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Engagement/Service Award for a Full-Time Faculty Member

Purpose

The purpose of this award is to recognize and honor a full-time faculty member for exemplary performance in the area of engagement and/or service. Engagement is the effective application by faculty members of knowledge, skills, or professional expertise in contexts that reach beyond the School to address the goals of the university and the larger community. Like awards for teaching and research, the award for engagement recognizes the faculty member’s innovation and leadership, the impact of the work performed for or with extramural partners. This award is not intended to recognize work performed in a role as an appointed administrator or manager of intramural programs, departments or other academic structures – except when that work has significant impact beyond the School, or forms the basis for scholarship that has impact in the university, profession or the community. This award recognizes that there may be meaningful measures of impact other than evaluation by academic peers, although some degree of peer evaluation will be considered important when engagement produces a product that might normally be evaluated in a professional context. (1) This award also recognizes that the scholarship of engagement/service can include expert contributions or forms of scholarship other than traditional academic publications, and may often include scholarly products with multiple authors/creators or with no assigned authorship. (2)

Like campus guidelines for engagement/service, this award recognizes that such work may be either compensated or pro bono, and that the quality and impact of engagement/service are the only criterion in evaluating a faculty member’s eligibility. (3)

A basic level of institutional citizenship is expected from every faculty member, and is generally understood as service on committees or intramural projects. Strong or even exceptional performance in citizenship is not enough to establish a case for this award. Likewise, this award does not recognize community service in ways that do not require professional or academic expertise. (4)

The Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering-Indianapolis has defined the following categories of engagement/service:

  1. Service to the School or university that leads to innovation and impact, including scholarship that is transformative or extends beyond the school.
  2. Engagement/service to the profession, including professional societies, associations or other organization.
  3. Civic engagement based on professional expertise that has significant impact at the local, state, national and/or international level.

The award is a one-time amount of $1,000, typically paid in the month following the committee decision, or shortly thereafter. This amount is subject to change depending upon University policies and procedures, or upon availability of funding.

Eligibility

Nominees must meet the following eligibility requirements:

  • Is a full-time faculty member in Luddy-Indy;
  • Has not received the service award in the past 2 years;
  • Can document exemplary performance in engagement/service in the past calendar year.

Procedure

  1. Self-nominations are encouraged. Nominations by colleagues familiar with the nominee’s work are also welcome.
  2. The nominee (or the nominator) will prepare a dossier to clearly explain the nature and impact of the nominee’s engagement/service. Dossiers should clearly explain the nominee’s contribution in engagement/service work where individual roles may not generally be documented or credited. Dossiers may be no longer than five pages, single-spaced in 12-point font. An additional 2 pages of testimony or supporting documentation from partners, observers or recipients of a nominee’s engagement may be attached to the dossier. In cases where engagement/service has produced documents, media or digital products, copies or URLs may be included.
  3. Dossiers should not include a copy FULL COPY of the nominee’s CV as part of the application materials. A truncated CV detailing no more than last 3 years is acceptable.
  4. The dossier should include: a) Name of individual submitting nomination; b) name and rank of nominee; c) a list of engagement/service roles and achievements in chronological order; and, d) a list of engagement/service honors and awards received by the nominee. Nominations and questions should be emailed to LuddyAWD@iu.edu.