By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Variety News Staff

THE University of Guam has launched the Palulap Medallion Award, which seeks to honor members of the community who have made extraordinary contributions to the protection and promotion of the fundamental principles of the academy.
UOG inaugurates this first year of the Palulap Award with its first call for nominations of eligible individuals or organizations. The award may be granted posthumously.
The award, created by the UOG Faculty Senate, targets those “outside of the university” who have “gone far beyond the pale to step up, speak out, or stand up to protect the core principles of what continues to make us a university,” according to Dr. Evelyn Flores, chairman of the Palulap Medallion Awards Committee.
The award-giving body gives particular consideration to those who have protected academic values “when they have been in jeopardy or who have persevered in the face of strong opposition to protect or promote these fundamental and defining principles of the university,” including academic freedom, institutional integrity, individual autonomy, and shared academic governance.
“The award, named after the legendary Micronesian navigator Palulap, whose great wisdom and skill continue to inspire youthful navigators today, envisions the university as a flying proa being guided towards landfall by a navigator skilled and wise in the arts of academic governance,” Flores said.
Former members of the UOG faculty, staff or administration, or former students may be eligible for nomination but only for service or actions taken in roles they performed while not employed or enrolled at the university, according to the award committee.
Current university faculty members, staff, administrators, or students, and elected officials are not eligible for nomination.
Nominators are required to provide a brief explanation of why they think the person they nominate deserve the Palulap Award based on the eligibility criteria. The explanation, which should be one to two pages long, should include evidence of qualification such as a listing of primary achievements and contributions of the nominee that would qualify her or him for the award.
The deadline for the submission of nominations is April 27.