The Distinguished Graduate Student Teaching Award: bestowed on the department’s best graduate student instructor.

The recipient is determined based upon standard student evaluations, faculty observations, and any other evidence that a graduate student has exceeded normal expectations in terms of the effort and innovation. The Prizes and Scholarships committee announces the award to the department in an open letter which describes some of what makes the graduate student exceptional.

The C. E. Caton Award: is a writing competition;  All graduate students in the department are welcome to submit entries. The Prizes and Scholarship committee reads each entry and ranks them in terms of such features as writing style, clarity, ambition, and the extent to which the author is able to defend the paper’s main thesis.

The Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award: awarded to any graduate student or faculty member who showed excellence in teaching an undergraduate course.

The above awards and scholarships typically carry cash gifts (usually on the order of hundreds of dollars) whose specific amounts may vary from year to year.