All-University Graduate Teaching Assistant Awards: Strategies for Nominating a GTA

In order to help you create the strongest possible nomination dossier, the Teaching Awards Committee offers recommendations based on wisdom gained over a decade of reading nomination dossiers:

1. Think ahead.
   The deadline for these annual awards is normally in mid-February to give the Committee time to read nominations carefully.  But you need not wait until January to choose your nominee and prepare the dossier; you can begin as soon as you receive the letter confirming that your department may make an award in a given year.



2. Prioritize and strategize.
   Since smaller departments can receive an award only once or twice in a three-year period, know the three-year schedule for your department, and decide which GTAs would most successfully be nominated in which year.  Note that GTAs need not be teaching when nominated, but they must be enrolled.



3. Divide and conquer.
   Several faculty members can work together to create the GTA’s nomination dossier, for instance:

• One oversees the process, gets the nominee’s CV and reflective statement, and writes the letter of nomination.
• One writes or asks the GTA to write, as appropriate, the job description statement.
• One sits in on the GTA’s class on an agreed-upon day and writes a letter describing the teaching and learning observed.
• One summarizes the comments and quantitative data from student evaluations.