Nominations sought for new teaching excellence award; award created for advising

Author: Gail Hinchion Mancini

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Student and faculty nominations are being sought for a revised annual undergraduate teaching excellence award and for a new award that celebrates excellence in advising at the University of Notre Dame.

Faculty and students are asked to submit nominations through March 1 (Thursday) for the new Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, formerly known as the Kaneb Teaching Award. Nineteen faculty members will be selected for the new honor.

Outstanding mentoring, academic advising and career counseling will be recognized through the new Dockweiler Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Advising. Faculty, students and exempt staff are encouraged to submit nominations through March 4 (Sunday). Three recipients will be honored.

Nominations for both awards may be submitted through an online application tool at http://provostawards.nd.edu . Recipients of both awards will receive a $1,500 cash prize and be recognized in various University publications and events.

The new teaching excellence award was forged over the past year by a faculty committee chaired by Dennis Jacobs, vice president and associate provost. The selection criteria are closely aligned with the characteristics of effective teaching and deep student learning that Notre Dame seeks to cultivate. The selection process invites faculty committees from various disciplinary fields to review the nominations and help select the award winners.

The Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching will honor facultymembers who have had a profound influence on the undergraduate learning experience, elevated studentsintellectual engagement and fostered studentsability to express themselves effectively within a disciplinary context.

Recipients will be selected from the following disciplines: business (2); engineering (2); fine arts and architecture (2); humanities (4); language and literature (3); science (3) and social science (3).

In making judgments of quality, its always better to look across a breadth of examples,Jacobs said.A larger number of nominations, not fewer, will help us discern the characteristics that distinguish excellent teaching.

While student participation was informally welcomed in the past, it is now being actively sought, for both awards.

The criteria are written from the perspective of impact on students,Jacobs said.Students are in a unique position to comment on which faculty members have been most effective and influential.

Nominations for the Dockweiler Award are open to the University community including staff, Jacobs said.

Recipients will be drawn from the broad pool of full-time tenured faculty, professional specialists, research faculty, academic advisors and career counselors who influence studentschoices about their academic and professional goals.

Detailed information about the awards, the selection processes and eligibility criteria can be found on the Web at http://provost.nd.edu. Eligibility is generally limited to faculty and exempt staff with at least five years of service.

The online nomination tool at http://provostawards.nd.edu lists which candidates are eligible based on years of service and other qualifying factors.

_ Contact: Dennis Jacobs, 574-631-9488 or djacobs@nd.edu
_

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