In his April 4, 1992 speech to the University Senate, “A Dream Deserved,” President E. Gordon Gee announced his intent to form an academy of faculty who are past recipients of the Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching (AADT), at the time the most prestigious award for teaching at Ohio State. A planning committee of six winners of the AADT and ex officio members from the Center for Teaching Excellence, College of Humanities, and Office of Academic Affairs developed a proposal for the Academy of Teaching, which was then approved by the President. Initial members, the approximately 90 past recipients of the AADT who were still faculty members at Ohio State, were inducted in March 1993.
In 2013, the Provost’s Award for Distinguished Teaching by a Lecturer was established. The annual winners of this award are also inducted into the Academy of Teaching.
Each spring, the current year’s recipients of the AADT and Provost’s Award, are inducted into the Academy. There are currently approximately 500 members of the Academy of Teaching. The Academy is headed by an Executive Council with an elected chair. Ex officio members include the Vice-Provost for Enrollment Services and Dean for Undergraduate Education, the head of the Ohio State Alumni Association, and the director of the University Institute for Teaching and Learning (UITL) at Ohio State.
The Academy has no budget or formal reporting line but is affiliated with Ohio State’s Office of Academic Affairs, whose liaison with the Academy is the Vice-Provost for Enrollment Services and Dean for Undergraduate Education. The Academy requests funds as needed from Academic Affairs and the Ohio State Alumni Association for expenses associated with Academy activities. Members have been opposed to formalizing the Academy as an organizational unit, instead preferring to keep an informal committee structure with ties to Academic Affairs and the teaching support unit, UCAT.
The Academy meets periodically and has an electronic mailing list for announcements and discussions between meetings.