D.W. Brooks Awards: Application Guidelines
Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching
The D.W. Brooks Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching was initiated in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences in 1981 to honor University of Georgia alumnus D.W. Brooks who devoted his professional life to improving the quality of society through sustained service and support of agriculture, agribusiness and the environment. Mr. Brooks was a graduate and faculty member of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
Purpose:
The purpose of the Teaching Award is to encourage and recognize exceptional creativity and excellence in classroom instruction in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. The Brooks Award shall be the highest honor bestowed by the College upon a member of the teaching faculty for achievements in instruction.
The successful candidate must demonstrate an unusually high commitment to pedagogy. That commitment must manifest itself in a measured way that highlights scholarship, concern for the development of the whole student, innovations in learning structures, disciplinary methodologies, and adoption and integration of creative learning technologies.
Normally, one Brooks Award shall be given annually for Excellence in Teaching. Beginning in 1996, the recipient shall receive a plaque and a $5,000 cash award from the D. W. Brooks Endowment Fund.
Eligibility:
Eligibility for the award shall be limited to current tenure-track faculty with at least a .30 EFT or significant contributions to instruction over at least a five (5) year period and who have been employed in tenure-track positions in the College for at least five (5) years at the time the award is received. Past recipients of the award are not eligible for renomination.
Process:
Each academic department may submit the dossier of one nominee to the Office of the Dean and Director. Each department may develop its own procedures for identifying all potentially qualified applicants, but such a procedure must include a review of all applicants by a designated peer faculty review committee. The nomination must be endorsed and forwarded to the Dean and Director by the department head or designated senior faculty representative.
The dossier should be forwarded in five (5) copies and include the D.W. Brooks Faculty Award for Excellence Nomination Form (PDF), a written statement addressing the nominee's worthiness for consideration (not to exceed three double spaced pages), a résumé, and an appendix of supporting documentation. The appendix will typically include supporting letters from students and professional peers within, and external to, the College. The nomination packet should not exceed 25 pages.
The Brooks Award Review Committee will review all dossiers and recommend to the Chair of the Executive Committee the recipient for the annual award. The Chair of the Executive Committee will forward the name of the nominee to the Dean and Director. Only the Dean and Director shall make public the name of the recipient.
If a candidate is nominated and not chosen for the award in that given year, the submitted nomination packet will automatically be reconsidered for an additional two years with the candidate being allowed to submit updated materials if they wish to do so.
Nomination Deadline:
All nominations should be forwarded, by June 1st, to:
Dean and Director
College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
D.W. Brooks Faculty Awards for Excellence Selection Committees
101 Conner Hall
The University of Georgia
Athens, GA 30602-7501
The award shall be presented at the D.W. Brooks Lecture in October of each year.
Award Review Committee:
The Dean and Director shall appoint annually a review committee of senior faculty, including the previous year's winner, to screen all dossiers and make recommendations to the Executive Committee. All votes shall be by secret ballot, and shall be recorded and maintained by the Executive Committee.