Distinguished Professor

The awards process is coordinated through the Office of the President. Nominators are encouraged to consult with the Office of the President about candidate eligibility prior to preparing a nomination; questions about dossier preparation are welcome at any time.

Due to awards@oneonta.edu by 12pm, Monday, November 6, 2023.
Incomplete nominations will automatically be disqualified.

There is no limit to number of nominations SUNY Oneonta may submit annually.

General Restrictions on Eligibility

The following are special conditions, applicable to all programs that limit eligibility:

  • faculty holding Distinguished Faculty Rank – Distinguished Librarian, Distinguished Professor, Distinguished Service Professor, or Distinguished Teaching Professor – may not be nominated for another Distinguished Faculty Rank designation;
  • faculty holding qualified academic appointments (as defined in Board of Trustees policies: individuals holding titles of academic rank that are preceded by the designation …“visiting” or other similar designations) may not be nominated;
  • faculty holding a concurrent administrative appointment above the level of department chair for which they receive extra compensation are ineligible for the DSP;
  • faculty who have retired or faculty serving in part-time capacities are ineligible; and
  • posthumous nominations are not permissible.

Specific Eligibility

Academic Rank - Candidates must have attained the rank of full professor.

Length of Service - Candidates must have held the rank of professor for at least five years and must have at least one year of full-time service at the nominating institution.

Criteria for Selection

To be nominated for the Distinguished Professorship:

  • The person's work must be of such a character that the individual’s presence will elevate the standards of scholarship of colleagues both within and beyond the individual’s respective academic field.
  • The individual must have achieved national or international prominence and a distinguished reputation within the individual’s chosen field through significant contributions to the research literature or through artistic performance or achievement in the case of the fine and performing arts, beyond that which is expected for a full professor.
  • The individual must have obtained national or international awards that provide evidence of distinguished research, scholarship, or other creative activity.
  • Individuals who are also inventors should have achieved prominence as assessed by the extent their discoveries have had measurable benefit to society.

Local Guidelines: How to Prepare a Nomination

Nominators' Responsibilities

It is the responsibility of the nominator(s) to complete and submit all required and allowable support file data. This includes the electronic submission of the following documents to awards@oneonta.edu by noon on Monday, November 1, 2022:

  • One complete PDF dossier containing all required materials
  • One MS Word document of the maximum five-page summary
  • One MS Word document of the nominee’s curriculum vitae

SUNY will announce winners in April or May; however, due to timing factors, only award recipients and their campuses will be notified.

Nominator Dossier Preparation

The dossier will contain all required materials in the sequence below, with a table of contents. Incomplete nominations will automatically be disqualified.

  1. The Nomination Abstract - Please provide a brief one-paragraph abstract of 150 to 180 words. This abstract should provide a clear, thematic picture that describes the candidate’s main accomplishments. It should highlight why the candidate has been nominated and may be taken from other parts of the nomination package. If the candidate is an awardee, this abstract may be used for press releases or testimonials.
  2. The Summary Presentation (five-page summary) should include direct quotes from the letters of support and must speak specifically to each of the criteria for selection in the SUNY guidelines as follows:

    Criteria for Selection for the Distinguished Professorship:

    • The person's work must be of such a character that the individual’s presence will elevate the standards of scholarship of colleagues both within and beyond the individual’s respective academic field.
    • The individual must have achieved national or international prominence and a distinguished reputation within the individual’s chosen field through significant contributions to the research literature or through artistic performance or achievement in the case of the fine and performing arts, beyond that which is expected for a full professor.
    • The individual must have obtained national or international awards that provide evidence of distinguished research, scholarship, or other creative activity.
    • Individuals who are also inventors should have achieved prominence as assessed by the extent their discoveries have had measurable benefit to society.

    The format of the Summary Presentation (five-page summary) is significant because the document if approved by the local selection committee, will be forwarded to SUNY System Administration. Formatting requirements include:

    • The heading must indicate the name, rank, and college of the nominee and the nominator as follows:

      Name, Rank, SUNY Oneonta, nominated for the Distinguished Professorship by Name, Title, SUNY Oneonta.

