Mav Awards are meant to celebrate students across campus. Unfortunately, the same organizations and people win every year. This can be mostly attributed to lack of participation from the wider student population. Those who know about Mav Awards can be found in Student Life, and they tend to nominate each other. To fix this, there needs to be more advertising and a bigger push for students and staff to nominate their peers.
To preface, there is no “bad guy” in this situation, there simply needs to be better communication.
The process of picking Mav Awards winners is a little complicated. While nominations are open to students, it is not widely promoted and those who nominate others choose their Student Life peers instead of other classmates. From there, Associated Student Government (ASG) committees choose the top three nominees for each category, and then open voting up to the students again.
There should be rules in place that allow exceptional students to be recognized, without having to be a part of Student Life. While some awards are specific to organizations and clubs, Maverick of the Year, Humanitarian of the Year and Student Leader of the Year awards have gone to ASG members for the last two years in a row.
Students who do great things should be recognized, there is no denying that. ASG members have done awesome things around campus, but it is questionable for them to keep winning at their own award event, year after year.
Mav Awards costs thousands of dollars to throw, and that money comes partially from student fees: so why aren’t regular students winning?
The goal of Student Life is to be inclusive and open to every student on campus, but events like these just push the regular students, who may not have time for organizations or clubs away. Students who may have to work long hours, raise a kid or take extreme amounts of credits each semester deserve to be recognized.
There also needs to be a look into organizations that keep winning. For example, Mav Rides has won Organization of the Year three times in the last four years.
It is important to know that Mav Rides provides vital services to students and does a great job at it, but others such as Cultural Inclusion Council, Club Advisory Board, Programming Activities Council and others also deserve recognition.
Keep in mind that these critiques cannot be blamed on any one person or organization, there needs to be a collective effort from Student Life members and people outside of it to nominate people who they believe fit the parameters of the awards.
If you do choose to fill out a nomination, do not be intimidated by all the categories, you do not need to nominate someone for each section!
Be sure to participate this year, Mavs. You may be able to see your classmates, friends and teachers get the recognition they deserve.
