Treasured Pirate Awards

East Carolina University’s mission to be a national model for student success, public service and regional transformation relies on the outstanding faculty and staff that make up the University’s workforce. The updated Treasured Pirate program annually recognizes the exemplary efforts made by its’ most prominent faculty and staff whose distinguished contributions further ECU’s mission. The program invites any faculty or staff at East Carolina University to nominate an employee for the Treasured Pirate Award. The Awards Program is administered by the Learning and Organizational Development unit of ECU’s Department for People Operations, Success, and Opportunity (POSO).

To learn more about the Treasured Pirate Program, click here.

 

Nominations

Faculty and staff may be nominated for outstanding performance that goes beyond the normal expectations in their roles, or for distinguished accomplishments that result in extraordinarily successful outcomes for the university and its’ people, public service to the community, or to the region that ECU serves.

Nominations are made through an online submission form on the Treasured Pirate website. Nominations can be made by any active ECU faculty or staff. Employees may nominate peers, direct reports, and/or supervisors and managers.

Nominations should include details of the nominee’s efforts throughout the past calendar year or current academic year . The following individuals are eligible to be nominated:

  • ECU faculty and staff who have a permanent appointment AND work twenty (20) or more hours each week
  • Those in all employee classifications other than those in SAAO Tier 1 positions (e.g. the Chancellor and Vice Chancellor positions).
  • Employees must be in good standing with the University

The 2024 Treasured Pirate Nominations are now closed.

 

Award Categories

Faculty and staff may be nominated for their outstanding performance or distinguished accomplishments related to the University’s mission in one of the following categories:

  • Innovative Spirit: Conducts extensive research and planning to establish or successfully established new and outstanding methods, practices, procedure, plans, or designs to further the mission of the University.
  • Engagement: Makes exceptional and measurable contributions to improve the relationships between the University and its constituents, resulting in enhancements to workplace culture. This may include activities, collaborations, and partnerships with faculty, staff, and students, or working with community agencies and organizations.
  • Servant Leadership: Lives the philosophy of servant leadership, a leadership principle based in a set of behaviors and practices that place the primary emphasis on the well-being of those being led, either internal to the University or to those they serve as leaders for in the community or region.
  • Student Success: Development, implementation, and delivery of exceptional transformative growth experiences for ECU students, families, and alumni.
  • Public Service: Embodies ECU’s motto “Servire” by confronting community challenges through public service. Exemplary public service may include implementing, participating in, or leading community and public service projects.
  • Regional Transformation: Uses research, innovation, and partnerships to discover and deploy new practices to enhance eastern North Carolina and achieve global impact.

 

Selection Criteria

Nominations will be reviewed to identify individuals whose exemplary performance or distinguished accomplishments resulted in extraordinarily successful outcomes for the university and its’ people, public service to the community, or to the region that ECU serves.

Performance upon which the nomination is based should be for duties and performance at a level that exceeds expectations in their role. Distinguished accomplishments should be relatable to one or more aspects of the University’s mission and should demonstrate exceptional ingenuity as well as the embodiment of ECU’s motto, “Sevire.”

Successful nominations will provide evidence that demonstrates exceptional efforts in each of five (5) aspects:

  1. Outstanding Performance
  2. Embodiment of ECU’s Mission, Vision, and Values
  3. Measurable Outcomes
  4. Positive Impact to the ECU Community
  5. Nomination Category Fulfillment

Evidence may be qualitative or quantitative in nature, and may include testimonials from other employees, stakeholders, or community/regional partners. Other evidence may include (but is not limited to) data supporting the outcomes of the employee’s efforts, cost savings or revenue generation benefiting the University, or positive media coverage related to the employee’s accomplishments.

 

Review and Approval Process

Nominations will be reviewed in three stages:

  1. ECU Department for People Operations, Success, and Opportunity Validation
  2. Treasured Pirate Committee Selection
  3. Supervisor Review

ECU Department for POSO Validation

The initial review is conducted by the Department for People Operations, Success, and Opportunity, specifically the members of the Learning & Organizational Development unit. The unit members will review each nomination through the lens of five (5) aspects:

  1. Outstanding Performance
  2. Embodiment of ECU’s Mission, Vision, and Values
  3. Measurable Outcomes
  4. Positive Impact to the ECU Community
  5. Nomination Category Fulfillment

Each nomination will be rated as showing either Minimal, Limited, Suitable, Strong, or Exemplary evidence in each area.

Scores in each category will be averaged, with any nomination scoring an average of at least 2.5 then being submitted for review internally by the Department for People Operations, Success, and Opportunity. This internal review will determine if the faculty or staff is in good standing with the University. If so, the nomination is released to the Treasured Pirate Committee members for review and selection of winners.

The deadline for the completion of the Department for POSO Validation will be September 15, 2024.

Treasured Pirate Committee Selection

Following the Department for POSO Validation, all validated nominations will then go to the Treasured Pirate University Committee to rate. University Committee Members will be selected by the respective divisional leaders and serve 3-year terms on the committee. The committee members will review the validated nominations and score them individually using the same five (5) aspects and rating scale as above:

  1. Outstanding Performance
  2. Embodiment of ECU’s Mission, Vision, and Values
  3. Measurable Outcomes
  4. Positive Impact to the ECU Community
  5. Nomination Category Fulfillment

Each nomination will be rated as showing either Minimal, Limited, Suitable, Strong, or Exemplary evidence in each aspect.

Once the nomination period has closed, the committee members will complete the review and scoring for each nomination. The average of the combined committee scores will determine the final ranking of nominations. Fifteen (15) award winners will be selected, with the highest scoring nomination in each division (Academic Affairs, Administration & Finance, Athletics, Office of the Chancellor, Student Affairs, and University Advancement) selected as a winner. The remaining nine (9) winners will be selected from the highest scored nominations regardless of division.

The deadline for Treasured Pirate Committee Members to complete scoring of all nominations will be October 18, 2024.

Supervisor Review

Once the fourteen winners have been selected, the Department for POSO will contact the current supervisor of each winner to inform them of the selection. The supervisor will be asked to confirm that the employee is still in good standing. If so, this confirmation will provide the final approval for the award before winners are formally notified. If the supervisor wishes to oppose the nomination for their employee, they must submit a written justification outlining the rationale for the rejection, which should include documented coaching and/or counseling. This rationale must be based in factual and unbiased information and must be reviewed by the Director of Employee Relations before the nomination is formally rejected.

Should the employee’s supervisor be unavailable for confirmation, the manager or director of that supervisor will be contacted for final approval instead.

The deadline for Supervisor Review will be November 3.

 

Awards

The Treasured Pirate Awards will be presented each year during the Annual Service Awards Ceremony. This event will be invitation only and will allow time for each of the winners to be recognized and presented with their award. Each winner will be contacted and invitations for the ceremony will be sent out by the Learning & Organizational Development unit.

Winners will be allowed to bring one (1) personal guest of their choosing. In addition, the current supervisor of the winner will be invited to attend the ceremony.

Treasured Pirate Award winners will receive:

  1. A trophy commemorating their award
  2. A $500 award paid through university payroll (winners must be active University employees to receive this portion of the award)
  3. Recognition on the university website via the News Services team

Click on the links below to see the past Treasured Pirate Award Winners!

2019     2020     2021     2022     2023

Further Information

For further information on the Treasured Pirate Award program, please contact peopledevelopment@ecu.edu.