Nomination Deadline
Friday, March 13^th 2009

The Award of Merit Teacher Honor Roll
College of Agriculture and School of Veterinary Medicine

There are many teachers in the College of Agriculture and the School of Veterinary Medicine who truly care for the students. Many of these faculty go beyond the call of duty in their teaching, both inside and outside the classroom, semester after semester and year after year. The College of Agriculture recognizes this extra faculty effort by presenting three outstanding teaching awards on an annual basis, two for undergraduate and one for graduate teaching. Similarly, the School of Veterinary Medicine recognizes their outstanding teacher during a spring awards program. The LSU Chapter of Gamma Sigma Delta also selects a faculty member for an outstanding teaching award on an annual basis. Since each year there are clearly many other excellent teachers in the agriculture-related academic areas on campus, the LSU Chapter of Gamma Sigma Delta encourages and supports other efforts to recognize those who continually put in the extra effort to be a good teacher. The Award of Merit Teacher Honor Roll is one way of recognizing these special people for their efforts in university teaching.

Selection

Each Department in the College of Agriculture (C.O.A.) and the School of Veterinary Medicine (S.V.M.) may submit the names of one or more teaching faculty members that the department head, Departmental Awards Committee, or individual faculty members wish to nominate for Award of Merit Teacher Honor Roll. A Gamma Sigma Delta Teaching Committee will review the nominations from each department and make recommendations to the LSU Gamma Sigma Delta Executive Committee. Faculty members recognized for their teaching efforts for that year will be placed on the Award of Merit Teacher Honor Roll. The Award of Merit Teacher Honor Roll will be announced by the LSU Gamma Sigma Delta President at an annual spring awards banquet. Faculty members who are recognized are encouraged to make every effort to maintain their excellence in university teaching and become annual Award of Merit Teacher Honor Roll faculty members.

Preparation of the Nomination

• A deserving faculty member of a College of Agriculture department or a department that has agricultural-related faculty members on the LSU campus is eligible for nomination. Nominations can be submitted for faculty members to be honored by the department head, the Departmental Awards Committee, or individual faculty members within the department during the spring semester of each year. All nominations from a unit must be signed by the unit head (or designee). These Award of Merit Teacher Honor Roll nomination forms (two pages in length) will be made available at the respective Deans Offices. Nomination Forms are also available HERE (pdf).


• :: NOTE :: The faculty member must have been on the LSU teaching faculty for TWO YEARSbefore becoming eligible for nomination.


• To be considered for nomination, the faculty member must have obtained a mean score on teacher evaluations (e.g. SPOT) on the college core questions for each course taught during the two most recent teaching semesters that is greater than the C.O.A. or S.V.M. overall mean scores the same teaching semesters (see nomination form). These scores will be used to verify that the nominee meets the minimum requirements for the teaching honor roll. The faculty member must have put forth teaching efforts that are considered above and beyond the call of duty based on the faculty member's official job description.


• Each nominee is required to provide additional information supporting her/his nomination on page two of the nomination form. There are no specific requirements for information to be included. The types of evidence for teaching effectiveness outlined in PS-36 are suggested as a reference. The committee is interested in recognizing excellence in teaching (both in and out of the classroom). Supporting information should clearly indicate that the nominee has gone above and beyond the call of duty, based on the faculty members official position description. Written comments from students (taken from the SPOT evaluations or other sources) are appropriate for inclusion. Additional supporting information is limited to the one page on the form in type no smaller than font size 10.


• Excellent teaching performance by the faculty can be recognized by Gamma Sigma Delta by repeated Award of Merit Teacher Honor Roll membership.


• The nominations of one or more deserving faculty members from each department are to be submitted to the respective Deans Offices by the mid-spring deadline of each year. A Gamma Sigma Delta Teaching Committee will review the nominations and make recommendations to the Gamma Sigma Delta Executive Committee.


• The deadline for submission is noon, March13, 2008.

Submit forms via email or regular mail to:
Dr. Richard Vlosky
Professor & Director, Louisiana Forest Development Center
Room 227 School of Renewable Natural Resources
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA 70803

email: vlosky@lsu.edu

Background: Award of Merit Teacher Honor Roll

The LSU chapter of Gamma Sigma Delta encourages outstanding teaching efforts by agricultural and agricultural-related faculty on the LSU campus. The LSU chapter of Gamma Sigma Delta will prepare a certificate for each Award of Merit Teacher Honor Roll member for presentation at the annual spring awards banquet. The LSU Chapter will prepare publicity and news releases relating to the Award of Merit Teacher Honor Roll. The Chapter will print the names and departmental affiliation of each faculty teacher honoree in the Gamma Sigma Delta spring banquet program.

The Award of Merit Teacher Honor Roll was approved (with modifications) by a vote of the LSU Gamma Sigma Delta Chapter at the fall business meeting September 22, 1994. The dean of the College of Agriculture and the dean of the School of Veterinary Medicine both gave their final approval to the Award of Merit Teacher Honor Roll program in December of 1994.