As the world awaits the release of Academy Award nominations for the silver screen, the SMU community awaits the release of the nominees for the most prestigious teaching award at SMU, the Distinguished Teaching Professor Award. The Center for Teaching Excellence will accept these nominations until the Feb. 13 deadline.
Those chosen will be the newest additions to the Academy of Distinguished Teachers. They will be honored for excellence in their performance both in and out of the classroom and for guiding students through the learning experience. The academy, now in its third year of existence, was originally funded by a gift from former Board of Trustees Chair, Ruth Altshuler.
Each member of the academy serves a two-year term. As the four charter members inducted in 2001 end their terms, four new professors will be appointed.
As a top honor of SMU and the only award that seeks nominations, the Academy considers only the most eligible professors. The four new members will be chosen from several finalists at the end of March. The board of the Center for Teaching Excellence, along with the current Academy members, narrow down the nominees to between six and eight finalists. The provost then decides on the final four who will be inducted into the academy at a trustee dinner in late spring. Each will be awarded $10,000.
“The nomination process is a long, thought out process. Depending on how many faculty are in a department, the chair of every department gets one nomination, two if there are more than 10 members,” Professor Ron Wetherington, director of the board of the Center for Teaching Excellence said. The deans of each college get one nomination, except the dean of Dedman College who gets three.
The Faculty Senate gets eight nominations (one for each school), and the Student Senate gets six. The Graduate Student Assembly also has the privilege to nominate. All together there are 74 nominations.
Requirements for nomination include a minimum of five years at SMU, evidence of superior teaching and commitment to student learning and campus availability for the two-year term of membership.
“After the Feb. 13 deadline, the nominees will be required to compose a detailed portfolio on their teaching demonstrating why they are an asset to the university,” Wetherington said.
Wetherington also said that nominations are filing in, but no names can be released until all nominations are in.
The two-year term involved with becoming a member consists of participation in public forums, panel discussions, activity planning and symposiums representing SMU. More information, including biographies for the current Academy members can be found at www.smu.edu/cte/2003_academy.ht
