Eleven students, three staffers and one faculty member are Men of Merit this year at KU.

The Men of Merit are honored on a poster each year by KU’s Emily Taylor Center for Women and Gender Equity for being on-campus leaders who challenge masculine stereotypes. The 2013 class is the fifth one since the program began in 2009, based off a suggestion from a KU football player.

I have not met most of these fellows, but no fewer than two of them came to visit me during my office hours Wednesday (stay tuned for more news on that front next week), and that certainly makes them worthy of recognition in my book.

So congratulations to the whole group:

• Students: senior Sam Schroeder, senior Ryan Moulder, graduate student Seyool Oh, senior Coulter Cranston, senior Ryan Burton, senior Brandon Rogers, first-year pharmacy student Cameron Johnson, graduate student Dillon Pearson, junior Thomas Plummer, senior Eric Driscoll and senior Matt Visser.

• Faculty and staff: Philip Lowcock, director of records and coordinator, International Student-Athlete Support; Mauricio Gomez Montoya, retention specialist, Office of Multicultural Affairs; Rueben Perez, director of the Student Involvement and Leadership Center; and Jonathan Earle, associate professor of history.

The Men of Merit poster came about as a companion to the annual Women of Distinction calendar poster, which was developed in 2003. The Women of Distinction for this school year were announced in August.

We here at Heard on the Hill aren’t really authorized to award pronouncements of distinction or merit, but if we had to choose people for such titles they would likely be the kind folks who send their KU news tips to merickson@ljworld.com.