2008 Virginia Outstanding Faculty Awards Overview
The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) administers the Outstanding Faculty Awards (OFA) program, which is the Commonwealth's highest honor for faculty at Virginia's public and private colleges and universities.
History
The General Assembly and Governor created the OFA program in 1986. Now celebrating its 22nd year, the award recognizes the finest among Virginia's college faculty for their excellence in teaching, research and public service. Since the first awards in 1987, a total of 256 Virginia faculty members - including the 2008 recipients - have received this high honor. In 2005, Dominion made a three-year commitment to support the annual recognition of the outstanding faculty in Virginia. Dominion renewed their commitment in 2007, extending their sponsorship through 2010.
Since 2004, corporate sponsorship has allowed SCHEV to continue the program with monetary awards, which were originally publicly funded; the ceremony itself has always been privately funded. Over the past two decades, outstanding faculty members at Commonwealth institutions have received awards totaling more than $1.1 million via this program.
Award
This year, 12 faculty members —including one early-career ‘Rising Star’ and one outstanding ‘Teaching with Technology’ designee— will be selected from a highly competitive pool of 96 qualified candidates who were nominated by their peers at Virginia's public and private colleges and universities. At a February 20, 2008 celebration at the Jefferson Hotel, the OFA recipients will each receive a $5,000 cash award and a commemorative engraved award.
Criteria
The number of OFA nominations allocated to each institution is based upon the size of its faculty. Nominees must have a demonstrated record of superior accomplishments in teaching, research, knowledge integration, and public service. Nomination packages include an executive summary highlighting the nominee's accomplishments, a personal statement from the nominee, and descriptive and evaluative statements from students, faculty and colleagues.
Selection
Each year, SCHEV invites and encourages all public and private degree-granting institutions in Virginia to participate in the OFA program. Each is asked to use a campus-wide committee to select its nominees. Nominations are submitted to SCHEV by each institution's president or chief academic officer.
This year, a panel of 46 peer reviewers - comprised entirely of previous OFA recipients and chief academic officers - selected a group of finalists from the 96 nominations. Then a selection committee - comprised of members of the State Council (one of whom chaired the committee) and education, business, and community leaders - reviewed the finalists and selected this year's 12 honorees.