SUNY Geneseo to soon host Professor Recognition Awards to award A+ professors

Geneseo's Academic Affairs Committee will honor Geneseo students’ favorite professors

Photo courtesy of Geneseo.edu

The end of the semester can be a stressful, busy time for students, which is why taking breaks and supporting friends and classmates is important—but SUNY Geneseo is taking time to give some recognition to the hardest-working professors as well. Geneseo’s Academic Affairs Committee (AAC) will host their annual Professor Recognition Awards on Apr. 27 at 6 p.m. in the Milne Library Multipurpose Room, as they announced on its Instagram; dinner and dessert will be provided by CAS catering. 

AAC’s Instagram account informed students of the opportunity to nominate professors whom they think are deserving of a recognition award until Apr. 16. All SUNY Geneseo students received an email with the link to submit a nomination for a professor. This email reads, in part, “[AAC] strive[s] to recognize the professors who have a positive impact on students and the Geneseo community.” 

Information published by St. John Fisher University highlights the lasting benefits that students can receive when they make and keep valuable connections with their professors. Professors can act as “a trusted support system… to help you academically and personally grow,” as well as open the doors to professional and research opportunities. 

St. John Fisher University also notes that ways to create these bonds with professors can include expressing “a meaningful thank-you through e-mail or during office hours [and being] specific about how the professor influenced you,” keeping in touch with them “based on mutual respect and shared interests" such as sending them your thoughts or questions “when you read an interesting article in their field,” and by “mak[ing] time for face-to-face interactions by attending departmental events, lectures, or alumni gatherings.”

Geneseo’s Academic Affairs Committee will be recognizing professors whom Geneseo students feel they have made these types of connections with. Last year’s Professor Recognition Awards honored professors from Geneseo’s departments of history, art history, biology, business, education, and physics, according to Geneseo AAC’s Instagram. 

Beyond aiding students with support and advice, The National Library of Medicine (NLM) also suggests that positive relationships between professors and students can have great impacts specifically on students who might be suffering from inequality compared to their peers. “Student-faculty (S-F) interactions that are conducive to students’ learning can help reduce the retention and graduation gaps in higher education, especially for college students from underrepresented and underprivileged backgrounds,” as detailed in The National Library of Medicine’s research. The most impactful practices which the NLM detailed, includes professors “creating pedagogical space,” “being inclusive and aware,” “being engaged and engaging students,” and “doing more than teaching.” These practices, as highlighted by the NLM’s research, “create conducive learning environments where students can thrive, especially during times of crisis.” 

Just last year, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), published research findings that “over the course of two decades, the lifespan of college graduates increased by 2.5 years to 84.2 years.” The AAC’s Professor Recognition Awards are just one way in which students may feel they get the chance to show appreciation for professors who have helped make these important contributions to their lives, and pushed them to continue their studies.

At the award ceremony, each chosen professor will be presented with their Professor Recognition Award from the Academic Affairs Committee, as detailed in an email sent to students from the AAC.