Eligibility: All full-time faculty members, professorial or professional, who have been at the University for at least five years prior to the nomination are eligible, except for the Abraham O. Smoot Citizenship Award which requires 15 years of service. All awards are presented to faculty who have demonstrated exceptional work in the areas of citizenship, teaching, and research/creative work. Although some are honored principally for distinction in one area, the expectation in each instance is that the recipient will have made notable contributions in all three areas. The Part-time Faculty Excellence Award is designated for part-time faculty with at least five years of continuous part-time service.
Who may nominate: Anyone may nominate a candidate for these awards, but all nominations must be submitted through the nominee's Department Chair and Dean. The Faculty Awards Committee may make an independent nomination for any award.
General Information:The recipient of this award will receive a cash award of $1,000, and be recognized at the annual University conference in August 2008. The Phi Kappa Phi award recognizes balanced contributions in which citizenship, teaching, and research/creative work are brought together to serve students and the University community. Specific qualifications include:
1. Exemplary character, evidenced in dealings with students, faculty, staff, administrators, and others in the campus community.
2. Exemplary University citizenship as discussed in the University Policy on Faculty Rank and Status.
3. Outstanding teaching.
4. Significant research/creative work which strengthens his or her teaching and enlivens his or her interactions with students and others in the University community.
Nomination Procedures
Nomination packets should be prepared by a colleague of the nominee and not by the nominee. Any faculty member nominated should be nominated for only one award. For this reason it is important that the nomination letter focus on the criteria specific to the award for which the professor is nominated. The Faculty Awards Committee reserves the right to consider any nominee for an alternative award if it seems more appropriate. Please be judicious in the material included. Nominations that most impress the Awards Committee are ones that are concise, well organized, carefully written, and contain documented evidence of citizenship, teaching, and research/creative or professional work. Nomination packets may not exceed 20 pages (plus the Cover Sheet & Appendix as described below). Please include the following items in the order listed:
1. The Cover Sheet provided herein must be the first page of your nomination packet.
2. A nominating letter of 3 to 5 pages, prepared by a colleague, which summarizes the professor’s work and qualifications for the award. The letter should put the nominee’s accomplishments in perspective and provide an evaluative assessment of performance in all areas of faculty responsibility (teaching, citizenship, and research and creative work, or professional assignments). For example:
Research and Creative Arts Award - you might emphasize creative art works, scholarly papers, prizes or awards, funded research grants (including amounts, sources, reviewer comments), patents awarded, etc.
Professional Faculty Excellence Award - you might include a description of the expectations and the particular assignments that apply to the professional position. Include information that will place the professional work in an evaluative context within the profession.
Excellence in Teaching Award - you might emphasize teacher and course evaluations, peer review of teaching, activities in course development and improvement, the scholarship of teaching, or innovative approaches to teaching including the use of technology.
Part-time Faculty Excellence Award - you might include a description of the expectations and duties, including teaching, that the part-time faculty member has been assigned. You might emphasize teacher and course evaluations, activities in course development or other professional development, and the importance of the contribution made by the part-time faculty member over a period of time.
3. The nominator will submit the nomination packet to the nominee's Department Chair. The Department Chair will review each nomination and add a 1-2 page personal evaluation letter to the packet. If appropriate, the Chair may rework the nomination to strengthen it.
4. The Department Chair will forward the packet to the Dean of the nominee's college, who may add a 1-2 page personal evaluation letter to the nomination packet.
5. For a Research and Creative Arts Award, and for the Maeser Distinguished Faculty Award, the nomination packet should include no more than three outside letters of evaluation of the faculty member’s work. Internal letters of evaluation may also be included.
6. The Appendix should include:
(a) an abbreviated curriculum vitae (5 pages max.) for the nominee. Things that might be emphasized are history of employment, awards, publications, works of art, innovations, research grants and amounts, courses taught, consulting, and service, and
(b) a summary of all student evaluations of courses taught for the previous five years. This summary can be obtained from Teacher Evaluation Services (ext. 2-2862), 265 HGB, and may be requested by the nominee or the nominee’s Chair or Dean. Other materials such as samples of publications or creative works deemed important to the nomination may be sent to the committee to be kept on file and considered at the Committee’s discretion.
The Dean will submit the nominations to the Faculty Awards Committee by February 15, 2008. The Committee encourages electronic submission of nomination packets sent via email to the committee (see nomination form for e-mail address.) It may be necessary to scan certain materials and documents in order to submit them electronically. Paper nominations will also be accepted as in years past.