A new campus award will honor a UNMC faculty member’s service to the community.
The first-ever Spirit of Community Service Award will be presented at the 2004 Annual Faculty Meeting, which will begin at 4 p.m. on April 20 in the Durham Research Center auditorium. The Outstanding Teaching Awards will be presented at that meeting, as well.
“These awards are open to any full-time faculty member,” said Paul Paulman, M.D., president of the UNMC Faculty Senate. “We encourage and would really like to have some good nominations.”
UNMC students and faculty may submit nominations for the 2003-2004 UNMC Spirit of Community Service Award and the Outstanding Teacher Awards. Nomination forms and selection criteria are available from the Martha Harmon in the Office of the Faculty Senate. She can be reached at 559-4457 or mharmon@unmc.edu. The nomination forms also can be downloaded from the Faculty Senate Web site,. Persons holding faculty appointments at UNMC are eligible to be nominated for the recognition. Nominations must be returned to Harmon in the Faculty Senate office, no later than March 15.
Rubens Pamies, M.D., UNMC vice chancellor for academic affairs, first approached the Faculty Senate about honoring a faculty member for community service. The Senate approved of Dr. Pamies’ proposal and the award’s funding was approved by the Chancellor’s Office. Within the past few months, the Senate’s Honorary Degrees & Award Committee finalized criteria for the award.
“Basically, the award rewards faculty who spend time without pay to help in underserved places where there’s a need for improvement in the community,” said Peter Gwilt, Ph.D., who chairs the Honorary Degrees & Award Committee.
The award is an extension of Dr. Maurer’s vision of not being an isolated medical center, but one that “reaches out and builds bridges to the community in many different ways,” Dr. Gwilt said.
“Many times, the faculty, whether on an individual or group basis, are the vehicle by which we reach out to the community to where there are needs,” he said. “There are a lot of gifted faculty members on this campus. In addition to their academic and research activities, they have a lot to give to the community, in terms of their expertise.”
Dr. Paulman noted the timing of the new award, as it follows UNMC’s reception in November 2003 of the Outstanding Community Service Award from the Association of American Colleges.
“I think it’s a good step to recognize community service of faculty,” Dr. Paulman said. “We have many faculty who do tremendous things in the community, and we should recognize them for their outstanding work.”