Distinguished Scholar Award

U22E

The Faculty Research and Development Committee offers a Distinguished Scholar Award to recognize an outstanding scholar among the Elon faculty. The Distinguished Scholar Award recognizes and honors excellence in scholarship. This excellence must be acknowledged by both the Elon community and by the larger community of the candidate’s discipline.

Nominations must originate from individuals holding faculty rank at Elon University and be supported through letters of recommendation by colleagues qualified to judge the candidate’s work.

General criteria include:

• The nominee is a full-time member of the Elon University faculty.
• The nominee has made an original contribution to his or her field.
• The nominee’s contribution has been exposed to critical appraisal by professional peers through publication, exhibition, or personal presentations.
• The nominee has shown evidence that his or her creative activity has been prolonged and is ongoing. One indication of this would be a record of publications, presentations, artistic performances, or exhibitions spanning a period of time including the present or recent past.
• The nominee must have completed a significant amount of scholarly work during his/her affiliation with Elon. Scholarly activities completed prior to joining Elon may serve to strengthen a potential recipient’s nomination.
• The nominee normally will have completed at least four years of full-time teaching and service at Elon University prior to being eligible for nomination.
• The Provost/Executive Vice President will solicit nominations for the Distinguished Scholar Award in the fall semester. Nominations originate from the faculty and should be sent to the chair of the Distinguished Scholar Selection Committee. Members of the selection committee are not eligible for nomination.
• Nominees will submit a portfolio in support of their candidacy.
• Nominees will solicit at least four, no more than eight, letters of recommendation in support of their scholarship from colleagues qualified to judge their work. At least one of the letters must come from a colleague of faculty rank employed by Elon and at least three from faculty colleagues not employed by Elon University. Nominees who are applying again may use letters from the previous three years.

• Each year, prior to the solicitation of nominations, the Faculty Research and Development Committee will establish a Distinguished Scholar Selection Committee of five teaching faculty members to select the award recipient. The committee will consist of:
• At least two members from the Faculty Research and Development Committee
• At least two members appointed by the Faculty Research and Development Committee from outside its membership
• At least the previous year’s recipient of the Distinguished Scholar Award (recipients from previous years may also assist in the selection process).
• Whenever possible, the members of the Distinguished Scholar Selection Committee will be chosen to provide representation for the Schools of Business, Education, Health Sciences, Communications, and the College of Arts and Sciences.
• If there is no recipient in a particular year, the following year the Chair of the Faculty Research and Development Committee will serve in the place of the previous year’s recipient.
• The Chair of Faculty Research and Development Committee will appoint as chair the committee member who has served on the Distinguished Scholar Committee the previous year.
• The Selection Committee’s decision will be reported to the Chair of the Faculty Research and Development Committee. That person will report the decision to the Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs who will arrange for plaque, stipend, and presentation of the award.
• The Distinguished Scholar Selection Committee will select no more than one recipient per year.
• Award recipients are not eligible to be re-nominated for at least four academic years.

The recipient will be honored at the annual faculty-staff awards luncheon with a plaque and a cash award. The recipient will deliver a plenary Distinguished Scholar Lecture during the subsequent academic year.