York

Teaching award nominations sought for 2014-15 at Penn State York

Anne Vardo-Zalik, assistant professor of biology, presented the 2014 James H. Burness Award for Excellence in Teaching, for a full-time faculty member, to Andy Landis, assistant professor of chemistry, during the 2014 Academic Awards Banquet. Credit: Barbara Dennis / Penn StateCreative Commons

YORK, Pa. -- Nominations are being accepted for the 2015 James H. Burness Award for Excellence in Teaching. The award is presented annually to recognize any aspect of excellent instruction (lectures, demonstrations, classroom activities, handling of discussions, individual attention, laboratory instruction, etc.) that contributes to the academic quality of Penn State York.

The teaching award is named in memory of the late James H. Burness in recognition of his outstanding teaching and service to the campus. Burness died in December 1999.All faculty are eligible to be nominated except for recipients of the award in the past four years: Charles (Chuck) L. Kennedy and Judith K. McCormick (2011), Sukhdeep Gill and Stephen K. Lentz (2012), Sukhdeep Gill and Stephen K. Lentz (2012), Anne Vardo Zalik and Christopher Rodkey (2013), and Andy Landis and Jorge Santiago-Blay (2014). Two awards are given: one to a full-time faculty member and one to a part-time faculty member. Do not worry if you are unsure whether a faculty member is full-time or part-time, the Teaching Award Committee will divide the nominations accordingly. This nomination form is for faculty who are teaching in fall 2014. Nominations for the 2015 award also will be open in the spring semester for additional submissions. The purpose of the award is to recognize excellence in instruction, not to identify the most popular faculty member. Be as specific as possible with comments about nominees. When the committee receives something such as "she's a great professor and definitely deserves the award," it doesn't help much in making a decision.Nominations should be submitted by 5 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 30, using the online form

Last Updated November 6, 2014