The Provost Award for Excellence in Teaching

Rochester Institute of Technology was selected several years ago to participate in the Sears-Roebuck Foundation’s Teaching Excellence and Campus Leadership Award Program. Because the program, which was discontinued by Sears-Roebuck, was so successful and enthusiastically received at RIT, it was decided that the Provost’s Office would continue to fund the award each year, renaming it the Provost’s Excellence in Teaching Award. Richard and Virginia Eisenhart have continued the legacy of the Eisenhart family’s support of teaching and learning at RIT by endowing the Provost’s Excellence in Teaching Award. In appreciation, this award has been renamed the Richard and Virginia Eisenhart Provost’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. Mr. Eisenhart, chairman emeritus of the Board of Trustees and member for 26 years, and Mrs. Eisenhart were also generous supporters of the Eisenhart Memorial Scholarship, the Nathaniel Rochester Society, the Athenaeum, and the Kilian J. and Caroline F. Schmitt Interfaith Center. The Richard and Virginia Eisenhart Provost’s Award for Excellence in Teaching supports undergraduate education at RIT by recognizing the fundamental importance of the quality of teaching to the value of the education process; supporting faculty who have taught three years or less in their pursuit of excellence in teaching and leadership in the campus community; assisting the Institute in nurturing the academic climate that fosters teaching at its best; and enhancing teaching as a profession.