Top US Professors Recognized for Extraordinary Performance in Undergraduate Education

WASHINGTON, DC—The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) in collaboration with the Carnegie Foundation annually recognizes excellence in undergraduate teaching and mentoring through the U.S. Professors of the Year Award. Selection criteria include: impact on and involvement with undergraduate students; scholarly approach to teaching and learning; contributions to undergraduate education in the institution, community, and profession; and support from colleagues as well as current and former undergraduate students.

This year, four college and university educators were honored:

• Brian P. Coppola, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
• Tracey McKenzie, Collin College, Frisco, Texas
• Richard L. Miller, University of Nebraska at Kearney
• Robert C. Thomas, University of Montana Western

In addition to the national winners, state-level professors of the year were recognized in 36 states, the District of Columbia, and Guam. Local winners included Joan B. Riley, Georgetown University (DC); Susan Bontems, Montgomery College (MD); and Kevin Hamed, Virginia Highlands Community College (VA).

Winners of these awards speak volumes about the institutions they represent. These are colleges and universities that value quality undergraduate teaching and mentoring. Note how the list of previous years’ institutional winners differs from other more “commercial” rating systems:

Year	Baccalaureate Colleges	Doctoral & Research Universities	Master’s Universities and Colleges
2009	U of Montana Western	University of Michigan	U of Nebraska—Kearney
2008	Lewis & Clark College	Kansas State University	U of Central Oklahoma
2007	Smith College	Kansas State University	LSU Shreveport
2006	Reed College	UC Berkeley	Radford University
2005	College of Wooster	University of Michigan	California State University
2004	Williams College	U of Colorado-Boulder	Eastern Connecticut State
2003	Hendrix College	UVA	Lynchburg College
2002	Manchester College	University of Notre Dame	Santa Clara University
2001	US Coast Guard Academy	U of Alabama	UNC Charlotte
2000	College of the Holy Cross	Indiana University	University of Portland

For college applicants, it’s mostly a matter of what’s important to you. If excellence in teaching figures in the equation, look beyond artificial measures of prestige and investigate how well institutions deliver the goods.