The Henry R. Besch, Jr. Promotion of Excellence Award is conferred by the Alliance upon an individual who has exhibited unusual distinction in promoting and encouraging the growth of excellence at Indiana University, by facilitating the achievement of scholarly excellence in others, by creating mechanisms at Indiana University that enable others to pursue scholarly excellence, and/or by moving forward an organization unit at Indiana University to achieve an outstanding reputation. The award may be given to anyone judged worthy of the honor, whether or not they are directly associated with the University or the Alliance.
The award is not given every year, and at most one such award may be given each year. It will be announced and presented at the annual dinner. Nominations are solicited from the general membership of the Alliance and should be sent to the Alliance Office by email attachment to be considered for conferral at the following fall dinner. No Steering Committee member will be eligible for the award while serving on the committee.