    • The final paragraph must repeat the nomination and summarize its salient points.
    • Avoid the use of first person.
    • Single-space with at least 11 point font size and set margins to at least 1".
    • Please do not use acronyms or language which will not be understood by external reviewers.
  3. Curriculum Vitae – An up-to-date and moderately comprehensive CV that should have separate sections for educational background, academic/visiting appointments, honors and awards received, publications, external funding, invited/keynote presentations, other presentations, teaching accomplishments (including lists of graduate dissertations, theses and research directed and other mentoring), and service contributions to the University, the community, and the profession (work with learned societies, editorial boards, conferences organized, and other relevant activities). Entries for awards should indicate the significance of each item. Specific data must include the date of the last update, the candidate’s department, the date of appointment to the SUNY system, highest rank attained and date of appointment to that rank.

    Articles in refereed and non-refereed journals should be clearly distinguished from one another and, preferably, listed separately with full pagination and ordered by date of publication. Books should be listed separately from articles. Publications with multiple authors should indicate the senior author if there is one, either by a note at the beginning of the publications list (if senior author position is consistent throughout) or by an asterisk indicating the senior author in each entry. External funding entries should indicate agency, amount, dates, and if there are multiple named investigators, which is the PI.
  4. Internal Letters of Recommendation must provide strong evidence of national or international prominence and a distinguished reputation in the disciplinary field, beyond that which is expected for a full professor. At least five, but no more than eight, internal letters are needed to validate the stature of the candidate proposed for appointment. Letters from the Provost and candidate’s Dean are required and must provide detailed information and the specific rationale – preferably in laymen’s terms – for the candidate’s nomination and justification for the appointment. Letters from those holding Distinguished rank are encouraged.
  5. External Letters of Recommendation must provide strong evidence of national or international prominence and a distinguished reputation in the disciplinary field. At least five, but no more than eight, external letters are needed to validate the stature of the candidate proposed for appointment. Each external letter of recommendation should be accompanied either by the author’s full and current curriculum vita or a very detailed description of the author’s stature sufficient to provide review panelists a context for the recommendation submitted. Letters must be from colleagues with the appropriate rank at the appropriate institutions.

    These letters should be from individuals whose own status or accomplishment is appropriate to a promotion at this level. They should be persons sufficiently acquainted with both the candidate’s work and the profession to be able to write an informed letter specifically locating the candidate’s standing in and contribution to the discipline, and explaining the significance of the candidate’s awards and honors. Letter writers should be disinterested, that is, generally individuals who have not collaborated, co-authored, co-taught, or been in a student-teacher relationship with the candidate. If the letter writers have collaborated with the candidate in the past, they should pass the same distance test used by the major funding agencies in the candidate’s field: if the relationship is recent or close enough that the proposed letter writer would have to recuse himself/herself from a funding panel considering an application for that candidate, then the proposed letter writer is too recent or close for this promotion dossier.
  6. Documentation supporting teaching excellence will be used only for the on-campus evaluation. It must contain the following evidence to support the statements in the five-page summary:
    • A complete list of courses taught (not including sections) during the candidate’s career at SUNY Oneonta (if not listed in CV).
    • A list of three years of enrollments per section.
    • Course outlines and/or other materials showing the uniqueness of teaching such as slide series, computer materials or lecture framework, from the last two years.
    • Summary of Student Perception of Instruction or similar widely accepted documents, as compared to department or college distribution, if possible, with free responses for the last two years, along with an optional explanation of the context.
    • Grade distribution for all courses taught for the last two years, as compared to departmental or college distribution.
    • If applicable, include a summary of how students are involved in scholarship and/or creative activities; also if applicable, include a summary of how service activities are related to scholarship and/or creative activities.

Last updated 5/5/2023

SUNY Guidelines
Rating Sheet

Incomplete nominations will automatically be disqualified.

Back to top