Faculty Handbook

MSU Teacher-Scholar Awards

IV. ACADEMIC HUMAN RESOURCES POLICIES (Cont.)

Teacher-Scholar Awards are made to six members of the tenure system faculty from the ranks of assistant professor and associate professor who early in their careers have earned the respect of students and colleagues for their devotion to and skill in teaching. The essential purpose of the award is to provide recognition to the best teachers who have served at MSU for seven years or less, taking into consideration that the most effective teachers will have their instruction intricately linked to and informed by their research and creative activities. Nominations are normally made by department chairpersons/school directors after consultation with an appropriate committee of colleagues.  No department/school may make more than two nominations.  "At large" nominations are also invited from an appropriate student organization.  All nominations are reviewed by a college screening committee, which may forward the number of nominations to the Office of the Provost as shown in the table below.

To be considered for an MSU Teacher-Scholar Award, a tenure system faculty member must hold the rank of assistant professor or associate professor and, at the beginning of the award period, must have served on the faculty for at least two semesters but no more than seven academic years at Michigan State University.  In addition, nominees must not have more than ten years of employment experience of all kinds since receipt of the terminal degree applicable to their discipline.  Years spent in "postdoc" appointments will not be counted in determining eligibility.  Nominees for a Teacher-Scholar Award must be willing to permit a member of the awards committee to visit their classrooms. Committee visitation is a part of the total evaluation procedure only for those nominees who, after preliminary screening, seem most promising. (MSU College of Law, Facility for Rare Isotope Beams/National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory [FRIB/NSCL] faculty and Health Programs [HP] faculty are also eligible for nomination). 

Number of Eligible Tenure System Assistant/Associate Professors in College	Maximum Number of Teacher-Scholar Nominations forwarded by the College
Less than 40	2
40-45	3
More than 45	4

Additional information can be found at http://www.ahr.msu.edu/all-university-awards.

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