Students at Iowa State have a chance to reward their professors during Veishea this year. Veishea 2002 will award the most popular staff member with a “Faculty/Staff of the Year Award.”

Tyson Stichka, Veishea special events co-chair, said once nominations have been made, a professor from each college will be selected based on the number of votes received.

The winner will be chosen by the special events committee after evaluating student responses.

Shawn Eagleburger, special events faculty recognition co-chair, said the committee is looking for qualities that will make a professor stand out from all the others.

“We want professors that are challenging students to become their best,” said Eagleburger, freshman in art and design.

He said they want the winner to be someone who is a little out of the ordinary and goes out of their way to motivate students.

“It’s really rewarding to be able to thank a professor for doing a good job, and it’s also good to have that kind of voice,” Eagleburger said.

He said each of the awards given out by the committee this year are very prestigious. They have already received 150 nominations and the committee is hoping for 500-1,000 nominations before they make their decision.

This year ballots were sent to each fraternity and sorority on campus to help get the word out about the event. There were also ballots sent to the residence halls, and 5-10 of the university’s largest organizations.

There will be a banquet March 17 to acknowledge and award the nominees and the winners of this year’s award.

“It will be open to the public and everyone that was nominated will be invited to attend,” said Stichka, senior in electrical engineering.

Students can submit ballots in both the main lobby and the commons area of the Memorial Union until Feb. 22. Ballots are also available online at www.veishea.org.