In an informal ceremony held Monday afternoon in the Barker Center's Thompson Room, Assistant Professor of English and American Literature and Language Ann Pellegrini '86 received the first annual Faculty Ally Award from the Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender and Supporters' Alliance (BGLTSA).

The presenters gave Pellegrini the award at the end of a gathering in which senior women's studies concentrators presented their theses.

Pellegrini, the BGLTSA's faculty advisor, will depart Harvard this spring after two years in her current position. She will assume a post at Barnard College in the fall.

"She's leaving and we didn't want to let her fabulousness go unrecognized," said Adam A. Sofen '01, outgoing BGLTSA co-chair.

Although the award will be bestowed annually in the years to come, it was established now because the organization wanted to thank Pellegrini, BGLTSA members said.

"Her course [Women's Studies 101, "Introduction to Women's Studies"] was extremely popular among BGLTSA members," Sofen said. "Certainly for someone so new she certainly made a splash here."

"In her lectures she's so astonishingly funny," said Nicole Carbellano '02, a BGLTSA executive board member.

BGLTSA board members did draw up permanent criteria for the award before presenting it to Pellegrini.

Outgoing BGLTSA Co-Chair Nicole L. DeBlosi '99 explained that the award's recipients must meet three criteria.

Each must be a Faculty member who has been an approachable ally to the queer student community and who has helped create an environment that encourages students to "come out."

In addition, the Faculty member must also have directly helped the BGLTSA.

DeBlosi added that the recipient should be someone who has integrated queer issues into the classroom and has challenged the College to accept the queer community.

According to DeBlosi, the committee responsible for choosing the award recipients, made up of the BGLTSA executive board, strove to make the criteria sufficiently broad so that a variety of persons could be considered.

To this end, she said, all the criteria, but especially the designation that a recipient have direct influence on the BGLTSA, leave plenty of room for interpretation.

"I wouldn't want it to just go to our faculty advisor every year but that depends on how the board interprets [the criterion of having direct influence on the BGLTSA]," she said.

Both Sofen and DeBlosi said they do not anticipate a shortage of qualified contenders for the award in future years.

At the ceremony, board members presented Pellegrini with a statuette of the television character Xena.

"We didn't want to give her a certificate or something lame," DeBlosi said.

BGLTSA members present at the ceremony said Pellegrini appeared very pleased with the honor.

"She said that she was speechless for her first time at Harvard," Sofen said.

Pellegrini, who is acting director of studies for the committee on degrees in women's studies, could not be reached for comment yesterday evening.