Excellence in Teaching Awards

UH Hilo and the UH System annually honor excellent teachers who are nominated by their colleagues and students for the following three awards:

The Board of Regents (BOR) Award for Excellence in Teaching: Presented annually to a UH Hilo full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty member.
The Chancellor's Award for Teaching Excellence: Presented annually to a UH Hilo Instructor or Lecturer.
The Frances Davis Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching: Presented annually to a UH Hilo Instructor or Assistant Professor faculty member.

Selection Process

A student-faculty committee will select the award recipients. The committee is comprised of three faculty members (previous award recipients) and two students (the President of the UHHSA and the President of the International Students' Association).

Criteria for Nominations

Nomination Process

Nominations for these awards may be submitted by UH Hilo students, faculty and staff according to the guidelines indicated on the attached documents. (Please see the nomination form which follows the teaching award descriptions.)

Nominators should explain how the nominee meets the specific criteria of the award. Support letters for nominees are most effective if they explain how the nominee exemplifies the award criteria.

Nominations are now closed.

Important Note:

The Committee has the authority to present or not to present an award in each category in any given year. The awards are not obligatory nor have they been awarded every year.

The Committee may choose not to present an award in a given category in a given year for any appropriate reason. Possible reasons include, but are not limited to, the pool of nominees in a given category may be insufficient to justify such a distinguished award and/or nominee(s) may not yet have demonstrated sustained excellence in teaching.These awards are highly competitive. Many excellent teachers have been nominated several times before being selected.

The Committee reserves the right to consider candidates for any of the three awards for which they qualify by rank, regardless of the award for which they have been nominated.