How Member Colleges Select Excellence Award Recipients

Below is a list of strategies and suggestions for how to go about the selection process that we have compiled from our member colleges:

• Every year faculty members select the outstanding full-time faculty member, part-time faculty members, and the outstanding staff person. This gives these three individuals national recognition.
• They look at faculty portfolios for a committee selection process.
• They go through a fairly arduous state process to identify two faculty award recipients for the Board of Trustees’ annual awards, and that provides us with the two names we send to NISOD for the Excellence Awards.
• Recipients are nominated by students or peers. Nominees are then asked to complete a short questionnaire addressing innovative or significant impact on the college culture. The final recipients are selected using a rubric to score the answers provided on the questionnaire.
• They receive recommendations from the chair or director of each recipient’s department. A subcommittee reviews the letters, based on the criteria in a rubric.
• Students and faculty nominate teachers each year. The Teaching Excellence Award Committee selects one person from the academic transfer side of the house and one from career/technical education. The committee is co-chaired by the previous year’s recipients.
• The academic leadership takes student evaluations, promotion criteria, college involvement, and other faculty accomplishments into consideration when making the selections.
• The associate dean in each division submits a nominee.
• The Chancellor of the college selects those nominees who have shown a commitment to education and providing good customer service, along with strong leadership skills.
• The decision is made at the President’s Staff level, based on accomplishments over the past year.
• Department chairs nominate deserving faculty, and the Academic Affairs Council (composed of department chairs, transfer coordinators, associate VP and VP) makes final decisions.
• They request nominations, which are then reviewed by a 12-member team. One nominee is selected. It is a special award on our campus.
• Each year a different academic division has a turn at selecting an exceptional faculty member for the award. The dean of the division selects the faculty member. It is an excellent opportunity to honor and recognize hard-working and innovative faculty. The Excellence Award is a designation that is valued.