*Clinical Professor or Professor (CHS) titles (Asst, Assoc, no prefix) will continue to have distinguished as a prefix for those title series, due to their exemption from the Title and Total Compensation Project. In these cases, the distinguished prefix will continue to be intended for those at the no prefix title (which continues how the distinguished prefix has worked historically.)
Attainment of the Distinguished status is not the end result of normal career progression, and neither seniority nor longevity is sufficient for award of this designation. The conferral of Distinguished status is reserved for a small number of academic staff who:
Candidates will be evaluated using the criteria described in Section III of this document entitled “Guidelines.” Nominations may be initiated by the candidate's director, departmental chair or unit head or by the candidate. The candidate has the right to withdraw from the process at any point during the review.
The following guidelines are intended to help develop documentation for nomination for Distinguished status:
Academic staff members on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus work in the areas of teaching, research, clinical activities, outreach, administration, student services, and professional services. A candidate nominated for the Distinguished status is expected to demonstrate exceptional performance, be recognized beyond the work unit as outstanding, and have a reputation of excellence in the profession. Documentation of a candidate’s extensive experience and advanced knowledge and skills may include, but is not limited to:
To assist in documenting activities, the following additional examples are generally associated with the categories specified. The categories are meant to be suggestive rather than definitive, and applications should include any relevant activities regardless of where they are listed.
Examples that may be specific to teaching:
Examples that may be specific to research:
Examples that may be specific to clinical activities/outreach/professional services:
Examples that may be specific to administration/student services:
In addition to the assessment of the candidate's experience and expertise, qualities such as those listed below should be evaluated and this information incorporated into the document. These qualities are not listed in order of importance, nor will all of them necessarily apply to every candidate:
In order to facilitate the Distinguished Status Review Committee (DSRC) review of documentation for academic staff recommended for the Distinguished status, the following minimum materials are to be provided (electronically, as a PDF) as a single packet:
The packet should be submitted electronically as a PDF to the candidate’s divisional Human Resource (HR) office and should include a Table of Contents with all pages numbered sequentially. The following order is suggested as optimum for preparation and presentation of the packet:
Section 1: Personal statement
Section 2: Cover letter from supervisor(s)
Section 3: Job description
Section 4: Résumé or curriculum vitae
Section 5: Letters of recommendation
Exemplary sample packets are available for examination by contacting the Office of the Secretary of the Academic Staff, 270 Bascom Hall.
The chair of the DSRC shall provide an annual report to the Personnel Policies and Procedures Committee detailing the number of nominees reviewed, the Committee's recommendations and the number of Distinguished statuses awarded.
01-15-2021, 06-01-2021, 11-08-2021