Outstanding Faculty Awards

About the Award

Baylor University honors twelve faculty members as Outstanding Faculty for each academic year. This award represents a singular honor since the recognition comes from one's colleagues. Each of the twelve outstanding faculty will receive a cash award of $3,750, a citation, and recognition by her or his department.

Governance

Selection Committee for Outstanding Faculty

Frequency

These awards are given annually each academic year.

Nominations Process

The chief element in the selection process is faculty nominations of outstanding colleagues. The Selection Committee for Outstanding Faculty encourages all faculty members to nominate outstanding colleagues. Faculty members may submit a nomination for each award group, with each school/college, the Seminary, or the Libraries determining the mechanics of such nominations. Please note that previous nominees can be re-submitted for consideration.

The Selection Committee for Outstanding Faculty has been charged to select, in each case, the "best all-around faculty member based on teaching capabilities, research achievement, effective committee service, time spent with students, and civic and church involvement."

For instructions on how to submit a nomination in your department, please contact your dean. Submissions to deans are due on November 1 of each academic year.

Deans will send their unit’s selected nominations for all areas for which their unit is eligible to the Selection Committee for Outstanding Faculty by February 1 of each academic year. This must be done electronically and sent as ONE PDF file for each award nomination to the committee chair, Kristle Soto. Please include the name of the award category, the name of the school, and the name of the nominee in the name of the file.

Award Groups

Three tenured teaching awards.
1. One from the Schools of Business, Law, or Engineering and Computer Science.
2. One from the Schools of Education, Music, Social Work, Nursing, College of Health and Human Sciences, the Seminary, the Libraries, or the Honors College.
3. One from the College of Arts and Sciences (three total nominees to be submitted from science, social sciences, and humanities).
One tenure-track, but not tenured teaching award.
Three non-tenure-track teaching awards.
1. One from the Schools of Business, Law, or Engineering and Computer Science.
2. One from the Schools of Education, Music, Social Work, Nursing, College of Health and Human Sciences, the Seminary, the Libraries, or the Honors College.
3. One from the College of Arts and Sciences (three total nominees to be submitted from science, social sciences, and humanities).
Three tenured scholarship awards.
1. One from the Schools of Business, Law, or Engineering and Computer Science.
2. One from the Schools of Education, Music, Social Work, Nursing, College of Health and Human Sciences, the Seminary, the Libraries, or the Honors College.
3. One from the College of Arts and Sciences (three total nominees to be submitted from science, social sciences, and humanities).
One tenure-track, but not yet tenured scholarship award.
One award for "significant contributions to the academic community in ways other than teaching or research."

Selection Process

Unit-Level Nominating Committees

Under the leadership of their dean, a nominating committee from each school/college, the Seminary, and the Library should be formed. The committee will be the recommending body for its organizational unit.

Each committee should include a student who is a major in that unit as a representative on its nominating committee, with the exception of the Library, where it may be a student worker. Nominees from the Library must be faculty members.

The unit-level nominating committee shall then make one nomination for each applicable award group and submit these nominations to the dean.

Candidate Nomination Packet Requirements

Candidate nomination packets are limited to four pages, which should include:
1. An abbreviated curriculum vitae.
2. Letters of recommendation from their dean or chair.
3. Letters of recommendation from colleagues (internal or external to Baylor).
4. Excerpts (quantitative or qualitative) from course evaluations.
5. Letters of recommendation from current or past students.
Pages should be numbered. Pages beyond the limit of four will not be reviewed. Concisely summarize student evaluations rather than submitting originals.
The scholarly voice of the candidate information should be in 3rd person point-of-view.
The candidate nomination packet font size should be no smaller than 10 pt., and the margins should be no narrower than 3/4 inches.
Within the letters of recommendation, the candidate's teaching, research, university service, student contacts, and community and church service should be addressed. First priority should be addressed to the category to which the candidate is being nominated (i.e., teaching, scholarship, significant contributions).

Renomination of Candidates or Previous Awardees

Please note in the candidate nomination packet if the candidate has previously been nominated (and how many times) or if they received an outstanding faculty award in the past. Preference will be given to nominees that have not previously received an award. The Selection Committee for Outstanding Faculty encourages units to renominate strong candidates.