Judging Criteria

An award is only as prestigious as the judging process. We have put a lot of time and effort into making sure that this process is fair, unbiased and comprehensive. Additionally, we want to keep matters as transparent as possible. The rubric below is the approach that will be taken to judge competing student organizations. The process of nominee selection and winner selection is described after.

CRITERIA Distinguished
(4 points) 
Accomplished
(3 Points) 
Satisfactory
(2 Points) 
 Unsatisfactory
(1 point)
Quantitative Accomplishments (number of attendees at event, prize money, competition placements, donation amounts, budget, revenue, etc. )  Quantitative accomplishments are impressive and provide detailed statistics for every component of the organization  Quantitative accomplishments are significant and provide some detailed statistics of the organization  Quantitative
accomplishments
are average and
provide limited
statistics of the
organization
 Quantitative
accomplishments
are inadequate
with little or no
statistics of the
organization
Uniqueness of Organization and/or Events  An exceptional
level of originality
and creativity is
presented within
the organization
and/or events
 Displays some use
of creativity or
originality within
the organization
and/or events
 Slight effort was
made to be
creative or
original within the
organization
and/or events
 There was no
attempt at utilizing
creativity or
originality within
the organization
and/or events
 Community Impact (interactions with other organizations on campus, outreach to the community, spreading awareness of the organization’s purpose)  Exceptional level of
outreach beyond
the UT Austin
community and
impressively
spreads awareness
of the organization
 Has shown
significant
outreach to the UT
Austin community
and effectively
spreads awareness
of the organization
 Slight effort was
made to impact
the community
and needs
improvement
spreading
awareness of the
organization
 There was no
attempt to make an
impact on the
community and no
effort to spread
awareness of the
organization

Each application will be reviewed by a panel of judges and the Indian Students Association Officer Board. The judges will consist of trusted professors, administrative staff and student organization leaders who will be revealed the night of the awards ceremony. The Administrative Staff and student organization leaders will include individuals who have a one-on-one interaction with various student organizations on campus and are familiar with what events each organization hosts.

  • The scoring rubric used to determine the points for each organization can be found above. Only the General Questions and the Specific Questions will be used to determine the nominees.
  • The organizations with the highest scores will be nominees for their category and will move on to Round 2 of the judging process.

Percent Breakdown to determine Nominees for each category

  • 70% – Panel of Judges (25% Professors, 25% Administrative Staff, 20% Student Organization Leaders)
  • 30% – Indian Students Association Officer Board*

*The Indian Students Association pledges to be unbiased during the application judging process and during nominee interviews. Each board member will sign a pledge form stating the above. Board members who are a part of another South Asian organization participating in the awards ceremony will refrain from judging their organization’s category and pledge not to help their organization with the application.
Total scores for Round 2 will include scores from the General Questions and the Specific Questions from Round 1.

  • Nominee Interviews: All nominees will be notified and interviewed by the ISA Executive Board and Event Co-Chairs the week of Monday, November 7th, 2011. All nominees will be considered for the Most Outstanding South Asian Organization Award.
  • Online Voting: Students can vote online at http://ut-isa.org/ShaanAwards for their favorite organizations before the day of the event. Online voting will begin once the nominees are announced and close on Thursday, November 17th, 2011 at 11:59PM.
  • Text-in Voting: In addition to online voting, the audience will be given a chance to support organizations through text-in-voting on the night of the event. We encourage all attendees to be unbiased and respectful of all organizations.

Percent Breakdown to determine winner for each category

  • 50% – Panel of Judges (20% Professors, 20% Administrative Staff, 10% Student Organization Leaders)
  • 15% – Indian Students Association Officer Board*
  • 10% – Interviews (conducted by the Indian Students Association Executive Board & Event Co-Chairs*)
  • 10% – Online voting at http://ut-isa.org/ShaanAwards
  • 15% – Audience Text-in Voting

*The Indian Students Association pledges to be unbiased during the application judging process and during nominee interviews. Each board member will sign a pledge form stating the above. Board members who are a part of another South Asian organization participating in the awards ceremony will refrain from judging their organization’s category and pledge not to help their organization with the application.

The winner of each category will be considered for the Most Outstanding Organization Award. Nominees for the award will not be revealed until the night of the event, and their respective scores will be tabulated to include the audience text-in voting. Only the General Questions and the Most Outstanding Question from the application will be judged for this portion. Interview scores will be taken from the organization’s raw nominee score. Online voting will not have an effect on the winner of the Most Outstanding Organization Award.

Percent Breakdown to determine winner for Most Outstanding

  • 50% – Panel of Judges (20% Professors, 20% Administrative Staff, 10% Student Organization Leaders)
  • 15% – Indian Students Association Officer Board*
  • 10% – Interviews (conducted by the Indian Students Association Executive Board & Event Co-Chairs*)
  • 25% – Audience Text-in Voting

*The Indian Students Association pledges to be unbiased during the application judging process and during nominee interviews. Each board member will sign a pledge form stating the above. Board members who are a part of another South Asian organization participating in the awards ceremony will refrain from judging their organization’s category and pledge not to help their organization with the application.