ECE Student I-Fan Lin has received the 2015 Mortar Board Dean Betty Nelson Service Award.

The Barbara Cook Chapter of Mortar Board is so named to honor retired Dean of Students Barbara Cook, who advised Mortar Board from 1956 to 1986. To honor Dean Cook, Mortar Board, along with friends and former students, donated a University marker which stands near the corner of Stadium and Northwestern Avenue.

Initiated in the Spring of 1996, the Dean Betty Nelson Service Award honors those Purdue students who have excelled in the area of community service in the greater Lafayette area. These students often go unrecognized due to their nature as “servants” to their fellow citizens. The Dean Nelson service award is presented to one student who has illustrated these ideals of service. The award consists of $500 for the student winner.

Betty Nelson, dean of students emerita and former dean of students at Purdue, has received the Distinguished Lifetime Membership Award from the Mortar Board National College Senior Honor Society. Nelson worked at Purdue for three decades, beginning in the Psychology Department before joining the staff of the Dean of Women's Office. She became dean of students in 1987, retiring in 1996 when she was made dean of students emerita. She established the Dean Betty Nelson Service Award to honor Purdue students who have made remarkable contributions in community service but whose achievements often go unnoticed because of the humble nature of their work.