Award Information
According to the terms of the endowment, those elected to membership in the company of Distinguished Professors “will be chosen on the basis of outstanding artistic, literary, historical, or scientific achievements, or other worthy accomplishments attaining wide recognition.” To be considered for election, a faculty member must have tenure and a minimum of five years of service at Ohio University. While a positive assessment of effectiveness as a teacher is an essential requirement, the prime consideration is scholarly or creative contributions that have received substantial recognition beyond the Ohio University community.
Nominations may be made by any current Ohio University faculty member and are welcomed from all departments, schools, and academic disciplines at Ohio University. Candidates are encouraged to be selective in the inclusion of their supporting materials.
Minimum Qualifications
Selection Criteria
- Outstanding research, scholarship, and/or creative activity (RSCA) contributions: Outstanding RSCA contributions are determined based on the criteria within one's discipline(s) or across disciplines. As examples, these criteria may be reflected in the research, scholarship, and/or creative activity standards for promotion and tenure guidelines within a department or may be reflected in RSCA contributions across disciplines. People who write letters supporting the applicant often refer to these criteria when providing rationale for their endorsement.
- Recognition for RSCA contributions: Recognition for contributions at a national or international level may include awards, fellow status, honorary titles, invitations to present or display work, and other forms of recognition. To be considered, this recognition should be for the RSCA contributions (i.e., not teaching or service).
- Impact of RSCA contributions: Impact of RSCA can come in many forms including facilitating widespread influential changes in practices and policy, evidence of high degrees of consideration of one's work by others in the field, changes in important theory within a field, contributions that are patented and successfully commercialized, discoveries that shift the direction of a field, work that receives international acclaim for its impact, and evidence that RSCA made meaningful changes in the lives of many people. Impact may be considered as enhanced when impact extends beyond the discipline of the nominee.
Note: Examples in these domains are not exclusive. Nominees should clearly articulate in their three statements how their contributions to the field, recognitions, and/or impact are exceptional and/or unique as compared to their self-identified peer group(s) or with respect to recognition or impact in their own right.
- Eligibility for consideration of being named a distinguished professor requires that the nominee provides compelling evidence that their contributions are exceptional or unique in at least two of these domains
Nomination Criteria
Nomination Solicitation
- Nomination solicitation will begin with a call-for-nominations announcement prepared by the Office of the President, ideally before the end of September. The announcement will include information about the award, a brief description of selection criteria, a brief description of the selection process, a direct call for nominations (with deadline), and a link to the webpage(s) for additional details. All faculty (including members of the selection committee) will be encouraged to nominate colleagues.
- The announcement will be shared with University Communications and Marketing (UCM) and the Vice Provost for Faculty Development (VPFD or equivalent or designee). Ideally, the announcement will be shared during the first week of October.
- UCM will be responsible for publicly sharing the call for nominations via email and the web through OHIO News and OHIO Employee News.
- The VPFD will share the call via email and MS Teams to the Deans Council, Associate Deans Council, and Chairs & Directors Council.
- Nomination solicitation will also include one-hour information session(s) open to both potential nominators and nominees. Information sessions will provide an overview of the selection criteria, the selection process, and nomination instructions. In addition, attendees will also have an opportunity to ask questions. The selection committee chair will coordinate with the Office of the President (or Vice Provost for Faculty Development or designee) to arrange and deliver the information session(s). Information sessions will be delivered by the members of the selection committee or others invited by the selection committee.
Ideally, the time between first announcement and nomination deadline will be at least 90 business days (i.e., calendar days excluding weekends and official university holidays) in order to allow adequate time to aggregate nomination materials.
Nomination Collection
The Office of the President will manage the process of nomination collection.
At minimum, nominations should include the following:
- A cover letter (prepared by the nominator).
- A current curriculum vita (prepared by the nominee).
- A letter from the department chair, school director, or academic unit dean of the nominee's primary promotion/tenure home documenting that the nominee meets the minimum qualifications including fulltime faculty status at Ohio University, a minimum of five years of service at the University, and excellence in teaching (based on a summary of evidence from annual evaluations or other sources).
- Three summaries describing how the nominee meets each of the evaluation criteria (prepared by the nominee).
- Outstanding RSCA Contributions. Summary of contributions should be a list or short essay (500 words maximum) of the nominee's outstanding RSCA contributions explained in layman's terms.
- RSCA Contribution Recognition(s). Summary of recognition(s) should be a narrative (1000-wordmaximum) explaining in layman's terms the extent to which the nominee believes their artistic, literary, historical, scientific or other scholarly/creative achievement, noting worthy contributions and accomplishments that have attained wide recognition and meet the evaluation criteria.
- RSCA Contribution Impact(s). Summary of impact(s) should be a narrative (1000-word maximum) explaining in layman's terms how the nominee believes their RSCA contributions and accomplishments have positively benefited their field, the academy, communities, society, culture, the environment, and/or the economy to meet evaluation criteria.
- Up to eight supporting letters from leading external experts in the candidate's field or related fields (solicited by the nominator).
Nominations may also include additional supporting materials including (but not limited to):
- Up to three supporting letters from stakeholders (e.g., communities, organizations, programs, individuals, etc.) who have been positively impacted by the nominee's RSCA contributions and accomplishments.
- Evidence of RSCA accomplishments attaining wide recognition (e.g., quantity or quality of expert reviews of research or scholarship; quantity or quality of critical reviews of creative activity; quantity or quality of references in popular press; number of books sold; quantity or quality of participation in e.g., prominent conferences, festivals, gallery showings; h-index and/or alternative metrics; stories in the media about accomplishments; awards; endorsements by national organizations, etc.)
- Evidence of RSCA impact (e.g., influential changes in practices and policy; evidence of high degrees of consideration of one's work by others in the field; changes in important theory within a field; contributions that are patented and successfully commercialized; discoveries that shift the direction of a field; work that receives international acclaim for its impact; evidence that RSCA made meaningful changes in the lives of many people, etc.)
Nominations must be submitted via email in a single PDF to the Office of the President at president@ohio.edu no later than February 28, 2025.As appropriate, the Office of the President may grant exceptions to the standard format and/or process requirements based on a written recommendation(s) from the Office of Accessibility Services and/or Office of Equity and Civil Rights Compliance.
All nominations not meeting standard nomination format or process requirements will be shared with the selection committee along with a brief explanation (e.g., nomination was not submitted on time, nomination is missing a component, etc.). Nominations granted an exception(s) to the standard nomination format or process requirements will be identified and communicated to the selection committee chair. Only nominations granted exception(s) to the standard format and/or process by the Office of the President will be eligible for award consideration by the committee.
Non-Discrimination
Ohio University recognizes that RSCA contributions, measures of accomplishment, and demonstrations of impact may vary widely across and within disciplines. Furthermore, extant research suggests inherent and/or potential bias in select measures of RSCA contributions and impact across and within disciplines. Accordingly, the selection committee will strive to provide a comprehensive, holistic review of each nominee's contributions, accomplishments, and impacts, by avoiding direct comparison of metrics that have been associated with potential race/gender bias, and by using multiple and diverse sources of information evidence, and perspectives.
Ohio University is committed to fostering a welcoming, respectful, diverse, and inclusive community. All qualified nominations will be considered and will receive consideration free from discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, age, ethnicity, national origin, national ancestry, sex, pregnancy, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, military service or veteran status, mental or physical disability, or genetic information. The selection committee strives to seek nominees from a wide range of diverse disciplines and backgrounds and will actively consider demographic, disciplinary, experiential, and/or cognitive diversity when selecting a nominee to recommend for the award.