About the Awards

Each year, the UC Alumni Association hosts the UC Alumni Celebration (formerly the Distinguished Alumni Celebration) to recognize and celebrate the many contributions and overall excellence of UC alumni in countless fields of endeavor, throughout the world.

UCAA selects honorees for the William Howard Taft Medal for Notable Achievement, Robert E. Dobbs Distinguished Service Award, Marian A. Spencer Mosaic Award, and Jeffrey Hurwitz Young Alumni Outstanding Achievement Award.

This award is given to an alumnus of the University of Cincinnati solely on the basis of notable achievement in his or her field. The Taft Medal differs from the Robert E. Dobbs Distinguished Service Award in that it is not restricted to service to the university. The award is in honor and memory of William Howard Taft, Law 1880, Hon 1925, twenty-seventh president of the United States and tenth chief justice.

This award recognizes dedicated alumni who, through their service, make an outstanding contribution to their university are usually over-modest, always unpaid, and unthinking of reward. Nonetheless, recognition is important, for an action that begins by aiding the advancement of a university and ends in the improvements of the social structure in which we live. The UC Alumni Association issues the Robert E. Dobbs Distinguished Service Award to provide that recognition for those who have faithfully rendered outstanding service to the University of Cincinnati.

The Marian A. Spencer Mosaic Award is presented to an alumnus who has demonstrated leadership while enhancing our shared community through cultivating collaboration, fostering inclusiveness, championing the cause of the underrepresented, and promoting greater equity and opportunity for all.

This award is given to a UC graduate on the basis of significant professional achievement in his or her field of endeavor, and continued service and involvement with the university and community. This award is in honor and memory of Jeffrey Hurwitz, BBA ’72, MBA ’73, former president of the UC Alumni Association's Board of Governors.

In addition to these four distinct alumni awards, since 2016 the UC Alumni Celebration recognition includes recipients of the Outstanding Alumni Awards with honorees representing each of UC’s 13 colleges, plus the unique training ground of UC Athletics. Outstanding Alumni Award honorees are selected by each unit and submitted to the UCAA for recognition.