Arthur F. Thurnau Professorships

Announcement of the Competition

July 20, 2008

Deans, Associate Deans, Department Chairs, and Program Directors
of Academic Units with Undergraduate Classes

I am writing to announce the twenty-second competition for the Thurnau Professorships and to invite you to nominate your most extraordinary teachers for this high honor.

Each year, Thurnau Professorships recognize and reward a highly select group of five or six tenured faculty for their outstanding contributions to undergraduate education.  Those appointed to Thurnau Professorships hold this title along with their other university titles and receive a $20,000 grant to support activities associated with further enhancing their teaching (e.g., travel, books, equipment, graduate student support).  The Professorships are named after Arthur F. Thurnau, a student at the University of Michigan from 1902 to 1904, and are supported by the Thurnau Charitable Trust that was established through his will.

The selection criteria appear below and are also explained in more detail in the enclosed nomination guidelines.  In order to be selected as a Thurnau Professor, it is necessary to have a sustained record of excellence in undergraduate education as demonstrated by meeting one or more of the following criteria, but not limited to them:

• A strong commitment to students and to teaching and learning
• Excellence in teaching, as evidenced particularly by other teaching awards and also the use of effective teaching strategies and notable methods of assessing student learning
• Innovations in teaching and learning
• A strong commitment to working effectively with a diverse student body
• A demonstrable impact on students’ intellectual and/or artistic development and on their lives.

Please read the enclosed guidelines carefully as you put together nomination packets.  It is common for candidates to be nominated more than once before being selected.  Please note that it is somewhat unusual, though not impossible, for nominees to be selected early in their post-tenure career.

Any dean, associate dean, department chair, or academic program director may submit a nomination directly, with the signature of a dean signifying endorsement of the nominee (see Nomination Cover Sheet).  Thurnau Professors will be recommended to the Regents at their February meeting and recognized at Honors Convocation in mid-March.

The Thurnau Professorships recognize and reward outstanding faculty who devote their attention to providing an excellent undergraduate experience for U-M students.  We take the nominations for these Professorships very seriously and hope you will give them your careful attention.  I would be especially grateful if you would help to identify a diverse pool of nominees with respect to such factors as gender, race/ethnicity, and school/college representation.  Nominations must be submitted by no later than Monday, December 1, 2008.

If you have questions about the Thurnau Professorships or the nomination procedure, please call or email Matt Kaplan, Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT), 936-0644 (mlkaplan@umich.edu).  We look forward to receiving your nomination(s).

Regards,

Teresa A. Sullivan
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs

THURNAU PROFESSORSHIP