E12.2 The Trustees Scholarship Awards

Scope:  This policy applies to all pre-tenure and tenured full-time faculty members

This policy outlines the process and criteria for RIT’s Trustees Scholarship Awards. These awards are granted to pre-tenure and tenured full-time faculty who have demonstrated outstanding track records of academic scholarship over a sustained period of time and who have involved students in their scholarly work.  All forms of scholarship recognized by RIT are eligible for the award (see policy E04.0 for more information on these scholarship categories).

1. The provost shall initiate the nomination process for the Trustees Scholarship Award by circulating a document outlining the award criteria by November 1 of each year.
    
2. Each college shall establish a process whereby a faculty committee annually nominates up to three faculty members for consideration to receive a Trustees Scholarship Award. These nominations shall be sent to the dean and shall include a memo summarizing each nominee's accomplishments vis-à-vis the award criteria. The dean of the college, in consultation with department heads, may select one of the college nominees to forward to the provost.
    
3. The provost, in consultation with the deans, shall send a ranked list of all nominees, along with each nominee's summary letter from their college’s faculty committee, to the Education Committee of the RIT Board of Trustees (“Education Committee”) by February 20.
    
4. The Education Committee shall select the award recipients, who will be announced at the spring meeting of the board.

Recipients of the Trustees Scholarship Awards will receive their choice of  (1) a taxable cash stipend; or, (2) a non-taxable discretionary fund grant of  an amount equal to the cash award to support their future scholarship activities. The amount of the stipends or grants each year will be determined by the Education Committee.

Responsible Party: Office of the Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and the Education Committee of the RIT Board of Trustees

Effective Date:
Approved April 2005

Policy History:
Edited September 2010
Edited October 2010
Edited November 12, 2012, by the Education Committee of the RIT Board of Trustees
Edited April 2013 for calendar conversion
Revised November 7, 2019, by the Education Committee of the RIT Board of Trustees