Purpose

The UMass Lowell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching is designed to honor contributions faculty make to undergraduate-level instruction. The university recognizes the distinctive qualities that guide excellence when working with undergraduate students. This involves impactful experiences teaching the next generation to reach higher levels of skill, knowledge, understanding, appreciation, and expression. Exemplary faculty performance varies from program to program across our campus.


Eligibility

  • The nominee must be a full-time faculty member at UMass Lowell (UML) and currently in a tenure, teaching, or clinical-track position. Self nominations are welcome.
  • Previous nominees are eligible, and it is hoped that they will be nominated again.
  • Previous winners are not eligible for a period of six years.

Criteria for Award

To recognize sustained and innovative teaching excellence at the undergraduate level, the Faculty Honors Committee seeks applications from faculty from all campus units who have made demonstrable contributions to undergraduate students and programs. Applications should include concrete examples and outcomes of the applicant’s contributions to undergraduate-level education at UMass Lowell. Applicants will be evaluated according to the following criteria.

How the applicant:

  • engages students in the subject matter to ensure active involvement in the learning process
  • provides timely, useful, and productive feedback
  • promotes critical thinking
  • when appropriate for the class, promotes communication skills as part of the instruction
  • when appropriate for the class, incorporates research activities in the discipline into teaching

Application Process

Any full-time faculty member may nominate a colleague or themselves for this award. The deadline for applications is March 25, 2024. All submissions must be made online through InfoReady. The submission package must include in a single PDF document:

  • the applicant’s current curriculum vitae;
  • a short statement (500-1,000 words) describing the applicant’s philosophy of undergraduate teaching, the impact of those activities, and how the applicant meets the award criteria;
  • three letters of support that contain specific examples of the applicant’s activities that are aligned with the review criteria:
    • a letter from the nominator or, in the case of a self-nomination, a letter from a colleague familiar with the nominee’s undergraduate teaching contributions
    • two letters from students – the letters can be from current student(s) or former student(s) who have graduated from UML within the past five years
    • Note: A single individual may write no more than one support letter for each award category.

The Faculty Excellence Committee will meet to review the nominations and make a recommendation to the Provost or designee.


Award Winner

The winner of this award will be announced in April 2024. The winner will be invited to present a lightning talk on undergraduate teaching methods at the Fall 2024 Faculty Symposium. The winner also will receive a $1,000 award.

For questions, please email: Faculty_Success@uml.edu.

The Faculty Excellence Committee embraces and celebrates diversity in all its forms and encourages individuals from underrepresented populations to apply or to nominate others for these awards.