Nancy E. Welch Award

Claude Welch, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science , with students.

Residential students who have made significant contributions to the university community receive awards through this fund.

Established in 1979 by UB Professor Claude E. Welch, this fund provides awards to undergraduate students for outstanding contributions to the quality of student life. Recipients are selected based on the the quality of the programs they have developed and the student's learning experience, among other factors.

Welch established the award to honor his late wife Nancy, a former member of the UB community who worked hard to bring a sense of citizenship to the campus.

The Welches met at Harvard College, and married at the end of Nancy’s junior year. In 1973 at the age of 32, Welch was diagnosed with breast cancer. Following her diagnosis, she took a part-time job at UB as the residential coordinator at Rachel Carson College, located in the Joseph P. Ellicott Complex, which had just opened the previous year. At UB, Welch developed interdisciplinary programs that would alleviate some of the isolation felt by students. She was especially known for her Sunday Night Suppers, when she would bring all four of her children to interact with the students.

After six long years battling breast cancer, Nancy Welch died in 1979.

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