The new three-year endowed professorship will recognize an Elon faculty member for excellence in teaching and support their promotion of undergraduate teaching excellence at the university.
The Elon University Board of Trustees announced Friday the creation of a new endowed professorship to recognize and promote undergraduate teaching excellence at the university.
With a crowd of students, faculty and staff gathered in the Snow Family Grand Atrium, Board Chair Ed Moriarty shared that the trustees have established the new Trustees Distinguished University Professor in Undergraduate Teaching to recognize an Elon faculty member for excellence in teaching. Moriarty said that endowed professorships help Elon achieve its educational mission while supporting faculty development and research.
“Part of Elon’s success is due to the strategic decisions over time to empower our teachers to continue to deliver our distinctive learning model,” Moriarty said. “Philanthropy and generous investment in Elon teachers have impacted the lives of countless students, and will continue to make a difference from now into the future. In that vein today, on behalf of the Board of Trustees, and in honor of the remarkable teaching and learning that you make possible, I am pleased to announce the creation of this new endowed professorship.”
A unique feature of this three-year professorship is that nominations can be made from across the Elon community, with the nomination process providing students, faculty and staff the opportunity to nominate and recognize outstanding teachers at Elon. “This process will bring forward stories of excellence in undergraduate teaching from across our campus, stories of great impact, of lives changed in the process of learning here at Elon,” Moriarty said. “I’m looking forward to hearing more stories about the impact that teaching has in the classroom. Thank you to members of the faculty, the staff and for all of your efforts to make a positive difference in the lives of young people today and tomorrow.”
The investment by the Board of Trustees in endowing the professorship follows Elon’s recognition in the fall by U.S. News & World Report as the #1 institution nationally for undergraduate teaching excellence. The list also includes other acclaimed institutions including Princeton University, Brown University, Dartmouth College and Rice University.
“Those are all excellent schools, but there’s something to be said for being number one,” Moriarty said to applause.
President Connie Ledoux Book recognized the role that trustees play in helping to guide the university’s strategic direction and in supporting the mission of excellence in education. She noted that their investments in the university create opportunities, possibilities and hope for the future.
“Our trustees continue to choose Elon,” Book said. “They choose to invest in and support our distinctive mission because they believe in the transformative power of an Elon education and the work faculty and staff do here at the university. I’m so grateful for their leadership in helping us to prepare the graduates we know the world needs here at Elon.
“Today is a bright day for Elon University, and we’re grateful for this investment by the trustees and their confidence, and for the efforts of everyone here today,” Book said.
The university is now creating the nomination process for the new professorships and will share details about how students, faculty and staff can nominate a faculty member of distinction once those details are determined.