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Purpose | Description | Guidelines | Forms & Checklist | Eligibility | Criteria | Selection | Application | Past Recipients

BOARD OF REGENTS' FACULTY AWARDS

Purpose

Regents' Faculty Awards publicly recognize distinguished performance on the part of faculty members. This award is the highest honor presented by the Board of Regents to exemplary faculty members. The awardees are selected by the Council of University System Faculty and submitted to the Board of Regents for approval

Description

Annually, up to sixteen awards shall be bestowed. Up to four awards each will be presented in four categories, with the possibility of one award in each category being designated for a collaboration:

• Teaching (a maximum of four awards, including innovation in distance education. A maximum of one of those to a collaboration)
• Scholarship, research, or creative activity (a maximum of four awards, with a maximum of one of those to a collaboration)
• Public service (a maximum of four awards, with a maximum of one of those to a collaboration)
• Mentoring (a maximum of four awards, with a maximum of one of those to a collaboration)

At least one of the individual awards for teaching; scholarship, research, or creative activity; public service; and mentoring shall be presented to faculty at BSU, CSC, FSU, SU, TU, UB, UMES, or UMUC. At least one of the individual awards in these categories shall be presented to faculty at UMB, UMBC, UMBI, UMCES, or UMCP.

Each recipient of a teaching, scholarship/research/creativity, public service, or mentoring award receives a plaque and $1,000. Each recipient of a collaboration award receives a plaque and a portion of the $1,000 amount (divided equally among the USM collaborators).

Awards will be announced during the spring meeting of the Board of Regents with suitable ceremony and publicity, including descriptions of faculty achievements. Award recipients may be invited to address the Board.

Collaboration: The collaboration awards in each category are presented to teams consisting of faculty members from at least two University System of Maryland institutions to recognize collaboration involving faculty members at different USM institutions (there is no limit on the involvement of additional collaborators from other institutions, including non-USM institutions). Each year the Board of Regents shall make up to four awards to faculty members who have made significant contributions in teaching; research, scholarship, or creative activity; public service; or mentoring. One collaboration award may be given in each of the four areas.

Guidelines for Nominations

Letters inviting nominations from institutions shall be mailed from the Chancellor's Office to Presidents of USM institutions and individual Senate Chairs in August of each year. Nominations will be due in the Chancellor's Office before November 15.

Institutional Faculty Nominating Committee: Each institution shall designate an Institutional Faculty Nominating Committee (IFNC) consisting entirely of faculty that selects nominees for the Regents' Faculty Awards. Each institution may nominate a maximum of one candidate per 200 eligible faculty for each award category. The President of each institution shall forward the results to the USM Academic Affairs Office, along with his/her letters of nomination for each candidate. Faculty nominees will represent their institutions and will be considered for awards along with other faculty from their own and other institutions.

Nominations are to be made in the following categories, according to the mission of each institution:

• Teaching-to be interpreted broadly enough to encompass all educational activities in the USM, including distance education (defined as the use of technology to reach students not on campus for at least half of the recognized course or program)
• Research, scholarship, or creative activity-to be interpreted broadly to include professional accomplishments in the nominee's field and to encompass all fields in the USM
• Public service-to include any activity other than teaching and research, scholarship, or creative activity that benefits the citizens of Maryland and of the nation or humanity in general
• Mentoring-to be interpreted broadly enough to include a variety of activities that foster student development and attainment (Direction of student research projects shall be considered under teaching rather than under mentoring.)
• Inter-USM-campus collaborative work- One collaboration award may be granted under each of the above categories of teaching; research, scholarship, or creative activity; public service; and mentoring. The collaborations must involve faculty from at least two USM institutions

Eligibility

The nominee must meet all of the following criteria:

• The faculty member(s) being nominated must be currently employed by a USM institution that is headquartered in the U.S. (but the faculty member him/herself need not be physically located in the U.S.)
• An individual must have been a USM faculty member for at least five years.
• The faculty member must have been employed by a USM institution while making the outstanding contributions on which the nomination is based.
• The period of performance to be considered will be the three-year period ending on June 30 of the year in which the nomination is made. CUSF may decide to hold over nominations for future consideration for up to two years. In those cases, the RFAC will notify the campus INFC by October 1. The INFC may choose to update the file or to withdraw it before November 15 of the academic year in which it will be reconsidered.

Criteria for Awards

The nominee's accomplishments must be characterized by the following:

• The faculty member should have fulfilled ordinary obligations as indicated in the institution's workload policy and as agreed upon by the department/unit. Accomplishments for which he or she is nominated must clearly exceed ordinary expectations.
• Achievements should be continuous in an academic field. Peers and/or the broader public must recognize the outstanding nature of the contributions.

Paid consultancies are excluded from award consideration.

Teaching Excellence: The nominee shall have demonstrated accomplishments in areas such as course development and pedagogy, faculty development, mentorship of faculty, direction of student research projects, and leadership in teaching improvement. These accomplishments can be demonstrated in face-to-face or distance learning settings. The award recipient shall have succeeded in promoting measurable increases in student learning.

