Eisenhart Award Committees

The criteria for the Nomination Committees can be found in Policy E12.1 sections VII and VIII as noted below:

VII. Organization and Selection of Nomination Committees

1. There shall be a nomination committee for each of the groups.

2. Each committee shall consist of the following: two full-time tenured faculty members with at least seven years of teaching at RIT from each college or unit assigned to that group; the appointee of the Faculty Senate; and two student representatives appointed by the president of Student Government.

3. College elections (or appointments) of faculty representatives to nomination committees shall be presided over by the appropriate Institute Council representative. Runners-up, where elections are conducted, shall serve as replacements in the event of resignation of committee members who wish to be considered for the award. The faculty from each college on each nomination committee shall be tenured faculty members.

4. The term for each nomination committee member shall be a three-year term with a maximum of two consecutive terms. The committee shall annually elect a chair (or co-chair) from the faculty committee members.

5. Each voting member of a nomination committee shall have one vote and all votes shall be equal.

6. The recommendation of candidates to the Awards Committee shall be by a majority vote of each nomination committee.

VIII. Charge to the Nomination Committee

The purpose of each nomination committee is to seek out the most outstanding teacher for both the Eisenhart Awards for Outstanding Teaching and the Richard and Virginia Eisenhart Provost’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in the group that they represent.

To ensure that the search is as fair and unbiased as possible, each committee shall strive to obtain its information from sources other than the candidate or sources provided by the candidate. There may, of course, be exceptions: e.g., a resume, a course outline, etc. However, the spirit of the search is to be as impartial as possible, the responsibility for collecting information resting with the committee.

In its efforts to find the most outstanding teacher, each committee shall accept and evaluate candidates without discrimination, including, but not limited to, discrimination based on gender, age, religion, race, nationality or sexual orientation:       

1. Ascertain that each candidate is eligible.

2. Obtain a signed consent form from each nominee, agreeing to the evaluation.

3. Perform a preliminary evaluation that will be limited to:

   1. Current curriculum vitae

   2. List of courses taught in the last  three years

   3. Student evaluations for the last three years, if available

   4. Teaching philosophy.

4. Enjoy discretionary power in the evaluation of the finalists. However, the candidates recommended to the Awards Committee shall have clearly and unequivocally demonstrated outstanding and active involvement in assisting RIT students. Furthermore, scholarship as criteria shall be used only as it applies to teaching.

5. Accept and evaluate recommendations from alumni, students, deans, department head/directors, and faculty members.

6. Be free to use a variety of procedures and evidence to investigate finalists. These procedures may also include but are not limited to:

   1. Interviews with students, faculty, deans and department heads/directors;

   2. Interview with the finalists by two members of the committee;

   3. A special Eisenhart Award evaluation process developed by the nomination committee.

7. Standardized assessment forms will be used in deliberations by each committee to enable parity in judgment. Class visitation by two members of the committee is strongly encouraged as part of the evaluation of final candidates, provided the candidate has given his/her prior written consent.

8. Submit to the Awards Committee, at the discretion of the nomination committee, the name of one candidate for the Eisenhart Awards for Outstanding Teaching and the name of one candidate for the Richard and Virginia Eisenhart Award for Excellence in Teaching. The recommendations shall be supported with clear, precise and detailed documentation, as well as an oral presentation by the chair to the Awards Committee.

The criteria for the Nomination Committees can be found in Policy E12.1 sections IX and X as noted below:

IX. Organization of the Awards Committee

1. The Awards Committee shall be comprised of eight members: the provost and two appointees of his/her choice from previous Eisenhart Award winners; the chair of the Faculty Senate and two appointees of his/her choice from previous award winners; one student selected by the president of Student Government; and the Eisenhart Awards Coordinator (non-voting). Appointees should not currently be members of nomination committees, but they might well be chosen from among former nomination committee members.

2. The Eisenhart Awards coordinator will serve as chair of the Awards Committee.

3. The Awards Committee shall request a brief presentation by the chair of each nomination committee explaining its selection process and why it believes the candidate for each award to be an outstanding teacher.

4. Each voting member of the Awards Committee shall have one vote and all votes shall be equal.

5. All decisions of the Awards Committee shall be by majority vote.

X. Charge to the Awards Committee

The purpose of the Awards Committee is to review the activities of each nomination committee to assure that fairness and impartiality have been maintained by the nomination committee in its evaluation, and to review the documentation on each candidate for each award presented to the Awards Committee to assure that the high standards of excellence in teaching have been obtained.

To discharge its responsibility, the Awards Committee shall:

1. Assure that fairness, objectivity and nondiscrimination have been adhered to by the nomination committees by reviewing the evaluation procedures of each nomination committee.

2. Verify that each candidate presented is eligible.

3. Review the supporting documentation provided by the nomination committees to assure the criteria for outstanding teaching have been met.

4. Determine recipients for the Eisenhart Award for Outstanding Teaching

   1. Ensure fairness and objectivity in the final selection of the nominees for the Eisenhart Award for Outstanding Teaching by considering each candidate and supporting documentation separately and independently from all other candidates. The recipient of an award must have demonstrated outstanding excellence in teaching but shall not be compared or ranked against other candidates.

   2. Affirm or reject the nominations of each nominating committee for the Eisenhart Award for Outstanding Teaching as recipients of the awards.

5. Determine the recipient for the Richard and Virginia Eisenhart Eisenhart Early Career Award for Excellence in Teaching.

   1. Additional information may be obtained to clarify the nominee’s documentation.

   2. Select or not select one recipient from the nominees presented by the Nominations Committees.