Teaching Excellence Awards Honor 161 Faculty in the Texas A&M System

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 19, 2010
Contact: Jason Cook or Rod Davis
(979) 458-1729
(979) 458-6023
Syscomm@tamu.edu

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The Texas A&M University System today awarded $526,000 to outstanding faculty throughout the system for the spring 2010 presentation of the Teaching Excellence Awards, a voluntary, student-selected honors program.

The 161 faculty winners will receive checks ranging from $2,500 to $10,000. Rodney Hill, a professor in the Department of Architecture at Texas A&M University, was awarded $10,000.

Texas A&M had the most total recipients, with 47, followed by Texas A&M University-Commerce, 26; Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, 17; Prairie View A&M University, 15; Texas A&M University-Kingsville, 10; Texas A&M International University, 10; West Texas A&M University, 9; Texas A&M University-Texarkana, 9; Tarleton State University, 7; Texas A&M University at Galveston, 6; Texas A&M University-San Antonio, 4; and Texas A&M University-Central Texas, 1.

The recipients represent the top 20 percent of those who participated in the A&M System program. The top 5 percent are awarded $5,000 to $10,000. The next 15 percent receive $2,500 to $5,000. Awards are based on rankings from evaluations created and administered by students, with weighting for factors such as class size.

The Teaching Excellence Awards were initiated by Chancellor Michael D. McKinney in 2008 to honor and financially reward the system’s top teachers as selected by students. All faculty members who teach at least a 3-hour course are eligible.

“This program allows students to recognize the many outstanding teachers that we have across the A&M System,” said McKinney. “While we are proud to extend our financial appreciation to these faculty members, these awards are about giving credit to those who give their best each day for their students, and ultimately to the state of Texas.”

To date, 593 faculty members in the A&M System have received $2 million in excellence awards funds since the program started in 2008.

Winners in the top 5 percent category, by campus are:

Texas A&M: John Crompton, Jennifer Williams, Rodney Hill, Haipeng Chen, Alesia Troy, Otis Elmore, Robin Rackley, Paul Gratz, Kishore Gawande, Douglas Bigs, Maria Moyna, Mary O’Farrell, Mark McGraw, Angela Allen, Jonathan Hauenstein, and James Herman.

TAMUG: John Schwarz.

PVAMU: LaKeshur Green, Kevin Storr, Ahmed Mahfouz, and Alex Colvin.
Tarleton: Patricia Hendrickson and Rose Jackson.

TAMIU: Jose Martinez-Samos and Natalie Burkhalter.

A&M-Corpus Christi: Philippe Tissot, Candy Skelton and Cherie McCollough.

Texas A&M-Kingsville: Fred Ponder, Scott Henke and Pamela Hill.
WTAMU: Vicki Hartin and Collette Loftin.

A&M-Commerce: Carole Walker, Wade Fish, Harvetta Robertson, Jason Wicke, and Sang Suh.

A&M-Texarkana: Selena Jefferies and Callie Fortenberry.

A&M-San Antonio: Robin Kapavik.

The full listing of award recipients by institution is in the attached pdf.

About the A&M System
The A&M System is one of the largest systems of higher education in the nation, with a budget of $3.2 billion. Through a statewide network of 11 universities, seven state agencies and a comprehensive health science center, the A&M System educates nearly 115,000 students and makes more than 22 million additional educational contacts through service and outreach programs each year. Externally funded research expenditures exceed $730 million and help drive the state’s economy.