There’s an award being offered to the an Iowa State individual or group who can best criticize the university.

Nominees for the Don Biggs Constructive Critic of the Year Award are now being taken by Bruce Smith, chairman of the Committee on the State of Iowa State University (COSISU).

The annual award is given to individuals or organizations who speak out publicly in a constructive way to criticize ISU.

“It’s been a very good year and there have been a lot of people I think that have had a profound effect on the university,” Smith said.

On the other hand, Bill Kunerth, another member of COSISU, said, “In the past few years, the committee has been disappointed by the lack of robust dialogue in the community.”

He said committee members are concerned that faculty might feel intimidated to speak up and criticize the university.

“I think the students show much more courage than the faculty do,” he said.

Smith said the award “has been given to a number of truly outstanding critics.”

The award is typically accompanied by a certificate and a modest monetary amount that varies depending on how many awards are given and how much money the committee has, usually coming from the members themselves, Smith said.

The Don Biggs Constructive Critic of the Year Award is named after Don Biggs, former ISU geology professor who co-founded COSISU. Biggs was recognized as a continuing and effective critic of the university.

“He was kind of a grumpy old guy, and he was always early to meetings. … But his grumpiness was a fun grumpiness,” Smith said.

Kunerth said Biggs “made his feelings known through many, many avenues,” including letters to the editor, attending public meetings and testifying in front of the legislature on some issues.

“He was a very straight forward, direct individual who didn’t hesitate to make his feelings known,” he said.

Kunerth said Biggs helped found COSISU in 1989 to “monitor the performance of the administration.” He passed away about a year after the committee was formed.

Biggs’ son, Doug Biggs, is a temporary history instructor at Iowa State and lives in Ames.

Aside from giving out this award, the committee has been pretty dormant over the last few years as a group, Kunerth said, although members have been very active individually.

“There is a move on to bring together representatives of a variety of constituents at the university … to do a better and more continuing job of monitoring the university,” he said.

The deadline for nominations has been extended to Thursday, April 24 because the committee has been late in getting information out, Smith said.

Nominations should be accompanied by a brief explanation citing the accomplishments of the party or organization being nominated.

Nominations should be sent to Smith at 916 5th St., Ames, Iowa 50010.

For more information, contact Smith at 294-2483 or 233-5561.