Give your favorite teacher an apple — made of crystal. Serve it up with a side salad of $1,500 cash.

This end-of-semester benevolence is not as far-fetched as it sounds. It’s actually as simple as a few keystrokes.

Students, staff and Kent community members have until June 31 to submit their nominations for the Distinguished Teaching Award, an annual recognition granted to three tenure-track faculty members at Kent State.

The Kent State Alumni Association is collecting nominations for the award on its Web site and in its office at 1100 E. Main St.

A committee of alumni, students and former award recipients will sift through the nominations to select 12 finalists for further review. The three winners will be surprised with visits to their classrooms and a luncheon in October, said Elizabeth Slanina, the alumni association’s assistant director of outreach.

“When we talk to alumni about what they remember about their Kent State experience, often they cite a professor,” Slanina said. “You can’t receive the award twice. We see it as being inducted into an elite group.”

The group has grown since the first awards were issued in 1967, and it now includes professors from many of Kent State’s regional campuses. Award winners are set apart by exceeding what’s expected of any professor, said Sandy Krueger, the award committee chair.

“It’s (an award) that they have to be nominated for, and it’s one somebody has to take the time to submit an application,” Krueger said. “It’s a very substantial award.”

Past winners were lauded for accessibility to students and for creating tests that were “really hard but really fair,” Krueger said.

Nomination forms are available online at www.kent.edu/alumni. While the award is reserved for tenure-track faculty, professors who don’t meet that description are eligible to receive a companion recognition, the Outstanding Teaching Award.

Contact continuing studies reporter Adam Milasincic at [email protected].