2016 UT-Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award
The University of Texas Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Awards (UTROTA)
Call for Nominations
It is intended that no fewer than thirty (30) total UTROTA awards (across 8 institutions in the
UT-System, excluding UT-Austin, which has its own competition) will be made in 2016 by the UT
System. The intended award breakdown (each award is $25,000) is as follows:
 Tenured faculty: twenty (20) awards;
 Tenure-track faculty: nine (9) awards; and
 Contingent faculty: nine (9) awards.
(note: some of this information is subject to minor updates,
but those updates are not expected to affect the essential structure, criteria, and requirements)
Recommended 2015-16 UTEP Nomination Process
1) Award Nominations: February 1 – May 31, 2015
Tenured faculty, Tenure-Track faculty, and Contingent faculty may self-nominate in response to
this announcement. To do so, the faculty member must compile an abbreviated packet sent to their
dean through their chair. The abbreviated packet includes these parts of the full packet: Official
ROTA coversheet, preliminary draft of Executive Summary, end-of-course student evaluations of
teaching (but not including letters of support from students), updated Curriculum Vitae, and letter
of support from Chair specifically delineating why the candidate should be a college nominee. This
commits the faculty member to the process in a timely manner but does not force them to do the
full amount of work before they know they will receive at least a preliminary level of support.
Deadline for submission of abbreviated nomination packet to the Dean (through the
department chair): May 31, 2015.
2) Review by Each College: June 1 -19, 2015
Colleges will review the abbreviated nomination packets and choose which faculty will be asked to
develop full packages that follow all guidelines required by the UT-Regents. Deans will need to stay
within their college’s limits in each category (see table below) that are designed to provide a
reasonably equitable opportunity to be in the final group that will represent the University. These
limits are based on the distribution of faculty and are scaled so that the smallest Colleges have a
chance to nominate persons in each category and the largest College has an opportunity to fill all
the slots available for the University. If a college/school does not submit candidates in any one
category, nominees from other colleges may be added to this category in order to create the
strongest possible pool for the University.
On June 19, colleges let CETaL know how many selected packets are in each of the three ROTA
categories. Assume total number of packets selected by colleges equals N. CETaL will inform Deans
that there are now 43-N additional “at large” slots available (with first priority given to anyone who
was nominated by UTEP for a previous ROTA award but did not win, and then first-come firstserved (based on when Deans notify Karla) for filling subsequent slots) for any colleges that had
more interested potential applicants than their default quota number in one or more of the three
categories.
Deadline for Deans to notify CETaL of how many packets are in each of their 3 ROTA
categories: June 19, 2015
Deadline for CETaL to notify Deans of “at large” spots so that Deans can notify faculty
selected to compile full packets: June 22, 2015
2016 UT-Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award
College
Liberal Arts
Science
Engineering
Education
Business Administration
Health Sciences
School of Nursing
Undergraduate Studies
University Total
Tenured
Tenure-Track
Contingent
Total
7
4
3
2
2
1
1
3
2
1
1
1
1
1
3
1
1
1
1
1
1
3
13
7
5
4
4
3
3
3
21
11
11
43
3) College Nominees Develop Full Package: June 22 – October 1, 2015
This package must contain all parts (including any support letters) and follow all guidelines
required by the UT-Regents. By the time the package is submitted, Deans must sign a simple
endorsement form developed by the Provost’s Office.
Deadline for submission of completed nomination packets to CETaL: October 1, 2015.
Please contact Karla Ramirez ([email protected]; 747-8793) with any questions about the
logistics of transferring the packets from the Colleges to CETaL.
4) Review and Screening by University Selection Committee: October 1 – December 1,
2015.
CETaL’s Dr. Peter Golding will convene and facilitate the University Selection Committee, a
confidential committee which generally includes some previous UTROTA winners and
representatives of the University Administration. The Committee will recommend to
Administration the top 12 nominees for the quotas permitted to the University by the UT Regents
(6 Tenured, 3, Tenure-Track, and 3 Contingent) along with any alternates the Committee wishes to
identify. The review process will run from October 1 – December 1, 2015.
5) Refinement Process: December 1, 2015 – March 1, 2016.
The 12 selected UTEP nominees will engage in a refinement process using peer review with
administrators, fellow nominees, and previous UTEP UTROTA Winners. This critical process will
run from December 1, 2015 – March 1, 2016.
6) Final Review begins: March 2, 2016
Submission of recommended nominations for Presidential review: March 2, 2016.
7) Submission
The Provost’s Office submits the nominations to the UT System prior to the date (March
2016) specified by the UT System.
2016 UT-Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award
Questions: For questions involving Steps 4 and 5, contact Dr. Peter Golding ([email protected]), for questions
involving Step 3, contact Karla Ramirez ([email protected]), and for other questions, contact Dr. Larry Lesser
([email protected]).