From: Robert J. Birgeneau, President

Early in September the Committee for Honorary Degrees will meet to consider candidates for the award of honorary degrees at the 2002 and some of the 2003 convocations. I urge you to consider possible names and to encourage your colleagues to submit nominations. The award of an honorary degree is an important statement of recognition and respect from the University to the broader community. It is also an excellent way to build special relationships between your Faculty, Department, Centre, or College and outstanding individuals who symbolize the best of our institution.

The process of nomination is simple. A nomination form is available on the Governing Council website and at the Governing Council Office. You can also view the terms of reference of the Committee. Please take the time, either on your own or in consultation with your colleagues, to submit one or more nominations. In preparing submissions, nominators should pay particular attention to the statement of reasons for nomination. A brief statement of reasons from a single nominator is often more persuasive than a series of letters of support. The Committee looks for individuals who have attained a standard of excellence in a particular field of endeavor or who are distinguished in some notable manner. Some of the factors considered by the Committee in comparing candidates are: whether there has been a particular accomplishment of note (an important piece of scholarly work, for example); connection or service to the University; service to the wider community; service to or influence on the arts; service to the nation; cross-cultural influence; whether there has been recognition of achievement by others; and whether a special anniversary is involved (centennial of a Faculty, for example).

Please note that it is a requirement that honorary degree recipients attend Convocation. As well, the Committee does not normally consider nominations for members of the faculty and staff of the University prior to their retirement.

Nominations are kept active for a period of three years. If you submitted a nomination during the past three years, it will be brought forward automatically to the Committee for its consideration this fall. Nominations submitted this year will remain under consideration through the year 2003-04. If you wish to add to an earlier nomination, please do not hesitate to do so.

Completed forms should be sent to the Secretary of the Committee for Honorary Degrees, Office of the Governing Council by Wednesday, September 5, 2001.

We hope that with your assistance a large number of excellent nominations will come before the Committee for consideration. Thank you for your help.

Robert J. Birgeneau, President

Nomination Form for Honorary Degrees

The nomination form is available in PDF format. You can print this form and complete it manually OR complete the form right on the website. Simply mouse-click in the first field and type in the information. Since a partially completed form cannot be saved to your hard disk, you should only begin completing the form on the web when you have gathered ALL the necessary information.