The purpose of this award is to recognize and honor outstanding leaders in ACUI who have made significant contributions to the college union and student activities movement and whose accomplishments and careers are a credit to ACUI.
This award also spotlights the accomplishments of the Association and thereby increases the pride of the staff and students who work with the college union program on each campus. It presents to college communities around the world tangible evidence of the effectiveness of the programs of the college union. In establishing this program, it is recognized that the award is given for outstanding achievement and that no compromises diminishing the significance of the award are to be made
ACUI is no longer accepting nominations for this award. Please check back in 2024 for information about the next nomination period.
2023 Recipient: Victoria Angis, Casleton University
Victoria Angis served Casleton University for more than 40 years in many roles, ranging from Title XI coordinator to the associate dean of students. During that time, her responsibilities varied and included student government, commencement, cultural affairs, homecoming, veterans, and a multitude of other programmatic and operational roles, including overseeing a major renovation of their campus center. Upon her retirement, spaces, including a student lounge and a meditation and reflection, as well as an endowed scholarship were named in her honor.
On the regional level, Angis served as a program chair, conference chair, regional representative, recreation coordinator, women’s concerns coordinator, and conference host. She had a career of distinction on the regional level and has been recognized with the Regional Directors Award and the Regional Distinguished Service Award twice.
On the international level, Angis served on the Affirmative Action Task Force, as the Women’s Concerns Committee chair, as the vice president for committee affairs, and as a member of the 75th Anniversary and 100th Anniversary Conference Program Teams.
About Porter Butts
Porter F. Butts, often called the “elder statesman” of the college union profession, began his career with the Wisconsin Union at the University of Wisconsin–Madison before its building was built and stayed there for almost 50 years until his retirement in 1970. He drew on his experience from planning the Wisconsin Union to help more than 100 colleges and universities plan their own union buildings. His name appears throughout the history of the college union movement and particularly in ACUI’s annals. He attended his first ACUI annual conference at Cornell University in 1926, served as president in 1932, and was editor of publications from 1936–70. He initiated and administered the predecessor of today’s Career Center, proposed the regional system, started the intercollegiate recreation tournaments, and wrote The College Union Idea. He also wrote the first draft of The Role of the College Union .
His commitment to the union philosophy led to his deep interest in the international union movement, which resulted in State of the College Union Around the World, a comprehensive book about unions in 60 countries. This commitment also led him, along with Edgar Whiting, to persuade federal agencies to include unions in the federal loan program, without which many union facilities never would have been built.
About Edgar Whiting
Edgar Whiting served as ACUI’s secretary-treasurer from 1941–68, helping to make the Association what it is today. Whiting kept the Association books, answered inquiries about unions, wrote to prospective members, produced the annual conference proceedings, and filled publication orders, working from an office in his home during evenings and weekends. After 1963, Whiting ran the employment service that is now the ACUI Career Center. He also arranged and managed the Association’s annual conferences for 20 years, sometimes planning three years in advance. His devotion to excellence and unparalleled leadership service established a model of professionalism highly regarded in the college union field today.
All of this was accomplished during his service as director of Cornell University’s Willard Straight Hall from 1958–70. Previously he was assistant director under Foster Coffin. During the first half of his tenure, Whiting donated his time on a voluntary basis; only during the second half was ACUI able to afford a token stipend for his services. Whiting also served in the U.S. Army from 1944–46 and later reenlisted and served 1950–52.
When he retired from the field in 1971, he received an ACUI honorary membership at the annual conference “for his 40 years of devoted service to the union at Cornell, for his 27 years of incalculable contributions to this association, for the thrusts forward he has given to the union movement by working steadfastly at it with talent and wisdom, and for being the already honorable person and friend he is.”
