Dean Terry Rhodes emailed the following information to all faculty in the College of Arts & Sciences on Sept. 29, 2021.
Dear Colleagues,
You are invited and strongly encouraged to nominate outstanding faculty members for one of the College of Arts & Sciences’ distinguished professorships for excellence in undergraduate teaching. These include:
Term Professorships
- 2 Bowman and Gordon Gray Term Professorships, effective July 1, 2022
- 1 Bowman and Gordon Gray Term Professorship, effective July 1, 2023
- 1 Zachary Smith Term Professorship for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, effective July 1, 2022
- 1 Sherman Fairchild Foundation Chancellor’s Science Scholars Term Professorship, effective July 1, 2022
Permanent Professorship
- 1 Class of 1989 Distinguished Teaching Professorship in Honor of William C. Friday, effective July 1, 2022
More details about each professorship, including the criteria and nomination process, are provided below. Note because the Chancellor’s Science Scholars term professorship differs slightly from the others it is included in a separate section. The deadline for all nominations is Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2021.
Should you have questions about the nomination process, please contact your senior associate dean.
Sincerely,
Terry
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Terry Ellen Rhodes, Dean
College of Arts & Sciences
Criteria and Nomination Process
Bowman and Gordon Gray, Zachary Smith, and William C. Friday Professorships
Bowman and Gordon Gray Distinguished Term Professorships are five-year term professorships that recognize excellence in undergraduate teaching by Carolina’s outstanding scholars. They also are intended to help retain the best teachers and scholars in the College and to support and enhance undergraduate teaching. These awards are made possible by the generosity of the late Mr. Bowman Gray Jr. and Mr. Gordon Gray, former president of the University, as well as other members of the Gray families. The selection will be made by former Bowman and Gordon Gray Distinguished Term Professors. Former Bowman and Gordon Gray professors are eligible for nomination 10 years after the end of a previous term, provided they also meet the eligibility requirements.
Terms for the Bowman and Gordon Gray Distinguished Term Professorships
- Gray Professorship terms are effective on July 1, 2022, for five years, and are not
- During the effective period, each recipient will receive:
- a $10,000 annual stipend
- a $5,000 annual research/teaching fund to support activities as a Gray Professor
- a semester’s leave at full pay to advance the faculty member’s research and teaching after the first year in the professorship. The timing of this leave must be approved by the Dean’s office and the Gray Professor’s Department Chair.
- The department will receive 50% of the recipient’s annual base salary up to $50,000 during the faculty member’s semester leave noted
Zachary Smith Distinguished Term Professorships represent the best in undergraduate teaching at the University and will be awarded for four years in the areas of the arts, humanities and social sciences. This term professorship recognizes tenured faculty who are making exceptional contributions to undergraduate education at UNC-Chapel Hill. It also is intended to support and expand undergraduate research opportunities across the College.
This year, one professorship will be selected from the Division of Fine Arts and Humanities. The professorship in the Division of Social Sciences is already filled. Therefore, it is not included in this call.
Terms for the Zachary Smith Distinguished Professorship
- The Smith Professorship term is effective on July 1, 2022, for four years, and is not Former recipients can be nominated 10 years after the professorship ended.
- During the effective period, the recipient will receive:
- a $6,000 annual salary stipend
- a $5,000 annual project fund (uses include but are not limited to: incorporating a research component into an existing course; creating one or more new courses to teach research methodologies; traveling with undergraduate students to professional meetings; and developing programs to increase the number of mentors for undergraduates through collaborations with faculty colleagues, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, staff, alumni and members of the community).
- Recipients will carry a normal teaching load.
- Each recipient is expected to discuss annual projects at events sponsored by the Office of Undergraduate Research, and, on occasion, with members of the University administration and Board of Trustees.
Class of 1989 Distinguished Teaching Professorship in Honor of William C. Friday is a permanent professorship for a nationally recognized teacher and scholar who has a strong and ongoing commitment to undergraduate teaching excellence and who has been evaluated by students and peers to be an outstanding undergraduate professor. Excellence in undergraduate teaching will be the primary criterion.
Terms for the 1989 Distinguished Teaching Professorship in Honor of William C. Friday
- The Friday professorship will be effective July 1, 2022, through the remainder of the recipients’ UNC Chapel Hill career.
- The recipient will receive a $15,000 increase in base salary and a $10,000 annual research fund.
Eligibility and Nomination Process For Bowman and Gordon Gray, Zachary Smith and William C. Friday Professorships
- Nominees must be tenured professors in the College.
- Faculty who currently hold a distinguished term professorship may be nominated, but, if selected, must relinquish the term appointment prior to the effective date of the new p
- Faculty who already hold a permanent distinguished professorship are ineligible.
