DSA Awards Nomination FAQ’s

The DSA Awards nominations will open at the beginning of November and will close at the beginning of February. The Koldus Award will open at the beginning of January and close at the beginning of February as well.

The DSA Awards are awarded to individuals/teams who have gone above and beyond their call of duty and have truly embodied the Aggie spirit. If you know an individual or team who you believe should be recognized, nominating them for a distinctive DSA Award is the perfect recognition. Many award recipients will receive a commemorative plaque and cash award in honor of all the exemplary work they’ve done at Texas A&M University as well as within the Division of Student Affairs.

Nominations are accepted online at studentaffairs.tamu.edu/awards. Once you arrive at the webpage, please read over the different awards, including their respective criteria, eligibility requirements, recognition information, and nomination requirements.

Each award has a nomination template that you will need to fill out, save, and submit through the online nomination form. Please provide specific examples of how the individual/team meets each specific criteria. Please be sure to download the correct nomination template. Each award has different questions and requirements, so please select carefully! Nominations submitted using the wrong template will not be accepted. 

The additional letters of support required are to be provided by someone other than the nominator and are attached on the online nomination form. Complete the nomination template, gather your letters of support and a professional photo of the nominee, and upload all of these items via the web form on the specific award page. Click submit and you're done! You should receive a confirmation email with a copy of your nomination. If you do not receive a confirmation email, please contact Julie Anderson or Cindy Smith.

Once you submit a nomination, you will be notified by email that your nomination has been received. If you do not receive a confirmation email within 2 hours of submitting your nomination, please reach out to Cindy Smith (csmith@vpsa.tamu.edu) or Julie Anderson (janderson@vpsa.tamu.edu) to make sure that your nomination has been received.

After your nomination has been certified to meet all eligibility and nomination requirements, you will receive a second email confirming approval. If there are any missing/incomplete fields, your nomination form will not submit until all necessary sections have been completed.

Affiliate staff are the staff members whose reporting structure may have shifted outside of the division, but they provide support to the Division of Student Affairs. These groups include:

• Facilities - Student Affairs
• Finance - Student Affairs
• Human Resources - Student Affairs
• Marketing & Communications - Student Affairs
• Technology Services - Student Affairs
• Development - Student Affairs
• ROTC staff
• VRSC staff that are not Division of Student Affairs staff members

DSA staff are eligible to win any DSA Award (Matson, Awards of Distinction/Southerland, Assessment of Student Learning). They are also eligible to win the Koldus Award.

Affiliate staff are only eligible to win the Affiliate Award and the Koldus Award.

Any DSA staff member or affiliate can nominate for any award.

Students cannot submit a nomination for any of the DSA Awards. These include the Randy Matson '67 Association of Former Students Award, Awards of Distinction/J. Malon Southerland Award,  Assessment of Student Learning Award, and the Affiliate Award. However they can write a letter of support for a staff member being nominated by another staff member.

Students can submit a nomination for the John J. Koldus III Award. For this award, please note that only one staff/faculty nomination and one student nomination per nominee will be reviewed for consideration.

Nominations will begin to be reviewed by the DSA Scoring Committee after the closing date in February. Nominators will be notified if their nominee was selected in early March.

The nominator will be responsible for setting up a reveal in coordination with the DSA Awards Reveal subcommittee. Departments will be responsible for announcing to their award recipient prior to the ceremony in an individualized reveal. In order to keep consistency across the division, you will be contacted by the Reveal Coordination subcommittee to ensure a meaningful event for the recipient.

You are encouraged to contact your department representative if you have any questions about the nomination process or ceremony.

Yes! You can view examples of past award-winning nomination packets to get ideas on how to write your nomination.