Outstanding Graduate Award - Faculty and Staff Selection

The Registrar’s Office is pleased to present the WWU Outstanding Graduate Award. It is an opportunity for our campus community to recognize the exceptional work of our students as they complete their degrees at Western.

These awards are presented annually prior to Western’s June commencement ceremonies.

Selection Process
 

*Selections must be submitted via the Outstanding Graduate selection form.*

Selection procedures and criteria are at the discretion of the academic units (departments, centers, institutes, and graduate programs), but the criteria should consider academics, leadership, stewardship to the department and/or university, research and writing, service to the campus and community, and promise for the future.

Faculty from academic units may annually select one outstanding graduate for each undergraduate major and one graduate for each graduate program. Large majors with more than 50 graduates may select a second outstanding graduate, majors with more than 100 graduates during the award period may select a third, and so forth with every additional 50 graduates. Similarly, additional outstanding graduates may be selected in large graduate programs following a similar process, except at increments of 20 graduates instead of 50. Academic units with multiple majors may select one Outstanding Graduate from the unit as a whole or one from each of their majors.

Awardees must be graduating this year - Fall 2024, Winter 2025, Spring 2025, or Summer 2025.  To obtain a list of students eligible to receive this award run a SWRDEGG report in Banner for 202440 to 202530.  The report will show those students who have previously graduated in the fall, will be graduating this winter, or who have applied to graduate in spring or summer this academic year.  Please email us at commencement@wwu.edu to let us know if your department has no selection(s) for the 2024-2025 year.
 

Student Recognition
 

The Registrar’s Office will notify recipients of their selection on May 19. Outstanding Graduates will be listed in the June Commencement program. Additionally, these graduates will be recognized in the June Commencement ceremony and the Outstanding Graduate designation will be included on official transcripts.

Please note that the Outstanding Graduate Awards are a different process from Presidential Scholar Awards, which are managed by the President’s Office. Please refer to the academic catalog for descriptions of the various honors.
 

Questions? Email us at commencement@wwu.edu.