NIU faculty, staff, students and community members are invited to nominate NIU professors with outstanding records of community engagement for the 2013 Presidential Engagement Professorships.
Nominations will be accepted now through the end of September.
The honor is based on President John Peters’ call for engagement with the community through research, economic development, service and instruction.
Establishment of these professorships places NIU in the company of a growing number of institutions that now recognize and reward this increasingly critical function.
Each Presidential Engagement Professorship is accompanied by:
- a $2,000 based 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 initiatives; and
- release for one semester from teaching, research and service responsibilities for generation of new course materials, grant applications, scholarly work or new partnerships.
The engagement professorship award was established in 2010, with the first two groups of recipients named in 2011 and 2012.
“President Peters has awarded this prestigious designation to four exemplary professors thus far,” said Anne Kaplan, vice president for Outreach, Engagement and Information Technologies.
“Cliff Mirman, Susan Russell, Kenneth Thu and Jim Ciesla were named Presidential Engagement Professors in 2011 and 2012, and we’re expecting another strong pool of applicants for the 2013 awards,” Kaplan said.
Letters of nomination are due Friday, Sept. 28, to Kaplan at akaplan@niu.edu or Lowden Hall 307.
Following receipt of a letter of nomination, the selection committee will invite each nominated faculty member to prepare materials in accordance with the published procedure.
Only full professors with tenure and at least six years of service at NIU are eligible for the award. Presidential Engagement Professors also receive a specially minted medallion to be worn with their academic regalia.
The Presidential Engagement Professorships were established in 2010 to recognize those faculty members who exemplify the following criteria:
- Commitment to fostering reciprocal partnerships in which problems, solutions, goals, and measures of success are defined jointly
- Recognition for 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.
- Enabling learning beyond the confines of the campus.
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.
Application materials are due to Kaplan by Friday, Nov. 9. Recipients will be announced in spring 2013. Information about the award, nominations and application procedures is available online or by calling Marilyn Bellert at (815) 753-8051.
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