• To honor and reward excellence in teaching.
• To enhance teaching effectiveness, particularly at the undergraduate level.
• To create a central core of teachers who can serve as a resource and an inspiration for other teachers.
• To select a body of faculty who can promote a sense of community among teachers, foster research on effective college teaching and learning, and advise the institution on teaching policies and practices.

2. Size of the Academy
The size of the Academy is limited to 5% of tenured faculty at the University of Texas, Austin.

Approximately 5 to 10 members will be chosen each year. Once selected, Academy members remain in the Academy for the duration of their tenure at UT Austin.

3. Rewards of Membership
Following election to the Academy, each faculty member will receive, effective the next academic year, a permanent academic salary increase, currently $7,000. In addition, each Academy member will be designated a University Distinguished Teaching Professor, which will entitle the holder to use this title on university stationery. In their first eight years of membership, members will also be afforded other perquisites normally afforded to holders of endowed faculty positions. On retirement, faculty members will be designated a Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus.

4. Role of the Academy
The Academy will serve as an advisory group to the executive vice president and provost on teaching excellence and will provide institutional leadership and guidance for the distinctive undergraduate experience available in our research university environment. Academy members might fulfill these broad roles in various ways, such as serving as teaching mentors for new faculty or organizing and taking part in seminars, colloquia, and workshops on teaching excellence.

5. Selection of Academy Members

A. Eligible Members
The Academy recognizes and honors tenured faculty members at UT Austin who have made sustained and significant contributions to education, particularly at the undergraduate level, within the context of their responsibilities as a full-time faculty member.

B. Nominations
The Deans of the respective schools and colleges on the UT Austin campus make nominations for the Academy. The allocation of numbers of nominees is listed below. However, effective spring 2002, if colleges/schools identify more outstanding candidates than the allotments indicated below, up to two additional candidates (beyond the number stated in the selection guidelines) from each college/school may be submitted.

Architecture	1
Business Administration	3
Communication	2
Education	2
Engineering	3
Fine Arts	2
Information School	1
Law	1
Liberal Arts	6
Natural Sciences	6
Nursing	1
Pharmacy	1
LBJ School	1
Social Work	1
Total	31

Note: Because the past practice of holding over nominations for three years has caused the selection process to become unduly cumbersome, that practice has been eliminated. However, deans may of course, nominate previous nominees. There is no limit to the number of times a faculty member may be nominated for membership in the Academy.

C. Deadlines
Nominations supported by the materials described below are due in the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost by the first of March each year.

D. Nominating Materials
Nominations should be fully documented and submitted to Vicky Godsy at the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost, MAI 201 (G1000) by March 1 of each year. Each individual nomination must be placed in a binder labeled on the spine and front with the nominee’s name and college. In addition, sections of the binder need to be tabbed to correspond to each of the following sections.

The following materials shall support each nomination:

1. A one-page cover letter from the nominee's dean.
2. A one- or two-page letter from the nominee's chair summarizing the nominee's sustained and significant contributions to teaching, particularly at the undergraduate level. This letter may include a discussion of such matters as the kinds of courses the nominee has taught (lower division? upper division? graduate? required? substantial writing component? seminar? lecture? etc.); previous teaching awards the nominee has received or been nominated for; and other relevant evidence of the nominee's extraordinary contribution to UT's teaching mission, evidence of special interests in and on behalf of undergraduate students, including undergraduate thesis advising, undergraduate and graduate involvement in research, academic advising and other efforts which make the student educational experience more satisfying and meaningful.
3. A current curriculum vitae.
4. A teaching philosophy.
5. A complete set of course-instructor teaching evaluations [sharp copies, no originals] from all courses taught over the previous three years. All evaluation forms, regardless of whether they contain student comments, must be included.
6. No more than five letters of support from current or former students and/or faculty colleagues.
7. Syllabus from a recent favorite course.

E. Selection of New Members
A committee comprised as follows will review the nominations. The committee recommends candidates to the executive vice president and provost who makes the final selections.

1. The provost or his or her designate.
2. Two other representatives of the university's central administration, selected by the provost.
3. Two students, selected by the provost.
4. Three faculty members who are not members of the Academy, selected by the provost.
5. Three representatives of the Academy recommended by the members of the Academy and selected by the provost.

F. Selection Criteria
Academy members shall be tenured faculty who have made sustained and significant contributions to teaching, particularly at the undergraduate level, within the context of their responsibilities as a full-time faculty member. In selecting members, all relevant indices of excellent teaching may be considered. There will be no quotas with respect to the race or gender of the members, or to the colleges in which they teach.