Office of the Provost

2008 Teaching Awards Memo

December 14, 2007

MEMORANDUM

It is time to submit nominations for the G. Graydon Curtis ’58 and Jane W. Curtis Award for Nontenured Faculty Teaching and the Edward Peck Curtis Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, to be awarded at the 2008 commencement ceremonies. 

Below are descriptions of the awards.  Both awards may not apply to you – please read carefully. 

1. The G. Graydon Curtis ’58 and Jane W. Curtis Award in honor of Professor Ralph Helmkampis for a nontenured faculty member of the River Campus. To use the donor’s words: “Recognizing that many tenured faculty members excel in both teaching and research, it is my expectation that this annual award directed exclusively to the nontenured faculty will encourage both interest in and excellence in instruction at the undergraduate and graduate levels.”  The faculty member selected will be honored with a citation at commencement and will receive $2,500.  Please solicit nominees from your departments.


2. Schools with undergraduate programs should solicit nominees from faculty and students for the Edward Peck Curtis Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. The faculty member selected will be honored with a citation at commencement and will receive $2,000.  We assume that it takes a reasonable period of time, probably at least eight years, for a faculty member to develop the record of excellence required for the Edward Peck Curtis Award.  This is a distinguished teaching prize and to receive it is a true honor; please nominate your best faculty members.

In reviewing candidates for both of these awards, remember that excellence in teaching requires more than successful classroom performance. We expect to review data summarizing teaching evaluations from students and alumni, but we also look for information about the design of new courses and course sequences that improve chances for student learning, evidence of candidates’ interactions with students in non-classroom settings, and testimony from faculty peers about how well students are prepared by the nominee.  Further, candidates for the Edward Peck Curtis Award should demonstrate their readiness to help less experienced or less successful teachers and teaching assistants master their craft.

Provost Kuncl will make the final decisions for these awards.  For your reference, lists of past recipients are available on the Provost’s Office website at www.rochester.edu/provost/curtis.html and www.rochester.edu/provost/peckcurtis.html.

Please solicit nominations and submit your top two selections for each award (where appropriate), with documentation, to me no later than Friday, February 1, 2008.