Exceptional Service to Students Awards

• Completed applications with all signatures is due via email to the Office of Faculty Affairs (faculty.affairs@csun.edu) by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, February 14, 2025. An application consists of a completed and signed cover sheet, a one-page narrative (as detailed on the cover page form), and a one-page letter of support.
• A subcommittee of the Personnel Planning and Review (PP&R) Committee of the Faculty Senate will be solely responsible for evaluation of applications and making recommendations of awards to the Office of Faculty Affairs.
• Primary consideration will be given to applicants who have never received this award or who have not received the award within the past 3 years depending on the pool of applications received each year. Awarded course WTUs will go back to the department of the applicant receiving the award. It is anticipated that the standard award will be for three (3) WTU. The semester the release time is to be taken will be decided by mutual agreement of the Department Chair and the award recipient.
• Applicants will be notified of their status no later than March 14, 2025

Applications will be evaluated based on documentable evidence presented, per the applicant’s narrative, and letter of support, of the impact that the faculty member’s additional workload activities have had on the quality of students’ educational experience. 

Provision 20.37 of the CBA states that “Exceptional service awards are intended to recognize faculty who have a demonstrated commitment to working on issues faced by our diverse student population. Assigned time from this pool should be awarded to faculty for mentoring, advising, and outreach, to support underserved, first-generation, and/or underrepresented students and other practices in support of such students, including those caused by cultural taxation. This support includes but is not limited to: the development and implementation of high-impact educational practices; curricular redesign intended to improve student access and success; service to the department, college, university, or community that goes significantly beyond the normal expectations of all faculty; assignment to courses where increases to enrollment have demonstrably increased workload; and other extraordinary forms of service to students.” The list of activities in 20.37 is not intended to be exhaustive. Other activities that meet the goals of the program may also be considered. 

Per 20.37, “Priority shall be given to applications which demonstrate that the quality of students’ educational experience could not have been maintained without an increase in the faculty member’s workload.” 

While awards are to be given for activities actually conducted during the Fall 2025/Spring 2026 semesters, work of a similar nature in prior years may be noted in the narrative and acknowledged as establishing a pattern of exceptional service.

Please note that provision 20.37 states that “Faculty members already receiving assigned time for the same general category of activity (e.g., assigned time for excess enrollments, assigned time for committee service) shall not be eligible for support from this pool for the same activities.”