The Chancellor's Medal is awarded to individuals whose accomplishments have greatly added to the prestige of the city of Buffalo and often to the University as well. Recipients of the Chancellor's Medal, the highest award given by the University, exemplify what it means to be a "great citizen of Buffalo."

On February 9, 1922, former Chancellor Charles P. Norton added a clause to his will establishing the Chancellor's Medal. In the clause he wrote:

The purpose of the clause in my will relating to the Chancellor's Medal is to personify civic patriotism and vilify public service in the eyes of the citizen of Buffalo. I ask the Council of the University to award it each year on Washington's birthday at the University exercises to some citizen who performed some great thing which is identified with Buffalo. It may be a great civic or political act, a great book, a great work of art, a great scientific achievement, or any other thing which in itself is truly great and ennobling and which dignifies the performer and Buffalo in the eyes of the world. By Buffalo, I mean not only the City of Buffalo as it is circumscribed by its city limits, but also the greater Buffalo of its environing neighborhood to which the City's moral, intellectual, educational and business influence extends. The deed for which the medal is given need not have been performed within the year immediately preceding the time of warding the decoration. The medal may be awarded to a man, woman, or child.

The first recipient of the medal was Charles Henry Brent in 1925.