Dear Fellow Columbians:

Provost Claude Steele recently sent you two letters inviting you to submit nominations for the 2011 Presidential Awards for Outstanding Teaching.  Our two selection committees place a high value on nominations from students.

We urge you to honor the best of your professors and graduate student instructors by submitting your nominations via the web to: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/vpaa/teach/ and completing the Faculty nomination or the Graduate nomination form.  If you prefer, you can send your nominations by mail instead to: Teaching Awards Committee, c/o the Office of the Senior Vice Provost, 310 Low Library, Mail Code 4326.

If you would like to nominate someone, please provide a description of how the teacher has influenced you and other students. Be sure to include enough information to give us a persuasive picture of how he or she has enhanced your education, changed your goals or otherwise affected your life.

We expect to receive many nominations this year for many exceptional faculty and graduate students.  The committees pay particular attention to thoughtful, reasoned nominations, so a nomination that is too brief and uninformative will not carry much weight.  You may renominate someone you proposed in a prior year, if he or she has not already won an award.  Since the President makes a limited number of awards each year (five for the regular faculty and three for graduate students), your nominee may have been a serious contender in a previous competition and could well be winner this year.  Just remember to describe in some detail why you consider the individual to be worthy of award.  Please submit faculty nominations by January 31, 2011, and graduate student nominations by February 1, 2011.

The committees will read every nomination carefully and select small groups of finalists for further consideration on the basis of the letters and e-mails they receive. Therefore, your nomination can play a decisive role in determining who will ultimately receive the awards. We welcome your nominations and wish to join President Bollinger in thanking you in advance for helping the University recognize its most outstanding teachers.

Laurie Simon Hodrick, Chair
Faculty Teaching Awards Committee

Jesus D Rodriguez-Velasco, Chair
Graduate Student Teaching Awards Committee