Campus Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching

Engineering Communications Office

For more information, see the campus website.

This is the principal campus award for excellence in undergraduate teaching. The award recognizes professors and graduate teaching assistants who display consistently excellent performance in the classroom, take innovative approaches to teaching, positively affect the lives of their students, and make other contributions to improved instruction, including influencing the curriculum.

Up to 13 winners are chosen: five faculty members, five graduate teaching assistants, and 3 members of the instructional staff. Faculty members who are selected receive $5,000 in cash for personal use, instructional staff receive $4,000, and teaching assistants receive $3,500. Recurring increments of $3,000 are added to the annual salaries of faculty members, $1,500 to the annual salaries of instructional staff members, and increments of $1,000 are added to the stipends of the graduate assistants who return to the campus the following year. Each winner also receives a personalized commemorative plaque.

Criteria
Faculty: Any tenured faculty member who has taught a minimum of one course at the undergraduate level on the Urbana-Champaign campus during the four years before nomination for an award can be considered. Tenure-track probationary faculty will be considered only in the most compelling cases where there is evidence of exceptional scholarship as well as teaching.

Instructional Staff: Academic staff members with direct responsibility for instruction who have taught a minimum of one course at the undergraduate level for at least two full semesters may be considered for the award. At least half of the courses taught must be predominantly undergraduate in enrollment.

Teaching Assistants: Graduate teaching assistants who have taught a minimum of one course at the undergraduate level on the Urbana-Champaign campus for at least two full semesters (excluding summers) before nomination for an award can be considered. The semesters need not have been taught consecutively.

Once a faculty member, instructional staff member, or graduate teaching assistant has received an award, that person will not be eligible for nomination during the next five-year period. People who have been chosen as candidates in previous years but did not receive awards will, if nominated again, be eligible for consideration in future years.

Solicitation
Communication from the Office of the Provost.

Nomination
Nominations may be submitted by students, faculty members, administrators, or alumni to a departmental committee, which should include undergraduate student members. Nominations should address information is all of these categories: consistent excellent performance (not just isolated instances of brilliance in the classroom); impact on students; innovative approaches to teaching; other contributions to improved instructions, including influence on the curriculum.

The College of Engineering may submit three (3) nominees for faculty members, four (4) for teaching assistants, and two (2) for instructional staff. No more than one nominee in each category from a particular department should be presented by the college to the campus. The top-ranked nomination from the College of Engineering automatically receives the College of Engineering Teaching Excellence Award.

The following information should be included in the nomination. Adherence to the following order of presentation is requested to simplify the work of the selection committees.

A standard cover page that is signed by the nominator, unit executive officer, and dean, and includes the nominee's name, rank, department, college, and years at UIUC (Attachment A - see website).

A narrative statement presenting the case for the nominee. This should describe briefly the relevant data on courses taught, student course evaluation results, comments of departmental colleagues, and other relevant information. This statement should comment on the importance of the nominee's courses to the instructional program of the unit and on the nominee's overall impact on past and present undergraduates. The statement should also include the following elements:

For all courses taught by the nominee within the last four years, a chart showing year and semester, course number, enrollment, and level (undergraduate, graduate, or mixed). A key should be included to indicate the course title for each course number listed on the chart. This chart should not exceed one page. For graduate teaching assistants and members of the instructional staff, the chart should include at least two years' course data.

A summary report from the Office of Instructional Resources on teaching ratings in original form (Attachment B - see website).

Optional: selected comments from evaluation forms, not to exceed two pages.

A self report on teaching goals, methods, and philosophy, not to exceed two pages.

For faculty, a peer evaluation of teaching and for instructional staff and teaching assistants, a review by faculty, not to exceed two pages.

Not more than four letters of support from students. All students and alumni providing letters of support should be asked to state explicitly in their letters that they have experienced the nominee's teaching as undergraduates. If possible, letters of support should come from students currently enrolled at UIUC and from alumni (see website Attachment C for sample solicitation letter). Letters from students should be solicited by the departmental selection committee, not the nominee. The nominee may be asked to suggest some names, and the department should add some names.

Nominations are not to exceed ten (10), double-spaced pages (excluding cover sheet and four letters from students). If excess materials are forwarded, they will be disregarded and will not be read. Nomination materials should not have any special cover stock or binding but only the standard cover sheet (Attachment A - see website).

Due
November 30
Nominations submitted to the departmental main office. Nominations may be submitted before the winter holiday.
January 15
Deadline to submit ten (10) copies to the college awards committee (for subcommittee III).
January 20
Deadline to submit three (3) copies to the Office of Dean for Academic Programs, 206 Engineering Hall, MC-272.
January 31
Two (2) copies of each nomination are transmitted by the dean to the Office of the Provost, 208 Swanlund Building. One copy remains on file in the deans office. The campus selection process is overseen by the Teaching Advancement Board and is advisory to the provost. There is no limit on the number that can be submitted.One copy is sent to the editor in Engineering Publications in preparation for the college award.

Selection
Thirteen (13) recipients are selected for these campuswide awards (five faculty members, three members of the instructional staff, and five graduate teaching assistants). The campus selection process is overseen by the Teaching Advancement Board and is advisory to the provost.

Logistics
April
Announcement of award winners at the campus Instructional Awards banquet. Names of recipients are engraved on a commemorative plaque displayed permanently in the Undergraduate Library.

Note 1: Named changed in 1997 from Harriet and Charles Luckman Undergraduate Distinguished Teaching Award.
Note 2: Campus is no longer asking the colleges to rank their candidates.
Note 3: An honorable mention means that the person's nomination was forwarded for campus-level consideration.

Previous Recipients (College of Engineering)