Excellence in Teaching Awards

including the Ron Ruby Award for Teaching Excellence in the Division of Physical and Biological Sciences

Each year the Academic Senate recognizes a select group of UCSC instructors for teaching that is exemplary and inspiring. Any full-time or part-time faculty member is eligible for an award, provided that they have not received the award in the past 5 years. (See complete rules, below.)

Only students may submit nominations.
The deadline to submit nomination materials for 2007-08 awards is:
5:00 P.M. March 7, 2008 (nominations after this date will be accepted for the following year).

How to nominate
Nomination letter guidelines
Rules
Selection process
Ron Ruby Award for Teaching in PB Sciences
Award ceremony
Other Campus Awards

Know someone you’d like to nominate? Here’s how. . .

• Write a letter of nomination, following the guidelines below.
• Fill out the on-line nomination form.
• Paste your letter into the nomination form and press "submit form ".

If you prefer to submit your nomination on paper, download a nomination packet to print or ask for one in your department or college office and return the form to Kerr Hall, rm 133. Questions? Call 459-5091, or email cte@ucsc.edu.

Nomination letter guidelines

• The nomination letter should be typed and should be a Minimum of 200 words and a Maximum of 1000 words.
• Write why you feel this instructor deserves to receive the award.
• Describe the nominee's teaching techniques, what you learned from him/her, respect for and committment to students, as appropriate. Please provide enough detail to give the selection committee a clear picture of the nominee's teaching. The most effective letters provide concrete examples to illustrate and support the positive comments. Try to help the selection committee “see” your instructor’s teaching as clearly as possible.

Excellence in Teaching Award rules

• Nominees may not have won the award during past 5 years. (Click here for list of past award winners.)
• Only current UCSC students may submit a nomination.
• Graduate students may not nominate their current advisor.
• A nominee must be a full-time or part-time faculty member at UCSC. (Not eligible: OPERS instructors, or other instructors in recreational, non-credit courses.)
• Faculty nominated from the Physical and Biologicial Sciences Division are automatically eligible for the Ron Ruby Award, as well as the Excellence in Teaching Award.
  

Selection Process

After gathering student nominations, CTE notifies each faculty member of their nomination and requests that they write a statement on teaching.

Additionally, CTE requests letters from department chairs reporting on the nominees' pedagogical effectiveness from the department's point of view.

The Committee on Teaching reviews the student nominations, faculty statements, and department chair letters, then selects award winners. Award winners and the students who nominated them are notified by email.

Ron Ruby Award for Teaching Excellence in the Division of Physical and Biological Sciences

This new award was created in 2005 to honor former Physics professor Ron Ruby. One recipient each year is selected from among the Excellence in Teaching Award nominees from the PB Sciences Division.

Award Ceremony

The faculty winners are publicly honored at the Excellence in Teaching Award Ceremony. The Chancellor and the Chair of the Committee on Teaching present the Award Winners with award certificates and a check for $500.

Other Campus Awards

Dizikes Teaching Award in Humanities
http://humwww.ucsc.edu/administration/curriculum_analyst/dizikes.php

Alumni Assoc. Distinguished Teaching Award
http://alumni.ucsc.edu/programs/awards/Distinguished_Teaching.html