Four UTSA faculty honored with Regents' Outstanding Teaching Awards

UTSA recipients of the 2014 Regents' Outstanding Teaching Awards:
Top row (from left): Dennis Davis and Eugene John
Bottom row: Hazem Rashed-Ali and Bruce Rudy

By K.C. Gonzalez
Public Affairs Specialist

(Aug. 13, 2014) -- Four faculty members of The University of Texas at San Antonio are among 96 educators from the 15 academic and health institutions in the UT System to be named recipients of the Regents' Outstanding Teaching Awards for 2014.

The UTSA award recipients are:

Dennis Davis, assistant professor, Department of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching
Eugene John, professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Hazem Rashed-Ali, associate professor, Department of Architecture
Bruce Rudy, assistant professor, Department of Management

This is the sixth consecutive year that UTSA faculty members have been honored with the Regents' Outstanding Teaching Awards (ROTA), believed to be among the single largest financial teaching awards programs in the country. Each of the honorees will receive an unrestricted check for $25,000, and will be recognized for their achievement at an Aug. 20 reception and dinner in Austin.

"This recognition is a testament to the exceptional faculty members at UTSA who are preparing our students to become tomorrow's leaders," said UTSA President Ricardo Romo. "Their commitment to excellence in teaching, research and community service is what makes UTSA a top-tier university."

With this year's recipients, 33 UTSA faculty members have received the Regents' award. A list of past UTSA recipients is available on the Faculty Awards website.

The Regents' Outstanding Teaching Awards was established in 2008 for academic institutions and in 2012 for health institutions. Since the program began, the Board of Regents has distributed nearly $13.4 million in cash awards to faculty members who have demonstrated extraordinary classroom performance and dedication to innovation.

ROTA recipients are vetted at their own institutions before advancing to competition at the system level. Then, candidates from each institution are evaluated by a selection committee of distinguished educators from both in and outside the UT System.

In their evaluations of a candidate's teaching performance, members of the selection committee consider a range of activities and criteria including classroom expertise, curricula quality, innovative course development and student learning outcomes.

Because of the depth and breadth of educators across the UT System, the awards are among the nation's most competitive.

"Our excellence in teaching faculty is a critical part of the system's vision of an institution of the first class," said UT System Chancellor Francisco G. Cigarroa, M.D. "These awards are a reflection of the regents placing the highest priority on undergraduate, graduate and professional teaching excellence system-wide."

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