Office of Marketing and Communications

Four faculty members from Indiana University Northwest are among this year’s Faculty Colloquium on Excellence in Teaching (FACET) award-winners.

This year’s IU Northwest recipients are: Professor of Marketing Subir Bandyopadhyay, Ph.D., of Munster; Associate Professor of Philosophy Gianluca Di Muzio, Ph.D., of Oak Park, Ill.; Assistant Professor of Geosciences Zoran Kilibarda, Ph.D., of Valparaiso; and Assistant Professor of French E. Scooter Pégram, Ph.D., of Michigan City.

These distinguished professors join a select group of IU faculty members from IU Northwest and across the university system who have been chosen since FACET’s inception in 1989. FACET’s total membership now consists of 499 award-winning faculty, including 366 full-time faculty, out of nearly 5,000 total faculty members in the IU system. FACET members represent a select cross-section of faculty from virtually every discipline. New members are announced each year.

FACET awards are presented to IU faculty members who have demonstrated their exceptional commitment to teaching and learning through the areas of self-evaluation, course preparation, research, instructional skills, and student impact. There are 17 FACET honorees system-wide for 2008. The awards were announced during Spring Break week, when many of the honorees were off campus.

IU Northwest Chancellor Bruce Bergland commended the Northwest campus’s four winners, noting that each faculty member has brought distinction to IU Northwest through teaching, research and outreach initiatives.

“FACET is an exemplary organization that not only recognizes the very best of IU’s outstanding faculty, but that also brings these teachers together to facilitate even greater learning and collaboration among people who are truly dedicated to the art and science of education,” Bergland said. “All of this year’s honorees from IU Northwest have earned a rightful place in this group. They have demonstrated commitment and innovation in the classroom; they have conducted important research that benefits their disciplines, their students, and, in many cases, the Northwest Indiana region; and they have earned the respect and admiration of their students and their peers. I am very pleased to congratulate Professors Pégram, Kilibarda, Di Muzio, and Bandyopadhyay on their induction into FACET.”

New FACET members, along with the 2008 recipient of the P.A. Mack Award for Distinguished Service to Teaching, will be honored before a group of university administrators, trustees, FACET alumni, and special guests at the 20th Annual FACET Retreat, which will take place May 16 through May 18 at French Lick Resort and Conference Center in French Lick, Ind.

Bandyopadhyay said he felt honored to be included in a group of Indiana University’s best teachers.

“It feels pretty good, in that this is an award that is system-wide for all of IU,” he said. “It means that you are recognized throughout the entire IU system as part of an elite group of teachers.”

Although the FACET awards do not come with cash honorariums, Bandyopadhyay said FACET membership provides an even more valuable resource: participation in an organization comprised of outstanding teachers with years of classroom wisdom and experience.

“The thing I am looking forward to is the meeting in May when they induct the new members, and then you have a chance to informally talk with other FACET members and discuss your ideas about teaching and pick up pointers from others,” Bandyopadhyay said. “It’s a great networking opportunity.”

FACET is an IU Presidential initiative that is designed to recognize and enhance outstanding teaching throughout the university system and to promote continued development of teaching excellence among colleagues at IU and beyond. In recent years, FACET’s efforts have expanded both at the campus level and statewide. FACET activities include the Leadership Institute, Associate Faculty and Lecturers’ Conference, and Future Faculty Teaching Fellows Conference in partnership with IU Graduate School.

FACET is a partner with the Mack Center at Indiana University for Inquiry on Teaching and Learning, and in cooperation with the Center publishes the Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Other publications include: the Quick Hits book series -- Quick Hits (1994), More Quick Hits (1998), Quick Hits for New Faculty: Successful Strategies by Award-Winning Teachers (2004), and Quick Hits for Educating Citizens (2006), available from the FACET office; the Peer Review of Teaching DVD with instrumental CD-ROM, also available from the FACET office; and the FACET Choir Video: What’s a Teacher For? The Nurturing No-Nonsense Classroom, available from Films for the Humanities and Sciences.

“FACET faculty are among the most dedicated faculty focused on teaching and learning, and the big winners are the students in these faculty classes,” said FACET Director David J. Malik, who is also the Associate Executive Vice President of IU.

For more information about FACET, please visit the Web at www.facet.iupui.edu or contact the FACET Office at IUPUI via email at facet@iupui.edu.