Robert W. Clopton Award for Distinguished Community Service
The Robert W. Clopton Award for Distinguished Community Service was established as a memorial to longtime Mānoa College of Education Professor Robert W. Clopton and first awarded in 1977.
This award honors a University of Hawai‘i Mānoa faculty member with a record of significant and sustained contributions to the communities who support and benefit from the university. Previous recipients have distinguished themselves as exemplary university citizens and good stewards of Hawai‘i by extending their research and instructional expertise to students, and to various organizations and initiatives in the state.
Robert W. Clopton Award
Dates | Processes and Important Deadlines |
---|---|
TBA (Nov/Dec) |
Robert W. Clopton Award for Distinguished Community Service Nomination Process Begins |
TBA February |
Nomination Deadline |
March to April |
Award committee finalizes award recommendations to President. Notification to award applicants and respective College/Schools. |
April or May |
Announcement of Award Recipient |
Last update 3/3/2024
Nominations
Nomination Packet Must Include:
- Petition for nomination
- Nominee’s curriculum vitae
- Statements of support by 3–7 people
- Support documents detailing contributions to the community
Nomination is by petition and may be made by anyone within or outside the University. A complete nomination packet should be submitted with statements of justification from at least three but no more than seven persons. Appropriate documents supporting the nomination and detailing the candidate’s contributions should be submitted along with a curriculum vitae. Selection of one person to receive the Award will be made from among the nominees by the Robert W. Clopton Award Committee.
Open nominations TBA Nov/Dec.
Nomination Deadline:
February-Date TBA
Award will be given near the end of the Spring semester.
Who May Submit a Nomination?
Anyone may submit a nomination by petition.
How to Submit Complete Nomination Packet:
Transmit a single PDF of the nomination packet via UH FileDrop to OFDAS, ofdas@hawaii.edu.
Phone: 808-956-9567
Questions? Contact Us.
Criteria
The following criteria will be used in judging among candidates for the Award:
- The candidate must be a full-time faculty member of the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.
- Credible community service will be defined as service rendered outside the University by the candidate as a result of his/her role as a faculty member but excluding classroom teaching of either on or off-campus courses. Directing graduate students, research, county extension activities, service on University committees and other routine administrative duties and participation in professional associations do not constitute such service.
- However, if in the judgment of the selection committee, significant community service results from a teaching, research, or administrative activity may be recognized as creditable to the Award (e.g., a class under guidance of a professor undertakes a survey for a community agency, even though the survey was part of the course instruction; a researcher is called upon by a governmental body to assist in developing public policy, even though he/she reports on the research; a dean or department chairperson organizes his/her college department so as to permit faculty and students to provide a program of service to the public). Please note: the award is not designed to honor the conventional performance of on-campus academic duties.
- Service activities include both service in response to a request from outside individuals, organizations, and or agencies as well as service volunteered or offered by the faculty member.
- The Award may be made on the basis of a single instance of outstanding service, on the sum of service activities for a year, or on the accumulation of a career of exemplary service.
- Weighting priorities are as follows:
- HIGHEST: Service which emanates from the faculty member’s professional expertise.
- HIGH: Assigned service which emanates from the faculty member’s generalized role as an intellectual leader, teacher and exemplar for the community.
- LOWEST: Service performed primarily as a function of the faculty member’s role as a citizen, parent, church member or in some other status beyond that carried as a part of the professional role. However, because these services are important to the university faculty member’s role, they will figure in total weighing.
- Compensation received for service rendered does not disqualify the service.
Who is Eligible?
Any full-time UH Mānoa faculty with credible community service outside the University.
The Clopton award recognizes and inspires relationships between the university and community by calling attention to a faculty member with a distinguished record of public service. Often grounded in the faculty member’s research and scholarship, this service may create or enhance partnerships within the UH Mānoa community, or benefit charitable organizations, government agencies, non-profit corporations, or other groups devoted to improving life in Hawaiʻi.
Candidates for the Clopton Award might serve their various communities in one or more of the following ways:
- Extending UH Mānoa’s mission and values with regard to a Hawaiian sense of place—culturally, geographically, historically
- Responding to community needs and opportunities by developing professional or advisory partnerships
- Generating opportunities for students to participate in community-based learning, service, and research activities, and encouraging continued volunteer service
- Initiating imaginative and innovative approaches to community-campus service
- Establishing extended and significant community engagements that foreground reciprocity, value, and sustainability
- Impacting public policy and practice locally, nationally, internationally
Each academic year, the Clopton Award calls attention to effective faculty members doing exemplary work in our communities, and therefore embodying what a university in service to a community should be.