Nominations open for Sustainability Teaching Award

The University of Oregon has earned a national reputation for integrating the topic of sustainability into academics, research, building design, and day-to-day operations. Sustainability has become a widely shared institutional value. It is time once again to recognize and celebrate our many achievements at the University of Oregon’s Sustainability Awards Program. TEP invites applications for the Excellence in Teaching Award. This award is open to career and tenure-related faculty. Candidates for this award have developed pedagogy and curriculum that reinforce and advance principles of sustainability through course design and instruction. This award celebrates faculty who have exhibited excellence in the following two areas:

Sustainability – Demonstration of committed engagement with principles of sustainability through course content and student applications to real-world problems or contexts.

Pedagogy – Demonstration of teaching excellence through teaching practices that are inclusive, engaged, and research-led.

TO NOMINATE (including self-nominations): 

Please send faculty member’s name, applicable course syllabus, and a one-page letter of support that addresses the evaluation criteria indicated below to Office of Sustainability assistant director Sarah Stoeckl, sstoeckl@uoregon.edu, by noon on Friday, March 3rd.The recipient will be featured in a video about their teaching and honored at the annual UO Sustainability Awards Dinner. The event is designed to showcase University of Oregon’s depth and breadth in sustainability programming as well as give those leading the charge an opportunity to be recognized.  It features a cash bar, locally-grown food and entertainment. It is attended by approximately 75 people each year, including several deans and vice-presidents.

University Sustainability Awards – Excellence in Teaching Criteria

The review committee will rank each candidate’s file on a 1-5 scale in the following criteria areas:

  • Sustainability
    • To what extent does the course content engage with one or more of the three areas of sustainability – environmental sustainability, social justice and equity, socially responsible economics? [1-5]
    • How essential are the sustainability components to the course content? [1-5]
    • How deeply are students able to apply their intellectual understanding of sustainability to real-world problems or contexts? [1-5]
  • Pedagogy

(Please refer to the principles and example practices of teaching excellence found here.)

    • To what extent does the instructor use practices of inclusive teaching? [1-5]
    • To what extent is the instructor committed to engaged teaching—reflective practice, teaching development, and building a teaching community? [1-5]
    • To what extent does the instructor mentor students in research or other scholarly work? [1-5]
    • To what extent does the instructor use evidence-based practices about how students learn?  [1-5]
    • To what extent is the instructor’s teaching informed by state-of-the-field research on  sustainability, environmental studies, climate sciences, etc.? [1-5]