By Katie Smith, A&E Editor
Many spring activities have been canceled at Newman, and award ceremonies are no exception. Annual events such as the Academic Awards Banquet and Jetspys have been cancelled and likely won’t be made up in-person.
To counter this, the Student Life Department and Student-Athlete Advisory Committee are looking for ways that award winners can still be celebrated.
Joseph Shepard the Director of Multicultural Diversity and Inclusion, has been working alongside Christine Schneikart-Luebbe, the dean of students, to come up with a creative way to recognize winners of the Student and Student Organization Leadership awards. The awards will be given out during an online watch party.
The online watch party for the Student Leadership Awards will be April 30. Shepard said Student Life is aiming to release the video announcing the winners at 1:30 p.m. on the NU Student Life FaceBook page and @studentlifenu Instagram.
The awards being given out include one recognizing a Student Employee of the Year, a Student Leader of the Year, a Registered Student Organization of the Year, a University Sponsored Student Organization of the Year, and a Student Organization Advisor of the Year. These awards have previously been given out at the Academic Awards Banquet.
The online watch party for the Student leadership Awards will be April 30. Shepard said Student Life is aiming to release the video announcing the winners at 1:30 p.m. on the NU Student Life FaceBook page and @studentlifenu Instagram.
SAAC is still working to create a way to make up the Jetspys, the annual athletic banquet. SAAC President Katie Sullivan said they don’t have anything set in stone as of yet but they want to honor the athletes in an inclusive way for students who are in different time zones.
“Things are definitely not going to be happening on the planned date,” Sullivan said. “So many things are changing constantly, we are trying to get it all figured out.”
Sullivan said the SAAC representatives from each team will be responsible for letting student athletes know the decisions that have been made. This information will also be available on the Jets Athletic Twitter and the Newman Jets website.
As for the Academic Award Banquet, Dr. Kimberly Long said that awards will still be sent to student honorees’ homes and they will be notified.
“We are working with university relations to provide information about the awards and awardees to the community,” Dr. Long said in an email. “Academic affairs will not be handling the media alerts directly.”
Courtesy Photo, Newman Advancement
