Fund for Faculty Excellence

The Fund for Faculty Excellence was established in 2006 and concluded in 2022, thanks to generous gifts from the Lorry I. Lokey to Campaign Oregon: Transforming Lives. The fund was designed to support the university’s strategic commitment to improve its overall academic quality and reputation by rewarding, recognizing, and retaining nationally competitive faculty who demonstrate a record of distinction in their quality of scholarship and creative accomplishment, contribution to their respective field, and contribution to the university.

The awards program provided top faculty members with salary supplements or research support to recognize world-class research. The program may also have retained or preemptively retained outstanding faculty who may have been recruited by other institutions.

The Fund for Faculty Excellence supported a one-time award of $20,000 or research funds amounting to $26,200.

Research award distribution was subject to policy and procedure.


Award Criteria

Evaluation was based on the following criteria and emphasized faculty contributions over a five year span:

Quality of scholarship or creative practice: This was evidenced by the individual’s standing in the discipline and the impact of the individual’s work in their field. Evidence for significant standing and impact in the candidate’s field focused primarily on the record of publication and other such scholarly and creative accomplishments along with additional signs of scholarly recognition as membership in selective national and international professional and honorary societies, receipt of national and international awards and recognitions, and grants and other external support of research, scholarship, and creative activity.

Contribution to their respective field: This was evidenced by the individual’s centrality to strategic and significant areas of research, scholarship and/or creative practice; mentorship of graduate (especially doctoral) students and supervision of theses and dissertations; contribution to interdisciplinary research programs, centers, and institutes; and intellectual leadership within a department or program.

Contribution to the university: This was evidenced by the individual’s participation in the development of the UO academic mission. Such contributions exemplified an enduring commitment to institutional values for learning, intellectual inquiry, and service whether through the IDEAL framework, internationalization, interdisciplinarity, outreach to external communities, or similar contributions beyond one’s immediate departmental efforts.