Faculty Honors and Awards Committee

Annual Report AY 2007-2008

I. Executive Summary

During AY 2007-2008, the Faculty Honors and Awards Committee conducted the nominations, selection and announcement cycle for the 2008 Distinguished Faculty Awards, designed and finalized the plaque and certificate templates for these awards, developed a set of processes and a calendar of tasks to be implemented annually, and solicited nominations for the CSU Wang Awards.

II. Charge to the Committee

Academic Senate Policy #S05-233

The Faculty Honors and Awards Committee promotes, selects, and recognizes SFSU faculty with a distinguished track record of teaching, professional development, and service. The establishment of these awards and honors will serve two goals; first, to honor an individual faculty member for his/her accomplishments and second, to honor the SFSU faculty as a whole by selecting from our ranks a few individuals each year that exemplify the accomplishments for which all faculty strive.

The committee is charged to:

á Develop internal awards that, at minimum, include a Distinguished Teaching Award, a Distinguished Professional Achievement and Growth Award, and a Distinguished Contribution to Community Award.

á Develop and identify the criteria, the eligibility requirements, the nomination process for each type of award, and procedures for determining awardees.

á Determine an appropriate recognition vehicle/ceremony for the announcement of nominees and recipients for each award (e.g., HonorŐs convocation, graduation).

á Review, adopt, and publicize the criteria and timeline for awards

á Develop a timetable that will allow for timely decisions on awards made by the committee.

á Provide a report that lists each award given by this committee to the Academic Senate.

á Prepare and forward the names and information packets of SFSU award recipients to nationwide award outlets (e.g., Wang, Carnegie Foundation).

á When necessary, make improvements to the selection process with review by the Faculty Affairs Committee, and the University Research

III. Activities of the Year

The 2008 committee members were: Rashmi Gupta, assistant professor, social work; Nancy Hayes, dean of business; Darlene Yee-Melichar, professor of gerontology, Dorothy Tsuruta, professor and chair of Africana studies; Marilyn Verhey, dean of Faculty Affairs and Professional Development and Shawn Whalen, director of forensics. Sacha Bunge, Professor of psychology, was on sabbatical leave and did not serve on the committee during this academic year

The committee finalized text for the certificates and plagues for the Distinguished Faculty Awards, which was outstanding from Academic Year 2006-2007. The certificates and plagues were provided to the awardees from 2006-2007. Templates were put in place for future processing of the certificates and plagues.

A process and calendar were created which set for the annual tasks for announcement, promotion, nomination, selection and awarding of the Distinguished Faculty Awards. This calendar was approved by the ProvostŐs office, the Academic Senate office and Public relations. Implementation of this process should allow future committees to spend limited time on administrative tasks and minimize in-person meetings of the committees.

The committee received 27 nominations for the awards from faculty members, department chairs, and staff for the 2008 awards cycle. Three awardees were selected:

Sarlo Excellence in Teaching Award (6 nominations received)

Martin Linder, Associate Professor, Design and Industry, College of Creative Arts

Excellence in Professional Achievement Award (15 nominations received)

Jules Tygiel, Professor, History, College of Behavioral and Social Sciences

Excellence in Service Award (5 nominations received)

Genie Stowers, Professor, Public Administration, College of Behavioral and Social Sciences

The committee implemented a new process of sending acknowledgement letters to nominees whose work was significantly compelling to place them in serious consideration for the award, and letters of thank you to all nominees.

The committee solicited nominations for the CSU Wang award and submitted two names to the Provost for consideration.

IV. Agenda for the Coming Year

The committee will be implementing the process developed in 2007-2008 and making revisions as appropriate.