When the Academic Senate announces the recipients of its Distinguished Teaching Awards on June 5 in the UCen Harbor Room, the Graduate Division will be there to present the Departmental Award for Excellence in Graduate Mentoring to this year’s winner, the Communication Department.

Practical and highly prized, the mentoring award from the division and the Graduate Council, which has been given annually to at least one UCSB academic department since 2003, consists of a fellowship and a plaque. The fellowship covers a $17,000 stipend, in-state tuition, and student health fees.

The one-year fellowship can be used to either recruit a new graduate student or to support a continuing one. Recipient departments must “demonstrate innovative mentoring programs that aid students with their transition to and success in their graduate studies,” report Barbara Ige, Graduate Division communications director, in a news release. “This year, the Department of Communication embodied the values most central to this award through its thoughtful work with graduate students.”

To date, the award has also gone to the departments of computer science, history, mathematics, physics, and to molecular, cellular, and developmental biology. For more information on how to nominate a department and to read about past winners, visit <www.graddiv.ucsb.edu/facultystaff/news/deptawards.htm>.