Faculty excellence in teaching, research, scholarship, artistry and engagement will be recognized in a bigger way beginning this year, as revisions to the Presidential Professorships are enacted.
Base salary increments for the awards have been increased from $2,000 to $5,000, and colleges will receive $4,000 to help cover the costs associated with a semester’s release during each professorships’ four-year term.
“We value our world-class faculty and want these awards to better reflect the esteem in which we hold our best professors,” NIU President Doug Baker said.
Baker explained that reducing the number of potential awards in each category from three to two will help fund the increase, as well as centrally provided assistance for awardees’ home colleges and departments.
Two other changes will further streamline the application process:
- The call for nominations and application deadlines for all three presidential awards, as well as the Board of Trustees Professorship, will now follow the same schedule.
- The award formerly known as the Presidential Research Professorship has been renamed the Presidential Research, Scholarship, and Artistry Professorship.
“The latter change reflects our collective belief that the excellence we seek for this award can be found in all of our colleges through work that encompasses all three areas of research, artistry, and scholarship,” said Jerry Blazey, interim vice president for Research and Innovation Partnerships. “We hope that the new name and the college stipend will encourage a wider range of nominations from all our colleges.”
Executive Vice President and Provost Lisa Freeman says while all the faculty awards are important, nominators should carefully consider the differences among the presidential awards.
“We have created a new Presidential Awards website with information on all three of those professorships,” Freeman said. “We hope that having all three on the same site will make it easier for nominators to choose the best award category for the faculty member they seek to honor. I strongly encourage all members of our campus community to consider nominating outstanding faculty for these enhanced awards.”