who oversees the process of giving the Margin of Excellence Award. She said, “Its one thing to be recognized by your boss, but its another thing to know that your
colleagues and your peers all agree that you excel at your work and that they’re proud to be your colleague. And that really means something to the individuals who receive the awards.” Golin echoes this sentiment, saying, “It’s such an honor, it’s the highest honor that someone who teaches here can get, so it was really prestigious to … be nominated … and be selected for the award.”
If you know of a faculty member who deserves recognition for their excellent work, consider nominating them for the award. Nominations will be accepted until Nov. 7. Applications are available on the Bellevue
College Foundation website. Click on the “What We Do” link, and look for the Margin of Excellence Award.