Award for Excellence in Teaching
The Award for Excellence in Teaching (AET) recognizes faculty members with 10 or more years of service at UIC for their exceptional contributions to teaching effectiveness. AET celebrates their profound commitment to teaching excellence, innovative practices, and the positive impact they have on the academic community.
Meet the Award for Excellence in Teaching Recipients
2025-26 Guidelines for the UIC Award for Excellence in Teaching
Eligibility
1
1. Nominees for this award must be tenure system, or non-tenured clinical faculty, lecturers and instructors (including senior rank) with a full-time appointment at the University of Illinois Chicago. All nominees must have taught at UIC for a minimum of ten years. They will be identified through college nominations only.
2. Nominations of women and underrepresented minority faculty are strongly encouraged.
3. Faculty with emeritus status or who have part-time appointments are not eligible.
2
4. Former recipients of the award are not eligible.
5. Colleges will solicit their departments for nominations. Each department may make one, and only one nomination.
6. Each College may submit a maximum of one nominee for every 100 eligible faculty members in the College, up to a maximum of three nominations. Colleges with fewer than 100 faculty members may submit one nominee.
Nominations
1
1. Nominations begin at the departmental level. One nominee is chosen (from one or more eligible department faculty) by following department nomination procedures.
2. Colleges will establish their own criteria, required evidence, and internal processes for selecting the nominee(s). Peer assessment and internal or external recognition (e.g., prior teaching awards, program grants) should be given principal weight.
3. The Dean of each college must establish a nominating committee, consisting of at least three highly qualified senior faculty members who have experience dealing with the establishment of appropriate criteria and internal procedures for selection of their nominee(s). This committee might be a subcommittee of the College’s Executive Committee, a promotion and tenure committee, or an ad hoc committee.
2
4. The composition of the nominating committee will be reported in the Dean’s letter. Likewise, the committee vote will be reported in the Dean’s letter.
5. A faculty member may be nominated by a college for no more than two consecutive years. After such attempts, they may be re-nominated after a period of three years.
Required Materials - Please read carefully
Required Materials — Please read carefully
1
The review panel will make its determinations based on the required nomination materials, which must be included with all nominations. Conciseness and brevity are encouraged. The packet will not move forward for review if there is a failure to supply all required materials, or requests for further clarification and additions are not submitted 5 days prior to the deadline.
Please arrange the nomination materials in the following order.
1. Required Checklist – Downloadable checklist must be submitted as the first page of the nomination packet
2. Letter of endorsement from the Dean of the College, which includes the following:
-
- Name of the college nominating committee, with a list of the members’ names, titles, and department affiliation. Please indicate if the committee was elected or appointed
- Number (no names) of nominees submitted to the college for nomination
- Outcome of the secret ballot by members of the nominating committee
- College criteria/procedures used by the nominating committee in its selection process
- A brief statement about how the teaching benefits the College
- It should be noted that the Dean’s endorsement letter provides an excellent opportunity for the Dean to make the case as to why the candidate should receive the award
2
3. Letter of endorsement from the Department Head, which includes the following:
-
- Name of the Department nominations committee, with a list of the members’ names and titles
- Number (no names) of nominees considered by the committee
- Outcome of the secret ballot by members of that committee
- Departmental criteria/procedures used by the committee in its selection process, including what evaluative materials are routinely gathered by the department and any procedures used to ensure that all qualified candidates are fully considered
- Concise summary of teaching evaluations including departmental norms for student evaluations. Do not submit raw data from student evaluations or student testimonials.
- Special effectiveness in curriculum and instructional material development
- How nominee’s research and service support their nomination for this award
- Receipt of formal teaching awards and recognitions
- Summary of the nominee’s contributions to student advising and supervision at both the undergraduate and graduate levels
4. Nominee’s Teaching Record for at least the last seven years.
5. Nominee’s Narrative Philosophy Statement: This should emphasize a philosophy of teaching and demonstrate the nominee’s commitment to teaching excellence. The narrative philosophy statement should be a maximum of two pages, single spaced, one-inch margins and at least an 11-pt. font.
6. Nominee’s Narrative Impact Statement: This statement should delineate accomplishments including formal contributions to teaching effectiveness. Sample activities include administration, student advising and supervision, service, curriculum development, publications (pertaining to teaching and education), and funding. The narrative impact statement should be a maximum of two pages, single spaced, one-inch margins and at least an 11-pt. font.
7. Three letters of support from peers or students attesting to first-hand knowledge of excellence in teaching. No more than three letters will be accepted with the application.
8. Nominee’s current curriculum vitae
Submission
1
Nominations Packets must be submitted electronically on the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs’ Award for Excellence in Teaching website via the submission link below as an electronic PDF by Friday, February 21, 2025.
2
Nomination packets submitted prior to the deadline, will be reviewed to ensure all required materials have been submitted. Applications missing documents or which are incomplete will be returned and the requested material may be provided as part of a revised application which must be received prior to the deadline. Nomination packets turned in at the deadline that are incomplete will not be considered.
Monetary Support
1
A maximum of five awards will be given in any one year. The awards consist of a salary increase of $5,000 ($3,000 from campus resources, plus $2,000 from the resources of the nominating college). This award is independent of any annual increase accorded to the faculty. The salary increase becomes effective on August 16 following notification of the award.
2
All college nominees who are not selected as award recipients will receive a one-time award payment of $500 paid from campus resources. This payment will be processed by the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs for direct deposit after the annual Faculty Award Ceremony and Reception.
Award Recognition
1
UIC Award for Excellence in Teaching recipients will be notified by the Chancellor’s Office by mid-summer.
2
Award recipients will be recognized at the Faculty Awards Ceremony and Reception held annually.