President’s Distinguished Faculty Achievement Awards

The University values the important work carried out by our faculty members and their commitment to the success of RMU. The President’s Distinguished Faculty Achievement Awards were established to recognize one university faculty member every academic year in each of the three Academic Excellence core value areas: Teaching, Scholarship, and Service. The recognition of the award recipients takes place in the Spring Full-time Faculty Convocation.

Award Categories

President’s Distinguished Teaching Award

The President’s Distinguished Teaching Award recognizes exceptional  accomplishments of a full-time faculty member in Teaching during  the prior academic year (fall to summer). This award focuses on exceptional accomplishments in teaching students within the classroom (on-ground, online, or hybrid). In addition, an excellent runner-up may be considered for a written commendation by the President.   

Who is eligible to receive the award?

Non-administrative full-time faculty members. 

How is the award recipient selected?

The awardee is selected on a competitive basis from the nominees by the President. The President shall decide on the award recipient using the recommendation and ranking of the candidates provided by the review committee. A second candidate may also be selected for a written commendation.

Who is on the Review Committee?

The review committee shall be formed by the Provost and shall consists of three members:

  • One Distinguished Teaching Award recipient.
  • One Distinguished Award recipient from another award category.
  • One faculty member (a probationary faculty member preferred).

How are applications evaluated?

The committee reviews nominations and supporting materials, and votes for award recipients based upon the overall excellence or distinguishment in teaching. 

What materials are needed for the application? 

The Provost shall request nominees to submit applications and supporting materials. Nominees should provide the following information in the sequence listed: 

  1. Teaching Philosophy & Examples of implementation
  2. Course Outcomes:  Explicit and clear Student Learning Outcomes 
  3. Innovative and engaged learning strategies
  4. Ways you stay current in the discipline
  5. Open-ended Question:  Briefly explain in 250 words or less…What are you doing in the classroom to promote student success?
  6. Optional Evidence:
    • Peer/Administrative Observations
    • Unsolicited communication from students
    • Teaching Awards  
  7. Nominated Faculty members may submit their application as a PDF file, a Video, or a Voice over Power Point slide deck.

Notes

  • Additional supporting materials may be required upon request of the review committee. 
  • Letters of support are not required and shall not be considered.

View Past Recipients

President’s Distinguished Scholarship Award

The President’s Distinguished Scholarship Award recognizes exceptional accomplishments of a full-time faculty member’s scholarship in the prior academic year (fall to summer). Scholarship includes publications and creative works appropriate to the nominee’s field. In addition, an excellent runner-up may be considered for a written commendation by the President. 

Who is eligible to receive the award?

Non-administrative full-time faculty members. 

How is the award recipient selected?

The awardee is selected on a competitive basis from the nominees by the President. The President shall decide on the award recipient using the recommendation and ranking of preferably three candidates provided by the review committee. A second candidate may also be selected for a written commendation.

Who is on the Review Committee?

The review committee shall be formed by the Provost and shall consists of five members:

  • Three Distinguished Scholarship Award recipients (from different fields, including the arts).
  • One Distinguished Award recipient from another award category.
  • One faculty member (a probationary faculty member preferred).

How are applications evaluated?

The committee reviews nominations and nominees’ materials, and votes for award recipients based upon the overall excellence or distinguishment of the scholarly works, considering: 

  • the impact or likely impact in the academic field (e.g., publication or acceptance in competitive or eminent journals, juried festivals, exhibitions, performance venues, or equivalent); and
  • the impact or likely impact on students (e.g., value to students or for teaching). 

For this award purely theoretical, artistic, or academic works are considered. However, inclusion of teaching-related publications or publications that may impact students (e.g., useful or applicable in the classroom) is favorable.

What materials are needed for the application? 

The Provost shall request nominees to submit applications and supporting materials. The elements of the application will consist of:

