ANNA WEBBER
Staff Writer
Pepperdine is now accepting nominations for the 2006 Howard A. White Award for Teaching Excellence.
With this award, students are able to give something back to teachers who have stood out as a true inspiration and mentor.
This award honors faculty members who demonstrate a lifelong love of learning and motivate students while challenging their ability to think critically and creatively.
“Pepperdine rightly prides itself on the quality of its classroom instruction. To be recognized for one’s teaching is both humbling and inspiring” one of last year’s winners, political science professor Dr. Christopher Soper said.
Full-time teachers may be nominated for the award by faculty, staff, students and alumni from now through March 31.
Nominees may be selected from any of the five schools of Pepperdine. Faculty eligibility is divided into two categories according to stages in professional development. This information can be found at the Provost’s Office Web page, www.pepperdine.edu/provost/awards.
To be eligible for Category I, the teacher must have taught at the university for at least six years or hold tenure. Seven faculty members from this category may be honored each year, with a $3,000 stipend awarded to each.
Faculty members are not eligible for the award a second time for five years after receiving it.
Category II consists of faculty who have been teaching fewer than six years and are not tenured. Three will be honored in this category with a stipend of $2,000.
To nominate a teacher, students may log onto www.pepperdine.edu/provost/awards/
nomination.htm, and fill out the nomination form. Nominees will be announced in October.
The University Committee for Teaching Excellence will administer the award process and review. This committee is chaired by Assistant Provost Timothy Perrin and consists of faculty members who have previously received the award, current and former students.
“Superior teaching is unquestionably the single greatest strength of the Pepperdine faculty. We look forward to this annual practice of honoring some of our most accomplished scholar teachers,”Provost Daryl Tippens said in the Inaugural Address for the creation of the Howard A. White Award in 2003.
This annual practice is in its third year, according to Perrin, they handed out the first teaching excellence awards in 2004. The nominees for 2006 have not yet been selected.
This is not an easy award to win. Each must meet an extensive set of criteria and endure six stages of review by the university committee.
Because of this process, the award is especially honorable, only recognizing truly excellent teachers, Perrin said.
Each professor selected is judged on their ability to inspire independent and critical thinking and encourage intellectual interests in students.
They must organize course material and present it coherently, demonstrate support for the university’s mission, show evidence of good academic citizenship through service to the community, commitment to scholarship and academic rigor in the classroom, get involved with students outside the classroom, be a master of subject matter and show enthusiasm in learning, teaching and scholarship.
“Pepperdine affirms that the student is the heart of the educational enterprise,” Perring said. “A commitment to excellence in teaching is a critical manifestation of Pepperdine’s commitment to students. We have an abundance of remarkably talented and dedicated faculty members and a very strong teaching faculty. The award is one means of giving honor to some of the many who are deserving.”
02-02-2006