NIU faculty, staff, students and community members are invited to nominate NIU professors with outstanding records of community engagement for the 2015 Presidential Engagement Professorships.
Nominations will be accepted now through Friday, Oct. 3.
Established in 2010, the Presidential Engagement Professorships recognize faculty members who exemplify the following criteria:
- Commitment to fostering reciprocal partnerships in which problems, solutions, goals and measures of success are jointly defined;
- The ability to engage external communities in conscious efforts to bring scholarship to bear on regional, national or international problems;
- Enhancement of curricular content by incorporating opportunities to create, integrate, transfer and apply knowledge for the benefit of all partners;
- Engagement of students in projects and initiatives of direct benefit to external audiences;
- Creating a sense of civic responsibility in students; and
- Enabling learning beyond the confines of the campus.
Each Presidential Engagement Professorship is accompanied by a $2,000 base salary increment; a $5,000 stipend (renewable annually during each year of a four-year award period) for activities related to the professor’s engagement activities; and release for one semester from teaching, research and service responsibilities for generation of new course materials, grant applications, scholarly work or new partnerships. Presidential Engagement Professors also receive a specially minted medallion to be worn with their academic regalia.
Anne Kaplan
Letters of nomination are due Friday, Oct. 3, to Anne Kaplan, vice president for Outreach, Engagement and Regional Development, at akaplan@niu.edu or Lowden Hall 307.
Only full professors with tenure and at least six years of service at NIU are eligible for the award. Individuals who have received other presidential awards or the Board of Trustees Professorship are eligible; however, the four-year award periods may not overlap.
Following receipt of a nomination letter, the selection committee will invite each nominated professor to prepare a formal application that includes resume, references, an essay on engagement, and tangible evidence of outcomes related to outreach and engagement.
Complete instructions are available online. Application materials are due to Kaplan by Friday, Nov. 14. Recipients will be announced in spring 2015.
For more information, call (815) 753-1272.
