Peter J. Elich Excellence in Teaching Award

The following criteria and policies are intended to secure comprehensive evaluations and maintain goodwill in the process.

1. No person shall receive this award more than once.
2. Only the name of the award winner is announced. The names of the other candidates shall not be published at any time during or after the process.
3. Tenure is not a requirement, but the candidate must be a tenure track faculty member having completed at least three full years of service at Western Washington University. Visiting faculty, non-tenure track faculty, and part-time faculty are not eligible.
4. Eligible nominees will be notified by the College administering the award. Upon officially confirming their candidacy, nominees will be invited to submit their support materials to the committee by the deadline date provided.
5. The award is a teaching award, not a research award; support materials submitted should speak to the candidate’s teaching abilities.
6. The committee may devise additional or alternative criteria and/or processes upon announcement.
7. The committee will evaluate materials secured through all processes and make its selection according to its best judgment.
8. The award is intended to recognize the candidate’s excellence in teaching while at Western Washington University. Support materials should be limited to no more than the past three years)
9. To secure consistency in the evaluation process, nominees will provide the following documents:
   • Current vita
   • Evaluations representative of all courses taught; must include student comments and numerical data, if available.
     • Current copies of syllabi from all courses taught in the last three years
     • A maximum of two supporting documents per course (optional)
   • A maximum of six (6) reference letters (electronic format) sent directly to the Dean’s Office* with a minimum of three (3) letters, one (1) each from the following:
     • Student
     • Alumni
     • Colleague (may consist of faculty from other institutions, if reasonably representing the candidate’s department or field)
   • A summary comprising up to three (3) pages describing aspects of his/her teaching not covered by the requested material.
10. In the past, the Elich Award Committee has evaluated nominees using the following criteria:
    • Challenge Level
    • Student Engagement
    • Breadth/Versatility
    • Risk/Innovation
    • Impact
    • Passion/Energy
11. Faculty on leave in the year of nomination may choose to defer the nomination to the following academic year.

*It is the responsibility of the nominee to request the recommendation letters. The Dean’s Office will only consider letters received directly from the reference contact electronically (Word or PDF). Recommendation letters are treated as confidential; contents will not be shared with the candidate.