Awards of Distinction

Selection of Recipients for the CLASS Awards of Distinction

Each year, the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences makes one award to a faculty member for distinctive achievement in each of the following three categories: Teaching, Scholarship/Creativity, and Service.

All full-time temporary, tenure-track, non-tenure track, and tenured faculty who have completed at least one year of teaching at Georgia Southern University at the time of the application are eligible for any of the four awards.

To be eligible for an Award of Distinction, faculty members must have their appointments in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences.

Faculty members may either nominate a colleague or apply themselves for an award in one of the four categories. Each nomination or application should focus either on one specific contribution of distinction in the category or a series of closely related contributions. Preference will be given to contributions of distinction that occurred during the immediately preceding academic year (August 1- July 31).

The official nominating form can be found here. A single application or nomination should be submitted on each form.

The deadline for submission is March 15 with awards announced at the Spring faculty meeting. If, in the judgment of either the selection committee or the dean, sufficient applications of merit are not received in any or all categories by the original deadline, the deadline will be extended and the awards announced by the end of the following fall semester.

CLASS Awards of Distinction will not be awarded to the same faculty member in two consecutive years.

2012 Award Recipients

2011 Award Recipients

2010 Award Recipients

Award of Excellence

Selection of Recipient of the CLASS Award of Excellence

The CLASS Award of Excellence honors outstanding activity by faculty members early in their career. This award is open to full-time faculty members in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences who are:

1. Tenure-track or non-tenure.
2. In their first ten years of college-level teaching.
3. Outstanding in a wide range of activities, including teaching, scholarship or creative activity, service, and advisement.
4. Supporting materials (such items as summaries of student ratings of instruction, peer evaluations, lists of publications and presentations, additional letters of support, representative course materials, and so on) may be submitted but must be limited to no more than ten additional pages.
5. All nominations must be received in the CLASS Dean's Office by April 15th.
6. A selection committee for the award will be chosen by the dean. The committee will submit its recommendations to the dean who will then make the final decision.
7. The recipient of the CLASS Award of Excellence is announced at the first college faculty meeting of the academic year.

2012 Recipient

2011 Recipient

2010 Recipient

2009 Recipient

Ruffin Cup Award

The Ruffin Cup recognizes the highest achievement in teaching, scholarship, and service in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences. It is awarded annually to a teacher-scholar with at least ten years of service to Georgia Southern who has combined excellent teaching with outstanding contributions to the spirit of the liberal arts.

In April of each year, the dean asks faculty members to submit nominations for Ruffin Cup recipients no later than April 15th.

The Dean reviews these nominations with an advisory committee and then, meeting jointly with at least one department chair or senior faculty member, chooses that year's recipient.

The recipient of the Ruffin Cup is announced at the first college faculty meeting of the academic year.

Current and Past Ruffin Cup Recipients