The Center for Excellence in Teaching at USC is an innovative initiative envisioned by faculty for faculty. The purpose of the Center is to treat teaching as serious intellectual work that merits sustained focus at a research university. By providing the training, feedback, and resources to make excellent teaching possible, the CET assists faculty and teaching assistants to think of college courses, and out-of-class activities, as opportunities for them to define, practice, and advance their disciplines (and inter-disciplinary collaborative work) through teaching and mentoring.

The Associates Award for Excellence in Teaching is the highest honor the University Faculty bestows on its members for outstanding teaching. The award recognizes the career achievements of outstanding faculty with a proven track record as exceptional teachers with a positive, inspiring, and long-lasting effect on students and their learning, along with extraordianry, unique, or pioneering contributions to excellence in teaching. It is not intended as a "Teacher of the Year" award. Nominees should thus have spent a significant period of time teaching at USC.

The University Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award symbolizes the University's dedication to the education of scholars and teachers. Awards are presented each year at the Academic Honors convocation (in April) to graduate students who have exhibited consistent excellence in the classroom. Three awards are presented each year-- one from the natural sciences and engineering, one from the social sciences, and one from the humanities and arts.

The USC Fund for Innovative Undergraduate Teaching (FIUT) supports the innovative educational initiatives of faculty who teach undergraduate courses in all disciplines at USC. All full-time faculty (tenure-track and non-tenure-track) are eligible to apply.