At the beginning of each school year, Kansas University leaders hand out $7,500 checks to some of KU’s most talented teachers.
The university has awarded the William T. Kemper fellowships to professors annually for the last 15 years. A historical list of the award winners shows the awards are given to a wide array of departments at KU, but some win more than others.
But simply looking at a comparison of awards won by department can be deceiving, said Mary Lee Hummert, vice provost for faculty support, who helps administer the Kemper fellowship program.
Departments can range in size quite a bit. Those with more faculty members often have more awards — but not always.
That’s partially because not every department submits the same number of applications, Hummert said.
“The nomination process has become more rigorous over the years, and not all of them apply,” she said.
Some departments emphasize the process more than others, she said.
“My department, communication studies, has taken great pride in the number of Kemper awards the faculty have earned,” Hummert said.
And that is evident in the results. With 19 full-time faculty, communication studies is one of the smaller departments on campus.
However, 12 faculty members from the department have earned awards since the program began — placing it near the top of all winners, among larger departments such as English, psychology and history.
The awards are chosen by a seven-member selection committee whose membership is kept secret, Hummert said, though it typically includes former Kemper fellowship recipients, along with one undergraduate student and one graduate student.
Hummert the school typically doesn’t reveal the number of applications it receives for the awards.
The committee has a hard job, she said, sifting through the applications and choosing just 10 faculty to receive the $7,500 awards.
“We could use 100 of them,” Hummert said.
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onceinawhile (anonymous) says…
The awards have not always been $7,500, as the first sentence says. For at least two years prior, the awards were $5,000.
http://www.news.ku.edu/2008/august/26...
http://www.news.ku.edu/2009/august/24...