3.18 Mary W. Johnson Faculty Achievement Awards

(Replaces Scripps College Program for Outstanding Faculty Achievement, effective March 30, 1995, which replaced the Scripps College Endowment Fund for Faculty Recognition, effective July 1, 1990)

1. Purpose: The purpose of this program is to recognize and to reward outstanding achievement by the Scripps faculty for teaching excellence, scholarly contributions, and community leadership on a yearly basis.
2. Program: Twelve awards of $5,000 each will be made for extraordinary achievement in teaching, scholarly production, and community service to members of the Scripps faculty.
3. Funding: An endowed fund has been created to cover the costs of these achievement awards. They will not be funded through the operating budget of the College.
4. Selection Process: Each Scripps faculty member who wishes to self-nominate or nominate another faculty member will do so by sending such nomination to the Dean of Faculty’s office by mid-November (a specific date to be set annually by the Dean of Faculty’s Office). Student nominations will be actively solicited for the teaching awards. The Dean of Faculty’s Office will notify nominees that have been nominated; if the nominee wishes to be considered s/he must submit a personal statement containing a full summary of her/his teaching, scholarship, and community service for the preceding academic year to the Dean of Faculty’s Office, with other required materials by January (a specific date to be set annually by the Dean of Faculty’s Office). Faculty members may identify achievements particularly worthy of consideration. The committee will be appointed by the FEC chair and/or the vice chair, in consultation with the dean. If both the FEC chair and the vice chair are applicants for a Johnson award then members of FEC who are not applicants will appoint the committee, in consultation with the dean. If all members of FEC are applicants then the dean will appoint the committee. The three-person faculty committee must consist of members who are active in all three areas of teaching, research, and service, and be balanced as to field and not include two members of the same department. The three-person faculty committee will be composed of FEC members unless the criteria for the committee cannot be met by FEC members only. In that case, other faculty members whose service on the committee will allow the criteria for the committee to be met will be asked to serve, in consultation with the dean. The Dean of the Faculty will serve as chair of the selection committee but will not be a voting member of the committee. The Faculty Awards Committee will ask for appropriate documentation and make recommendations directly to the President. A maximum of 12 recommendations will be made. Normally two of the awards will be given for community service with the remainder for outstanding teaching and/or scholarly achievement. In exceptional years, the selection committee may give more awards in community service at their discretion. Recipients of the award in any one area should address in a personal statement their performance in all three areas. A Faculty member may receive an award only once for a particular professional accomplishment. For an article to be considered for candidates who have been nominated for the research awards, it must have been either published in the academic year under consideration, or the faculty must have written evidence from the journal’s editor of its acceptance for publication. For a book to be considered for candidates who have been nominated for the research awards, it must have been either published in the academic year under consideration, or the faculty must have a written acknowledgment of the receipt and acceptance of the final manuscript from the publisher. For some fields critical evaluations and reviews of one’s work are appropriate; in other fields they may not be. This must be taken into account in adjudicating the awards. Individual faculty members will receive notification of their award in a special letter.
5. Eligibility: All voting members of the Scripps Faculty, including part-time faculty with voting rights, will be eligible for achievement awards in all areas. A Keck Science faculty member will not be eligible for an award until he or she has been at Scripps for a year, and then remains eligible for the next five years and for the academic year after rotation from Scripps. An individual faculty member cannot receive awards in the same category–i.e. teaching, scholarship, and community service–in consecutive years.
6. Additional Comments: These are achievement awards which are granted yearly and therefore do not affect salary bases of the faculty. Assessment of nominations for a Johnson Faculty Achievement Award (i) is conducted by an ad hoc committee, not the Appointments, Promotion, and Tenure Committee and (ii) is limited to activity in the preceding year. Accordingly, consideration for or receipt of a Johnson Faculty Achievement Award does not constitute a personnel review by the Appointments, Promotion, and Tenure Committee.