Nominations sought by MSU-Northern

The Montana State University-Northern Alumni Foundation is opening its doors to submissions for the Northern Excellence Award and the athletic Hall of Fame.

“The award is given annually to people who are either graduates of Northern, former employees of Northern or community members who are considered supporters of Northern,” said Jim Bennett, the director of the Alumni Foundation.

Bennett said the past list of award recipients were inducted for varied reasons, but all for their work to better the university.

“It’s a way to thank those people,” Bennett said.

Anyone can recommend a person to be an Excellence Award winner, as long as the nominees meet certain criteria: leadership, service or financial.

The leadership criteria entails that the person contributed ideas and actions to further the growth of the university or used their experience from Northern in exceptional ways after their college experience.

The service criteria entails that the person has “held an important position, published material, made an important discovery or invention, made a contribution to an academic field, or has given significant direction or service to Northern for a minimum of 25 years,” the criteria read.

The financial criteria entails that the person has given financial contributions to the university.

The foundation is also looking for nominees to be inducted into the athletic hall of fame.

“We have athletes, coaches and teams that have made great contributions — not just in athletics, but in other areas,” Bennett said.

Anyone with suggestions for the Alumni Foundation to consider can do so by mail at P.O. Box 1691 or they may do so through email at [email protected].

“We’d love to get feedback from the public about people that we maybe haven’t gotten to yet,” Bennett said.

The ceremony for the recipients of the awards takes place toward the end of the school year in May, every year.