Arbor Award


The University of Toronto celebrates its volunteers with the annual Arbor Awards, and honours it’s recipeints with a ceremony each fall.  The 2020 nomination period for these awards will open in early spring of 2020.  If you would like to nominate someone for this award, please review the eligibility criteria below, and submit your nomination via the link at the bottom of this page by (date for 2020 tbd).

Eligibility for Arbor Awards

Alumni & Friends of the University

To be eligible to win an Arbor Award, a recipient must:

  • Have provided (or be currently providing) outstanding volunteer service to either
    • one Division in order to be eligible in the Divisional Category, or
    • across the University more broadly focused on more than one faculty/college/department in order to be eligible in the Central Category.
  1. Have served U of T as a volunteer for a minimum of 3-5 years, with at least 3 years of continuous service as of the date of nomination.

*Nominees who do not meet the minimum years of service may be submitted for consideration based on clearly demonstrated breadth and impact of service. The onus is on Nominator to ensure these qualities are explicitly outlined and demonstrated in the nomination form.  These nominations are subject to review by the selection committee.

  • Have not previously have received an Arbor Award.
  • Not be a sitting politician, elected or appointed official or currently serving in a governance capacity at U of T.
  • Be a living alumnus/a or friend of the University of Toronto (Posthumous awards will be considered only in exceptional circumstances and if the nominee has passed away within one year of the upcoming ceremony).

Faculty & Staff Nominations

The Arbor Awards serve as recognition for the University’s outstanding volunteers from the alumni and friends community. Only in exceptional circumstances will current or previous employees of the University of Toronto be considered.  These faculty or staff nominations are not automatically accepted, but must pass an additional threshold of expectations and consideration by DUA in order to ensure their appropriateness and eligibility.

Faculty and staff eligibility is as follows:

  • Their volunteer contributions must be clearly demonstrated as being outside the parameters and expectations of their daily job and in no way related to the scope of their job function at the University.

Nomination form (complete by (date tbd))

Please be sure to include all information when completing the nomination.  Nominations with incomplete information will not be submitted to the selection committee.  If a nominee is selected to receive an Arbor Award, both the nominee and nominator will be notified in early summer and invited to the award ceremony in the fall (date tbd).

If you have any questions please contact Hujma Chowdhury (Chair, FIAA Grants & Awards Committee) h.chowdhury@utoronto.ca, or for more information on the award go to  https://alumni.utoronto.ca/events-and-programs/awards/arbor-award.