The Hillsdale College Student Federation voted on March 13 to institute a Professor of the Month award.
The winning professor will receive a certificate of recognition and an email will be sent out to inform campus.
Students will be asked to send in a paragraph, describing why they think a certain professor is deserving of the award, said David Wilhelmsen, Student Fed president.
Student Fed appointed a committee of three to five representatives to go through the essays and choose the five strongest candidates, Wilhelmsen said.
At their next meeting, the committee will present the top five candidates to the rest of Student Fed, who will vote on the professor.
“Student Fed does very little aside from allocating money,” Wilhelmsen said. “The professors do a lot and I do not see any downsides in recognizing their excellence.”
Wilhelmsen said the officers brought the idea to the floor and wanted Student Fed to vote on it. The recognition of the professors will not cost the students any money.
For the first time this semester, Student Fed did not have a unanimous vote on a proposal: 2 of the 21 Student Fed representatives and officers voted against it.
“I wasn’t sure if this is what Student Fed should be focusing on,” said sophomore representative Sam Ryskamp, who voted against the proposal. “I want to stay focused on what we have to do and not get too distracted by side projects.”
In the end, Ryskamp said he respects the decision and understands why Student Fed voted it in.
“It will be a cool thing,” Ryskamp said.
