Twenty-one Binghamton University faculty and staff members have received honors for their exceptional work in teaching, research and mentorship across all of the SUNY schools.

The reception dinner took place in Old University Union’s Mandela Room on Thursday, Oct. 20, where Provost Donald Nieman, University President Harvey Stenger and other department heads spoke and presented the awards, which are given on a yearly basis across the SUNY system. All faculty and staff, from professors and lecturers to custodians and human resources staff, are eligible for the awards. Recipients received a medal, a certificate and a $1,000 cash award, and also heard the reading of a short write-up from their letter of recommendation saying why they were deserving.

Nominees for teaching awards were required to have high teaching evaluations from students, syllabi with substantive content, 10 letters of recommendation from current colleagues, former students and alumni successful in their field and an approval from the dean of the school. Faculty must also possess evidence of research including a currently active research program and published works.

Anthropology professor Ralph Garruto was awarded for Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring. Outside the classroom, he helps students with internships, career goals, medical school applications and ways to increase marketability after graduation. His research focuses on Lyme disease and he said that mentoring students is crucial in ensuring that they learn from their work.

“They learn to work in a cross-disciplinary way and gain an education from different perspectives toward solving a single problem,” Garruto said. “I’m multi-disciplinary trained myself and I take that framework from my earlier work and try to apply it to students here. They’re not just taught to produce data, it’s the entire research process we want them to learn.”

Thomas Kelly, the former dean of the School of Management and recipient of the Excellence in Teaching Award, said that receiving the award made him feel like he is doing something significant in his classroom. It also enriches the experience of BU’s teaching, research and service by awarding those who do well.

“It was very gratifying to be acknowledged in this way, particularly at my age because I’m getting close to retirement, and to be able to connect with students at this stage of my career is very meaningful to me,” Kelly said. “Whenever a university honors excellence, it provides an example for junior faculty to aspire to.”

Stenger said that the award ceremony is one of his favorite events of the year.

“Showing people that we care about their performance and their dedication to the University is really important,” Stenger said. “The turnout was great and I appreciate the interest of people nominating awardees every year because I know it’s a difficult task.”