- Nominees must be teaching at least one undergraduate course during the current academic year. Please check this requirement carefully before submitting a nomination.
- Previously unsuccessful nominations will not automatically be reconsidered; re-nominations are encouraged and should include new and current supporting documentation.
- Nominations should be sent in the form of a single PDF document attached to an email to Neka Alston in the Dean’s Office at neka.alston@unc.edu. The deadline for nominations for all professorships is Wednesday, October 29, 2021. Nominations may be made by department or curricula chairs on behalf of their units OR by individual faculty in the College.
- A chair normally may send forward only one nomination for each type of professorship, chosen among recommendations from a chair-appointed committee charged with evaluating all eligible faculty in the unit and submitting recommendations to the chair. If a chair finds that the qualifications of recommended faculty are so comparable that a second nomination is justified, they may submit candidates in ranked order.
- Individual faculty may nominate a department chair, another colleague or themselves; these nominations should be limited to one per nominator and should be made in cooperation with the unit’s nomination committee when appropriate.
- Nominations must include the following items in this order:
- A nomination letter that explains the significance of the nominee’s scholarly and teaching achievements and is comprehensible to members of an interdisciplinary selection committee that may not include specialists in the nominee’s field. Letter writers are encouraged to embrace an expansive definition of scholarship and teaching, including mentoring, commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion, and public or engaged work, as outlined in the candidate’s departmental promotion and tenure documents. Notes of retention will also be taken into consideration.
- a current and full curriculum vitae
- a statement of teaching philosophy
- a statement of mentoring philosophy
- a list of courses taught to undergraduates for the past six regular semesters
- a summary of teaching evaluations for two undergraduate courses taught in the past three years (can include peer and student evaluations).
Professorship selection committee members will examine the nominations and observe the nominees’ teaching during classroom visits. After a full review, the committee will make recommendations to the Dean, who will announce the appointments.
Criteria and Nomination Process for Sherman Fairchild Foundation
Chancellor’s Science Scholars Term Professorship
The Chancellor’s Science Scholars program (CSS) is UNC-Chapel Hill’s premier STEM scholarship program and part of Honor’s Carolina. This program is open to talented incoming first-year undergraduates from all backgrounds who show a high potential to lead and strong interest in supporting inclusion and equity in STEM fields. Key elements of this program are strong faculty support and mentorship of undergraduates in research and career planning. Through a generous gift from the Sherman Fairchild Foundation, CSS is accepting faculty nominations as the Chancellor’s Science Scholars Distinguished Term Professor to champion students and the program.
Eligibility
We seek an outstanding tenured faculty member and scientist 1) with an exemplary research and teaching record at UNC, and 2) who has shown extraordinary dedication and leadership in diversifying science through mentoring at any level, from undergraduates to faculty. The candidate must be tenured. Preference will be given to mid-career faculty at the rank of Associate Professor, close to earning promotion to full Professor, or recently promoted full Professors.
The recipient of this distinguished term professorship may be an expert in any field that is associated with a UNC STEM department, including but not limited to, Biology, Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, Computer Science, E3P (Environment, Ecology, and Energy Program), Earth, Marine and Environmental Sciences, Mathematics, Physics and Astronomy, Psychology and Neuroscience, Applied Physical Sciences, or Statistics and Operations Research.
Terms
The faculty member appointed as the CSS Distinguished Term Professor will help elevate the visibility of CSS and support and prepare a diverse community of scholars for careers in STEM leadership. The primary academic program that houses the faculty appointment of the selected individual will agree to release this individual from a portion of departmental service responsibilities during the four-year term. It is preferred that appointees not hold other major administrative responsibilities concurrently with this leadership role.
- CSS Professorship term is effective on July 1, 2022, for four years, and is not renewable.
- During the effective period, the recipient will receive:
- a $15,000 annual salary stipend,
- an annual one-course buyout, and
- a $10,000 annual research fund.
Nominations
Nominations should be sent in the form of a single PDF document attached to an email to Neka Alston in the Dean’s Office at neka.alston@unc.edu. The deadline for nominations for the CSS term professorship is Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2021. Nominations may be made by chairs on behalf of their units or by individual faculty.
Nominations must include, in the following order:
- a nomination letter that explains evidence of research and teaching excellence and a description of the faculty member’s mentoring experience and approach. An emphasis on supporting diverse students in sciences and math will be essential. The letter should be written in a manner that would be comprehensible to members of an interdisciplinary selection committee.
- a current and full curriculum vitae
- a peer teaching evaluation of a recently taught STEM undergraduate course
- A list providing the names, addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses of four external referees and one alternate referee who are in a position to evaluate the nominee’s qualifications for a distinguished professorship and who have expressed informally a willingness to write on the nominee’s behalf (no actual letters should be submitted with the nomination).