Awards Information

The former Faculty Senate established the Faculty Awards to recognize exceptionalism and professionalism amongst the TAMIU faculty. The awards are a way to publicly recognize faculty in quality teaching and research as defined by the faculty.

Currently, there are 3 awards given:

Distinguished University Scholar
Distinguished University Teacher
Outstanding Teacher of the Year

Awards

Distinguished University Scholar

The Distinguished University Scholar recognizes the scholarly work and achievements completed by a tenure or tenure-track faculty member in their field of expertise. The evaluation considers the impact and contributions made within the field, the research success, and any innovation that has influenced the scholarly discipline or society at large. Eligibility requirements:

Must be employed at TAMIU for at least 3 calendar years.
Submit a brief electronic portfolio highlighting achievements (20 pp. maximum)
Must include scholarly or creative accomplishments for the past 3 years; the current year is the year covered by the most recent evaluation
Submit by the deadline to their respective College's Promotion and Tenure Committee

Distinguished University Teacher and Outstanding Teacher of the Year

The Distinguished University Teacher focuses on tenure or tenure-track faculty while the Outstanding Teacher of the Year focuses on fixed-term faculty. Both awards emphasize exceptional ability in teaching. These awards recognize faculty who apply effective teaching practices that promote student success and student engagement. The evaluation focuses on the presence, course management, and delivery of instruction in the classroom with a remote observation. Moreover, the award considers strategies, assessments, technology, and rapport with students.

Eligibility requirements:

Must be employed at TAMIU for at least 3 calendar years.
Submit a brief electronic portfolio highlighting achievements (20 pp. maximum)
Submit by the deadline to their respective College's Promotion and Tenure Committee

Procedure

The procedure begins with the announcement to all faculty that the nomination window is open. Each college conducts their own process for nominations for all three awards with the aid of the college's promotion and tenure committee. This committee will select a recipient who becomes the college's award recipients. These recipients progress to the Faculty Advisory Council's awards' nomination process. The recipients for each college are as follows:

COAS: 2 nominees for each award [6 total]
ARSSB: 1 nominee for each award [3 total]
CNHS: 1 nominee for each award [3 total]
COED: 1 nominee for each award [3 total]

In the FAC May meeting, the Faculty Advisory Council votes for all 3 awards: Distinguished Scholar of the Year, Distinguished Teacher of the Year, and Outstanding Teacher of the Year from the nominees for each award. Council members who were nominated and council members who have not read all the portfolios will not participate in the voting.

Timeline
Date(s) to be completed	Description
October 19 - November 30	Open nominations for Distinguished Scholar of the Year (DSY), Distinguished Teacher of the Year (DTY), and Outstanding Teacher of the Year (OTY).
Dec 1	Each Department/ Division Chair forwards nominees to their College P&T Committee Chair and/or College Dean, Cc: sean.maddan@tamiu.edu Note: If there are two nominees within one Department, the Department completes an internal voting process to select their single nominee.
Dec 9 - January 31	Dr. Madden will provide the nominee with their Interfolio case and they can begin working on their portfolio.
January 31	Deadline to submit the Interfolio case to the College P&T Committee.
Feb 1 - Feb 19	The College P&T Committee will meet no later than February 19 to review nominees’ portfolios and select the College DSY, DTY, and OTY nominees.
Feb 26	College P&T committee chair or department/division chair will write and send a recommendation letter per nominee to lily.brooks@tamiu.edu and sean.maddan@tamiu.edu College P&T committee chair or department/division chair will submit the names of each nominee to sean.maddan@tamiu.edu
March 5	Faculty Advisory Council Awards Committee will provide the class recording instructions to DTY and OTY nominees.
March 15 - March 31	DTY and OTY nominees record one class using Echo 360 and upload the recording to Interfolio.
April 1 - April 16	Ad Hoc DTY Committee and Ad Hoc OTY members review the recordings and report on instruction.
April 16	Ad Hoc Committees submit classroom rubrics to Awards Committee via Microsoft Forms.
April 19 - May 6	Faculty Advisory Council review portfolios.
May 7	Faculty Advisory Council votes on DSY, DTY and OTY.

Announcement

Award recipients will be announced at the Fall Assembly.

Once recognized as Distinguished University Scholar or Teacher of the Year and Outstanding Teacher of the Year, faculty members will not be eligible for consideration for any additional faculty award for three years.