Research/Scholarship/Creative Activity Excellence: The nominee shall have shown evidence of exceptional scholarship, research, or creative accomplishments that extend or deepen the bounds of knowledge.

Excellence in Public Service: The nominee shall have contributed to the community through involvement in initiatives such as K-16 programs, clinical practice, professional organizations, and public policy. Service to USM institutions is excluded.

Excellence in Mentoring: The nominee shall have demonstrated excellence in the mentoring of students. This can be demonstrated in several ways such as student career development, measurable improvement in areas such as retention and graduation rates, and improvement of post-baccalaureate progression rates or major-field or related-field employment rates. Supporting evidence should document the value of the mentoring. Testimony of current students and graduates is encouraged. Direction of student research projects shall be considered under teaching rather than under mentoring.

Excellence in Inter-USM-Campus Collaboration: Faculty members from at least two USM institutions shall have initiated the project and shall have participated in all phases, although faculty from other institutions can be part of the project.

Selection

Regents' Faculty Awards Committee: A Regents' Faculty Awards Committee (RFAC) shall be established by the Council of University System Faculty (CUSF) during each fall semester; it shall include five USM faculty members and one USM staff member. CUSF will select at least two faculty members from different comprehensive institutions and at least two from different research institutions. CUSF will select one additional faculty member from either a comprehensive institution or a research institution. The RFAC shall receive nominations from the faculty governance structure of each institution (through their President) and will recommend potential award recipients and ask the Regents to confirm these recommendations. Upon request, the Regents will be provided with the complete portfolio of each potential award recipient.

• The RFAC will judge each nominee only on the basis of evidence contained in the portfolio. Personal knowledge of additional accomplishments in the award categories will not be considered. Members of the RFAC shall excuse themselves from the review of nominees when there is the appearance of conflict of interest. The committee shall retain nomination packets for three years, and can choose among the entire group of available nominations each time.

Note: CUSF may decide to hold over nominations for future consideration for up to two years.
In those cases, the RFAC will notify the campus INFC by October 1. The INFC may choose to update the file or to withdraw it before November 15 of the academic year in which it will be reconsidered.

The Board of Regents receives the RFAC's annual list of recommendations and determines the recipients of the Regents' Faculty Awards each year.

Application

The nomination process will involve two stages.

I. For consideration on-campus (by the IFNC), the nominee will submit a packet totaling no more than five pages. It will include a summary resume, a one-page essay from the nominee describing how he or she has contributed to excellence in the category of the nomination, a letter of recommendation from the department chairperson or Dean, and brief documentation of exemplary achievement summarizing the materials listed below for the category.

After the campus IFNC committee has reviewed and chosen the applications to be nominated, complete packets will be prepared for submission to the campus President and transmission to the RFAC.

II. For system-wide RFAC consideration, a completed application will include the following within a maximum of twenty pages: Nomination letter from the President or designee indicating the reasons that the nominee deserves special recognition (The President is asked to submit a separate letter for each nominee.)

• For collaboration awards, either President may prepare the nomination letter. The other President(s) must endorse the nomination.
• A minimum of two, and maximum of four letters of recommendation. (Letters of recommendation may be from persons at the nominee's institution or at other institutions.) At least one letter from the department chairperson or Dean should be submitted. Telephone numbers and addresses of recommenders should be included so that the IFNC or the RFAC may communicate with them when necessary. Letters of recommendation will be available to all committee members to facilitate decision making and will not be considered confidential information.
• Current and relevant summary resume of nominee
• One-page essay from the nominee describing how he or she has contributed to excellence in the category of nomination
• Certification form documenting employment history at the institution and fulfillment of the institution's workload policy in the areas of teaching (classroom and non-classroom); scholarship/research/creative activity; and service
• Documentation of exemplary achievement (For the teaching category, documentation must include persuasive evidence of peer evaluation of teaching and student learning. For research, scholarship, or creative activity and for public service, no more than three letters of recommendation from qualified individuals external to the nominee's institution should be submitted. For mentoring, no more than five letters from current and former students should be submitted.)
• Additional supporting materials. With the entire packet not to exceed twenty pages (Institutions should adhere to the page limit for additional materials. The RFAC will ask the USM Office of Academic Affairs to return packets for streamlining when they exceed 20 pages).
• Ideally, nomination packets would be submitted to the USM Office of Academic Affairs electronically. If additional materials are necessary, these could be mailed or delivered to the office for forwarding to the committee members.
• Pages in each nomination packet should be numbered. If electronic submission is a hardship for the nominee, six three-hole punched copies should be submitted. Copies should not be stapled or bound.

Email, Mail or deliver packets to:

USM Office of Academic Affairs 3300 Metzerott Road Adelphi, MD 20783 LilyAnn Brown: labrown@usmd.edu

Revised: May 18 2006