History and Background of the Teaching Awards Program
The Food and Agricultural Sciences Excellence in College and University Teaching Awards Program was initiated in 1992 under the authority of the National Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching Policy Act of 1977, as amended in 1990. It was introduced in the first awards program booklet as follows:
"The proper definition of a university is ‘a place for teaching,’ so said John Henry Cardinal Newman some 150 years ago. All the discussion accompanying the emergence of our multiversities has not diminished the centrality nor the appropriateness of this definition. Yet too often our finest teachers go unrecognized and unrewarded.
In order to address this critical national oversight and to encourage the development of human capital for scientific professional expertise in the food and agricultural sciences, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Cooperative State Research Service, through its Office of Higher Education Programs, introduces this annual awards program to honor excellence in teaching."
The goals of the awards program have not wavered, and each year national and regional award recipients are selected through a nomination and external peer review process, resulting in the reward and recognition of our finest college and university teachers.