Individual Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education

The College of Literature, Science, and the Arts holds the excellence of our undergraduate teaching in high regard. To recognize outstanding teaching faculty, the LSA Dean will designate a number of Individual Awards for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education, formerly known as the Excellence in Education Awards. The purpose of this memo is to solicit your nominations for these awards.

Eligibility: All teaching faculty, including lecturers, are eligible for these awards. Nominees cannot have received this award previously.

Evaluation Criteria: This award recognizes faculty members who are exceptionally dedicated to the educational experiences of undergraduates, and who demonstrate this dedication through achievements and innovations in their own and others’ classrooms or academic programs.  Examples of achievements for which the award should be considered include:

• Excellence in classroom teaching in undergraduate courses, as demonstrated by student evaluations, student testimonials, and (if applicable) faculty peer observations or reviews.
• Outstanding contributions to the undergraduate program through curriculum innovation, creativity in course design, the supervision of student research, or other significant contributions to the quality of the College’s teaching-learning environment.
• Demonstrated effort to make the classroom an engaging and inclusive environment for diverse groups of undergraduates.
• Demonstrated effort to spread teaching innovations and best practices outside the home department and across the College or University.

Calendar for Submission and Evaluation of Nominations: A call for nominations is sent out in mid-January each year, with nominations accepted until mid-to-late February. Nominations will be reviewed by the LSA Curriculum Committee, which will recommend an award recipient to the LSA Executive Committee. Each successful nominee will be notified in May and will be presented an award of $3500 at the beginning of the following academic year.

Note: To honor specific, individual innovations, the Provost’s Teaching Innovation Prize may be more appropriate; the Individual Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education recognizes excellence in undergraduate education more generally.