  • President’s Distinguished Scholarship Award – Application: In addition, digital copies of publications or suitable representations of works (e.g., photographs, portfolio, reviews) must also be submitted as PDF file attachments. 
  •  Accomplishments Table: Nominees shall list all scholarly work in the application table. Nominees shall use the notes column to briefly narrate what the work was about (lay terms) and its contribution.
  • Accepted Works: Only works or publications that have been accepted by peer reviewed, juried, and curated outlets (e.g., conferences, journals, exhibitions, art and film festivals, books, and book chapters) shall be considered. Nominees should not include works in progress. It is important that evidence of acceptance accompany unpublished works. 
  • Grants: Research and creative-focused grants shall be considered on their merit (e.g., competitive nature of the grant), but this award recognizes that not all fields have equal access to grants. Works arising from research and creative grants are most valued (in their year of publication, not the year of the grant award). 
  • Contribution: The award shall give more weight to works where the nominee is a major contributor (e.g., 50%). A rationale for contributing to the work of an art collective can be made. In the contribution column, nominees shall include their role and the extent of contribution for each work (e.g., see https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/authorship).  
  • Impact: Evidence of impact might include confirmation of the influence, significance, or competitiveness of the outlet or exhibition in the nominee’s field including but not limited to journal rankings (e.g., impact factor from scimagojr.com), acceptance rates of submissions, or other documented support.
  • Works: Nominees shall upload PDFs or images of the creative works (and acceptance letters if not yet published).
  • Number of Works: The quality and impact of works shall be weighted more than the number of publications. Nominees are encouraged to submit a high impact and cohesive collection of works rather than including trivial works, works unrelated to their field, or works where their contribution is considered minimal.

Notes

  • Additional supporting materials may be required upon request of the review committee. 
  • Letters of support are not required and shall not be considered.

View Past Recipients

President’s Distinguished Service Award

The President’s Distinguished Service Award recognizes exceptional accomplishments of a full-time faculty member in Service in the prior academic year (fall to summer). This award focuses on service contributions to RMU and the surrounding community. In addition, an excellent runner-up may be considered for a written commendation by the President.   

Who is eligible to receive the award?

Non-administrative full-time faculty members. 

How is the award recipient selected?

The awardee is selected on a competitive basis from the nominees by the President. The President shall decide on the award recipient using the recommendation and ranking of preferably three candidates provided by the review committee. A second candidate may also be selected for a written commendation.

Who is on the Review Committee?

The review committee shall be formed by the Provost and shall consists of three members:

  • One Distinguished Service Award recipient.
  • One Distinguished Award recipient from another award category.
  • One faculty member (a probationary faculty member preferred).

How are applications evaluated?

The committee reviews nominations and nominees’ materials, and votes for an award recipient based on overall excellence demonstrated by exceeding expectations of service in two (or more) categories of the following: 

  • Service to the University, 
  • Service to the School, 
  • Service to the discipline and profession, 
  • Service to society and the community, and 
  • Service to the students. 

What materials are needed for the application? 

The Provost shall request nominees to submit applications. Nominees should provide the following: 

  1. Service CV with added brief context less than 150 words per service item. Service CV should consist of materials related to overall excellence in service in more than two of the following categories:
    • Service to the University
    • Service to the School
    • Service to the discipline and profession
    • Service to society and the community
    • Service to the students
  2. Nominated Faculty members may submit their application as a video, a voice over Power Point slide deck, or a voice recording supporting the application. Submission should not exceed 5 minutes.  

Notes

  • Anything that is considered part of the applicant's teaching load or that the nominee is being compensated for will not be considered service. 
  • Additional supporting materials may be required upon request of the review committee. 
  • Letters of support are not required and shall not be considered.

View Past Recipients

Eligibility

Non-administrative full-time faculty members are eligible for a President’s Distinguished Faculty Award. Full-time faculty includes lecturers and library faculty.

Nomination and Procedure

Full time faculty members or full time faculty administrators are eligible to submit nominations.  Nomination of a full-time faculty member (including self-nominations) are to be submitted by using the Presidential Distinguished Award Nomination Form.

Nomination Form View Past Recipients

Nominees will be informed by the Provost and will be required to submit their application and supporting materials to the Provost.

Timeline

The following timeline is recommended for the award process:

  • Award announced by the President in the first week of the Fall semester.
  • Nominations received by the Provost by the close of business on Friday, September 20.
  • Committees formed by the Provost by the end of the second week of October.
  • Application and supporting materials submitted by the Nominees to the Provost by the end of the third week of October.
  • Application and supporting materials shared by the Provost with the committee by November 1.
  • Review Committees recommendations submitted to the President through the Provost by the end of November.
  • Award recipients announced by the President at Spring full time faculty member convocation.

General Questions

  • Who is eligible? Non-administrative full-time faculty members are eligible for the awards.
  • Who can nominate? Full time faculty members or full time faculty administrators can submit nominations.
  • How often can a faculty member win an award? Eligible faculty members can apply every year. However, those who have not received the award in the last five years shall be given priority review for that award category.
  • Can an individual faculty member receive multiple awards in the same year? A faculty member can be nominated and can apply for multiple awards in the same year. However, a faculty member cannot be awarded two separate awards in the same year.
  • Who will review the applications? A committee of 3 or 5 faculty members shall be formed to review applications for each award category.