As this year’s Veishea Faculty and Staff Members of the Year received their awards Thursday night, the 1996 honorees were also on hand to discuss what the honor meant to them.

The 1997 Professor of the Year is Tim West, an associate professor of accounting at ISU since 1993. Janice Holtkamp, an academic adviser for the College of Agriculture, won Staff Member of the Year.

Thursday’s ceremony recognized staff and faculty members who were nominated by ISU students for being exceptional in both the way they do their jobs and the way they relate to students.

“I’m really surprised to have won,” West said, “since accounting is not something people usually view as dynamic or exciting.”

West added that he didn’t expect an educator in the College of Business to receive Veishea’s highest faculty honor because “the College of Business doesn’t even have a letter in Veishea.”

Holtkamp said she was thrilled to receive the award and that the most rewarding part of her job is the relationships she builds with students.

“Getting to know the students and watch them succeed is so important to me. I feel like I have really made some great friends among the students here,” she said.

In addition to the presentation of this year’s awards, last year’s faculty and staff winners took to the podium to express thanks for their honors.

“I had many doubts that I would ever win an award such as this,” said Hector Avalos, 1996 Professor of the Year and an assistant professor of philosophy at ISU, “but I am extremely proud to be here and pass the baton to this year’s winner.”

Patricia Miller, program coordinator for the Committee on Lectures and 1996 Staff Member of the Year, said “working with students is my favorite part of my job. Students are full of energy and hope, and they tell me wonderful stories.”

The process for selecting the winners for 1997 began about a month ago when students nominated nearly 100 faculty and staff members for the honors. Each college’s student council then selected one faculty member and one staff member to become the final nominees.

ISU President Martin Jischke called Veishea and the faculty and staff awards “a wonderful symbol of university student leadership.”

“This is one way that students have to express their thanks to faculty and staff members,” Jischke said. “To be sought out by the students of this university for a public thank-you, to be told that you are doing an outstanding job, is as sweet a compliment as you will ever receive.”

Stephanie Carney Michaels, Veishea general co-chairwoman, said all the faculty and staff members nominated for the awards ought to feel proud of their accomplishments.

“All of you made an effort and reached out to students and made a difference,” she said.