Overview

A well-crafted nomination for this award will clearly address sustained excellence and innovation in graduate or professional teaching and contributions to graduate or professional learning beyond classroom instruction. Individuals from academic units with graduate or professional instructional programs are eligible for the Campus Award for Excellence in Graduate and Professional Teaching. Up to two recipients will be selected to receive this award, both tenure-system faculty and specialized faculty are eligible. The award consists of an honorarium and a personalized commemorative plaque.

Calendar*

Nominations are only accepted from colleges. Contact your college to determine its deadline for departmental submissions.

February 1 – Deadline for college nominations to be submitted.

Early March – Recipient(s) and their nominator(s) will be notified.

April – Awards are presented at the annual Celebration of Teaching Excellence.

*When a deadline falls on a weekend or campus holiday, nominations will be due the next business day.

Eligibility

Faculty:

Tenure-system faculty member at Illinois
Has at least a 50 percent appointment in a graduate or professional degree-granting unit
Has taught a minimum of one course at the graduate or professional level on the Urbana-Champaign campus for at least four full semesters
Taught on the Urbana-Champaign campus for at least 5 years
Has not won this award in the previous 10 years

Specialized Faculty:

Specialized faculty member at Illinois
Has at least a 50 percent appointment in a graduate or professional degree-granting unit
Has taught a minimum of one course at the graduate or professional level on the Urbana-Champaign campus for at least four full semesters
Taught on the Urbana-Champaign campus for at least 5 years
Has not won this award in the previous 10 years

Evaluation Criteria

Sustained excellence in graduate or professional teaching
Innovative approaches to graduate or professional teaching
Positive impact on graduate or professional student learning
Other contributions to improve graduate or professional instruction (e.g., engaging students in the classroom; developing courses and curricula; mentoring graduate teaching assistants; leading workshops on pedagogy; advancing the scholarship of teaching and learning; or making other multidimensional contributions to graduate or professional teaching beyond the classroom, laboratory, or studio; etc.)

Nominations

A nomination may be submitted by students, faculty members, administrators, or alumni, and should be submitted to a departmental selection committee.* (See Selection section below for additional information.)

*The selection committee should include at least one graduate student member. Note that faculty members who have been nominated during a particular year should not serve on the committee during that same year.

Nomination packets must include all materials described below, and should be formatted in 12-point Times New Roman or equivalent font; single-spaced; and 1-inch margins. Please follow this outline when submitting a nomination:

The standard cover page (Attachment A) with the appropriate signatures. (Not to exceed 1 page.)
A nomination letter addressing each of the Evaluation Criteria described above. The nomination letter should indicate why the nominee is exceptional as an excellent teacher of graduate or professional students. (Not to exceed 3 pages.)
A teaching and learning philosophy statement provided by the nominee. (Not to exceed 2 pages.)
A longitudinal ICES profile from the Center for Teaching Excellence (Attachment B).
Two letters of support* from students, preferably one from a graduate student currently enrolled at Illinois and one from an alumnus. (See Attachment C for a sample solicitation letter.) (Not to exceed 2 pages each.)

*NOTE: 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.

Attachments

Attachment A: Nomination Cover Sheet (you must download the form from Box to complete it)
Attachment B: ICES Longitudinal Profile
Attachment C: Sample Letter Request from Former Student

Submission

Nominations should be submitted first to a departmental committee. This committee will select its final candidates to forward to the college. (The college may establish a limit for the number of candidates each departmental committee can submit.)

A college committee, which should include at least one graduate student member, will select the final candidate nominations to submit to campus.

Nominations are only accepted from colleges and must be submitted via tab-awards@illinois.edu. The nomination deadline is 11:59 p.m. February 1. If this date falls on a weekend or holiday, the deadline is 11:59 p.m. the next business day.

Selection

The campus selection process is overseen by the Teaching Advancement Board, and is advisory to the Provost. Recipient(s) and their nominator(s) will be notified by early March. Awards are presented at the annual Celebration of Teaching Excellence.

Assistance

For more information about Campus Awards for Excellence in Instruction, contact the Office of the Provost at tab-awards@illinois.edu or 217-333-6677.