Submitting a Nomination

While there is no wish to demand an artificial uniformity in the documents submitted to it, the Committee believes that some description of what it looks for when evaluating nominations may be helpful.

All the awards are given in recognition of distinguished teaching; a candidate will be judged, therefore, in terms of his or her accomplishments as a teacher. “Teaching” includes but is not limited to classroom effectiveness; the Committee believes that in addition to having a profound impact on students both in and out of the classroom, distinguished teachers make a significant and positive contribution to their programs, departments, degrees, and/or curricula. Evidence concerning a candidate's excellence in research, in administrative duties, or in public service is relevant only so far as the information helps explain the candidate's effectiveness as a teacher.

Similarly, statements concerning a candidate's personality or popularity are significant only when they help demonstrate or define the precise nature of what makes the instructor distinguished in teaching. The Committee naturally is interested in knowing all it can about the faculty members it evaluates, but its decisions must rest primarily upon information that is offered to substantiate superiority in teaching. The more precise such information is, the more likely it is to gain favorable consideration.

Those professors who do not receive awards in the year when they first are nominated are automatically reconsidered by the Committee for an additional year. New supporting evidence may be submitted in the second year.