Dean A. A. Potter Faculty Excellence Award for Undergraduate Teaching

Cover Sheet

Purpose of the Award

The purpose of the award is to honor associate and full professors, including associate and full professors of engineering practice, for outstanding teaching performance in all phases of the College of Engineering's undergraduate instruction on the West Lafayette campus.
 
An outstanding undergraduate teacher is one who demonstrates superior ability in communicating the chosen material to the students and stimulates their desire to master the material. The teacher will also recognize that his/her teaching responsibility to students does not stop at the classroom door, and therefore, will be ready to aid and motivate them in a counseling and advisory capacity, either formally or informally.
 
Due: January 10, 2025

A. Procedures for Making Nominations

Nominations will be made by the respective academic units for forwarding to the Selection Committee on or before January 10, 2025. Methods of selecting the nominees have been determined by the Dean of Engineering and are as follows:
  1. Each academic unit’s procedure shall make explicit provisions for securing a representative student judgment in their unit concerning appropriate nomination.
  2. The nominee shall have had some primary classroom responsibility for a course of undergraduate instruction during one of the immediately preceding two regular semesters, excluding the summer session. S/he shall have made a significant contribution to the undergraduate instruction as a part of his/her academic responsibility.
  3. An appropriately written brief of not more than three pages shall be prepared for each nominee. An additional three pages of supporting materials (testimonials, evaluations, statement of teaching philosophy, etc.) may be appended to the brief. Therefore, a maximum of six pages per nomination may be presented. Additional documentation beyond the maximum six pages will be removed and not considered.
  4. Recipients of the Potter Award may not be nominated for it again. However, academic units should feel free to resubmit nominations which were made previously but did not receive an award.

B. Structure of Brief

  1. Name of nominee, rank, academic unit and date of initial appointment to the faculty. (Should appear as first item in the document.)
  2. Name of academic unit submitting nomination and statement of the procedure used in choosing the nominee.
  3. List of courses taught with dates and number of students enrolled in courses; i.e., EE 442 - second semester, 2016-17, 30 students enrolled.
  4. Nominee's effectiveness to be judged on the following criteria:
    1. Instructional effectiveness
    2. Course instruction improvement and innovation
    3. Academic counseling - formal and informal
    4. Seeking out contact with freshman and sophomore students as a teacher of courses
    5. Participation in school on University committees related to undergraduate education
    6. Serving as advisor to student organizations
    Give sufficient evidence on each of the above points in order for the Committee to provide an accurate judgment. Academic units are encouraged to include some information related to course and instructor evaluations.
  5. Nominees' professional activities
    1. Participation in professional societies
    2. Research including a listing of publications related to teaching—indicate contribution of this research to his/her teaching assignments
  6. Honors and awards received by nominee
    1. Academic
    2. Professional

C. The Faculty Awards Committee shall make the final selection of the recipient of an award from the nominations submitted to them.

  1. The Committee shall be chaired by the Dean of the College of Engineering or their designee.
  2. The Committee shall be made up of one faculty member (previously elected or appointed to serve on the Faculty Awards Committee) and one student from each of the academic units of Engineering.
  3. The name of the student representative chosen to serve on the selection committee should be forwarded by each school to Kathy Heath at heathk@purdue.edu by January 10, 2025.
  4. The Committee shall make its selection, based upon the briefs presented to them, at a meeting on January 27, 2025, 10:00-12:30, ARMS 3041.