Student nominations included in teaching, advising awards

By Kathy Hsieh
Collegian Staff Writer

In the past few weeks many Penn State faculty received awards for their teaching or advising; however, many students do not realize they can be included in the awards process.

Many department awards allow students to submit nominations for their preferred teachers.

In the College of Education, the Student Pennsylvania State Education Association has been in charge of gathering nominations this year for several teaching awards. These awards range from best elementary education professor to best adviser, said Elizabeth Robbins, president of SPSEA.

The group started handing out surveys at its meetings during Fall Semester and the beginning of this semester, but there was not enough feedback for a valid list of nominations. They started circulating the surveys in classes to elementary education and secondary education students and eventually surveyed 282 students, she said.

The winners of the awards will be announced to the public at a banquet Friday.

"This is the first year that there has been a student-run effort to have a college of education banquet," Robbins said.

In the Department of History, there is no formal procedure to follow to nominate teachers for awards, said Karin Weaver, administrative assistant to the department.

If students feel that one of their teachers has done an exemplary job, they can write an unsolicited letter to the department head and copy it to the dean of the college, she said.

Students should comment on qualities of the teacher including "teaching style, helpfulness, convenient office hours, extra help offered, going above and beyond, good contact in classroom and discussions," Robbins said.

Receiving impromptu letters from students is the best way students can have an unofficial say in which teachers get nominated, she said.

In the Smeal College of Business, students can nominate teachers for the Fred Brand Jr. Award for Teaching and Advising, among other awards. Students, student organizations and faculty or staff within the college can nominate teachers and advisers.

"It is mainly geared towards students," said Sean Cook, coordinator of student and corporate services for the Smeal College of Business.

Students nominating teachers must write a letter of nomination stating why the teacher or adviser exemplifies excellence and provide examples of it. Also, letters of support from the department head and additional letters from other students and alumni should be included, he said.

The three categories of the award are outstanding undergraduate teacher, outstanding graduate student teacher and outstanding undergraduate adviser.

Once the nomination packets are submitted, a selection committee votes on the winners. The committee is made up of the associate dean for undergraduate programs, graduate policy committee chair, Business Student Council president, Business Student Council representative from the Undergraduate Student Government Academic Assembly and Business Roundtable Chair, Cook said.

The primary way the award is advertised to the students is through the college listserv, which reaches about 6,000 students, he said.

"This year, there has been a good student response. There are quite a few nominations for each category," Cook said.

The college would like to make the nomination process of the awards more accessible to the general student body. The college opened the process to e-mail this year, but it needs to be refined, Cook said.

"The quality of nominations from some students were not as good as others. Some were like, 'I like Dr. So-and-so because he's a great teacher,' " Cook said.

Giving students the job of nominating teachers and preparing nomination packets may prove to be quite a task.

"It may be asking a bit of some students," he said. "They have to show they have real commitment to the idea of the teacher they've picked."