Distinguished Teaching Professorship

Distinguished Teaching Professorship

Eligibility

  • Must have held rank of full professor for at least five years.
  • Three years full-time SUNY Delhi teaching.
  • Ten years full-time service teaching within the State University of New York.
  • Faculty regularly carrying full-time teaching loads are eligible.
  • Department chairs/directors or equivalent may be nominated for the Distinguished Teaching Professorship, contingent upon the individual carrying the campus-defined full-time teaching load for all persons performing such administrative responsibilities.
  • List of faculty eligible for Distinguished Ranks Awards (pdf)

Selection Criteria

  • The primary criterion for appointment to the rank is skill in teaching, with evidence that the nominee’s work has elevated the standards of colleagues at their institution or the field in general.
  • Mastery of subject matter
  • Sound scholarship
  • Service to the University and the broader community
  • Continuing growth

  • The following criteria are to be used in the selection of persons to be nominated for the Distinguished Teaching Professorship:

    • Teaching Techniques and Representative Materials: There must be positive evidence that the candidate performs superbly in the classroom. The nominee must maintain a flexible instructional policy that adapts readily to student needs, interests, and problems. Mastery of teaching techniques must be demonstrated and substantiated. Consideration should be given to the number of substantially different courses taught, the number of students per course, and the teaching techniques employed in the various courses.
    • Student Evaluations: (in the form of student questionnaires administered and compiled by persons other than the nominee) should be presented for several different courses over a period of several recent years in order to provide the local selection committee with a clear idea of the nominee's impact on students.
    • Scholarship and Professional Growth: The candidate must be a teacher/scholar who keeps abreast of and makes significant contributions in his or her own field and uses the relevant contemporary data from that field and related disciplines in teaching. Examples of evidence in this category may include publications or artistic productions, grant awards, and presentations at symposia in his or her discipline.
    • Student Services: In relating to students, the candidate must be generous with personal time, easily accessible, and must demonstrate a continual concern with the intellectual growth of individual students. For this category, consideration should be given to the accessibility of the nominee to students outside of class (e.g., office hours, conferences, special meetings, student advisement, and teaching-related services to students).
    • Academic Standards/Requirements and Evaluations of Student Performance: The candidate must set high standards for students and help them attain academic excellence. Quantity and quality of work that is more than average for the subject must be required of the students. The candidate must actively work with students to help them improve their scholarly or artistic performance. The local selection committee should consider the quality, quantity, and difficulty of course-related work. Evidence of academic standards and requirements may be assessed by the accomplishments of students, including placement and achievement level.

  • Evidence strongly supporting candidate's evaluation of students' work. Expert teachers enable students to achieve high levels of scholarship. Consequently, it is possible that the candidate's marking record may be somewhat above the average of colleagues. But, there must be evidence that the candidate does not hesitate to give low evaluations to students who do poorly. Grading practices should be evaluated by the local committee. In particular, grade distribution for all courses in recent academic years should be included in the packet and any seemingly unusual grading patterns explained.
  • Note: In order to clarify the difference between the Distinguished Teaching Professorship and the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, the files for candidates must provide evidence that they have been involved, for a substantial period, in developing or promoting excellence in teaching through pedagogical methods and/or principles or in substantive educational enhancement either in their disciplines or to meet community needs on a regional, national, or international level.