O. Max Gardner Award

University Nomination Procedures for the Oliver Max Gardner Award

  1. A call for nominations should be sent to all code unit heads no later than April 1 requesting each unit to consider nominating a member of the unit’s teaching faculty for this award.  The nomination will be made effective for the following academic year.  No unit should be permitted to nominate more than one person each year.  Each unit should develop its own procedures for selecting its nominee.
  2. In accordance with the parameters of the Award, nominees must be deemed to have made a “(great) contribution to the welfare of the human race.” (See attached General Explanation of this Award.)
  3. A UNC General Administration memo describing the procedures for the award, including a “General Explanation of the Award” and a list of previous recipients, will be posted on the web, and unit heads will be advised of the URL.
  4. A copy of the winning dossier for Walter J. Pories (2001) and any other available dossiers will be made available for all to view in the Office for Faculty Excellence.
  5. A nomination dossier should include an abbreviated curriculum vitae, a letter of support from the unit or departmental head, letters of support from others (students, colleagues, patients, etc., internal or external), and any other documents that the unit believes supports the nomination.  The initial dossier may not be longer than 25 pages in length.
  6. The nomination dossiers will be due in the Chancellor’s Office on the 15th of September.  The selection committee will review the materials and select one name to submit by the 15th of October to the Chancellor for his approval.  Following the Chancellor’s approval, the selected candidate will work with professionals provided by the Chancellor’s office to prepare the dossier that will be sent to UNC Office of the President for consideration for the system-wide award.
  7. The selection committee will be comprised of five faculty members appointed as follows:  By the Chancellor (2), the Provost/Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs (1), the Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences (1), and the Chair of the Faculty (1).  Selection committee members shall serve for a term of one year.  At its first meeting, the selection committee shall elect a chair.
  8. The Chancellor’s Office will provide oversight of the nomination and selection process and the preparation of the dossier that is forwarded to UNC Office of the President.

General Explanation of the Oliver Max Gardner Award

Governor Gardner’s will provides that the “Board of Trustees of the Consolidated University of North Carolina” shall pay annually the net income from a trust fund to “that member of the faculty of the scholastic year, has made the greatest contribution to the welfare of the human race.  As used in this Article of my will, the term ‘faculty’ shall embrace all persons, including instructors, engaged in teaching in any unit, institution or branch of service of the Consolidated University of North Carolina.”

In January, 1973, the Attorney General of North Carolina rendered an opinion that the “coverage of the Gardner Award may be extended to include faculty members at any one of the sixteen campuses which now constitute The University of North Carolina.”

  1. In the fall of each year the Board of Governors will name, or authorize the Chairman to name, a Committee on the Gardner Award.  The committee will invite the institutions to submit nominations and will prescribe procedures to be followed.
  1. Selection of a nominee for the Gardner Award is generally accomplished by a committee of the institutional faculty.  The written nomination is usually prepared either by this faculty committee or by the Chancellor’s staff.  The nominee’s contributions to the welfare of the human race, however technical the field, should describe in terms a layman can understand.
  1. Because the will provides that the award shall go to the faculty member “…who…has made the greatest contribution to the welfare of the human race,” the award should not be viewed solely as one for community service nor for excellence in teaching.  Through the years the Board’s committees have been thinking in broad terms of service to human race; any nominee, no matter how remarkable or unselfish his or her contributions may have been, is at a disadvantage if the service is limited to the particular community.  Most of those chosen in the past have been persons who have made notable contributions of national international scale or persons whose contributions, although local, have served as models nationally or internationally.  (Most of the campuses already have their own awards for recognition of excellence in teaching, and many campuses have awards that specifically recognize community service.)
  1. Through the years the committees of the Board have recognized that the selection procedure, which must begin in the fall, makes it difficult to adhere strictly to that provision of the will which states that the award shall recognize a contribution made “during the current scholastic year.”  In order to give as much weight to this clause as is feasible, however, the committees have usually looked for nominees who have recently made contributions or whose work and service have recently culminated in a major contribution.
  1. Campuses with limited experience in the submission of nominations for the award areencouraged to borrow from the Office of the Secretary of the University samples of award-winning nominations from previous years.  Such samples can save time for those preparing the nominations and may help make the nomination more effective.
  1. In as much as committees of the Board of Governors have been seriously inconvenient at times by delay in submission of nominations, campuses are urged to adhere to the deadlines established by the committee.