Academic Outreach Awards for Faculty

On behalf of the Chancellor, the University’s Council on Academic Outreach and Engagement is soliciting nominations for the Chancellor's Academic Outreach Award that recognizes excellence in academic outreach by faculty. The academic outreach award will be presented to the faculty member at the Chancellor's Awards Banquet in April 2009. The Academic Outreach Award recognizes extraordinary contributions of faculty to the public that occur as an outgrowth of academic pursuits and are related to the University's academic mission. The faculty award is based on demonstrated outstanding contributions to the public stemming from the academic expertise of the nominee.

Academic Outreach

Academic outreach is defined as integrated scholarship which engages the institution's academic missions of research, creativity, teaching, and service with the community at large. It involves the university’s faculty and students employing their academic expertise to engage the community in reciprocal, collaborative relationships to improve the quality of life for citizens. In turn, the relationships with the community inform the scholarship and learning of faculty and students. Scholarship in academic outreach can be demonstrated in the nomination and faculty member’s curriculum vitae with awards, grants, publications and/or other recognitions within the discipline and/or the community. Examples of academic outreach can be demonstrated in areas of teaching, research or service.

Academic outreach in the scholarship of teaching extends the university's instructional capacity to provide learning opportunities to public audiences through workshops, public lectures, educational presentations, designing/developing educational exhibits or web sites, and other educational activities. Faculty may also perform outreach teaching by extending their classroom beyond the campus to engage their students in service learning. Through service learning, faculty design their course to enable their students to relate the academic content of their coursework to the real world by providing a needed service to the community as they apply and test their learning. Both service learning and student voluntary community service involve student engagement with the community; however, service learning differs from community service in that service learning experiences occur in the context of courses which are part of the approved curriculum and involve faculty and their students in a thoughtfully designed learning experience with defined learning and experiential goals as part of the course requirements.
Academic outreach in the scholarship of research or creative activity involves extending faculty research and creative endeavors to serve the public at large. This goal may be accomplished through a variety of research activities: basic discovery research, applied or action research, original performances, or creative applied policy or management. Outreach research is often seen as an externally focused activity that brings together faculty and community collaborators to address real world problems and issues. Indeed, the best examples of outreach research and creative activities are those that engage faculty in advancing knowledge through the pursuit of their scholarly interests while simultaneously addressing problems and issues in the community, thereby benefiting the scholar, the discipline, the university, and society.

Academic outreach in service or application entails employing faculty knowledge and professional expertise to serve society through application of expertise in direct service, consultation with public, private and civic institutions of all kinds, and other activities which apply faculty knowledge to the benefit of the community. Through outreach service, the intellectual resources of the university’s faculty are applied to helping seek solutions to community problems and issues. As faculty knowledge provides insights which inform citizens of choices, provide needed services, and inform public decisions, faculty enhance the quality of life of the citizens in the communities served by the university. Outreach service does not include institutional service (e.g., service on university committees), nor professional service (e.g., service to various professional and learned societies), nor community service (e.g., charitable service outside the faculty member's academic expertise). Rather, outreach service is defined more specifically as extending to the community faculty's disciplinary expertise acquired through research, scholarship, and creative activity.

Nominations of Faculty

All faculty of the University of Tennessee's Knoxville campus, including the Institute of Agriculture, are eligible for this award.  The award is intended to honor an individual faculty member who has exceeded normal expectations in his/her academic outreach activities. The letter of nomination should address the nature and quality of the academic outreach performed by the nominated individual and why it represents an extraordinary accomplishment. Please include a copy of the faculty member’s curriculum vitae.  Nominators are asked not to include additional materials because they will NOT be considered. Nominations must be submitted to Nan Gaylord (ngaylord@utk.edu), Council Chair, by the third Monday in February. Previous award winners and members of the awards selection committee are ineligible.

Selection Process

The University’s Academic Outreach Council will preside over the nomination and selection process. The selection committee will include four representatives of the University’s Academic Outreach Council and the previous year’s award winner. The selection committee will review nominations and select the faculty member to be recommended to the Chancellor’s office as the award recipient.