The CUNY School of Professional Studies (CUNY SPS) is proud to announce that Ryan Everitt, PhD, an adjunct faculty member in the School’s BA in Liberal Studies program, is the 2026 recipient of the School’s Adjunct Faculty Teaching Excellence Award. This annual prize, which comes with a $1,000 award, recognizes outstanding faculty for their creative and innovative teaching practices.
“Prof. Everitt is a dedicated, energetic instructor with a keen sense of the needs and expectations SPS students bring to the Liberal Studies program. He is flexible, attentive, willing to experiment, and equally willing to assess outcomes and adjust for improvement,” noted Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Dr. Jennifer Sparrow in her statement of support. “He communicates with students frequently, encourages their best efforts, and holds them to high standards of accountability.”
Dr. Everitt (pictured second to the left above), who earned a PhD in English from the CUNY Graduate Center, has been teaching college writing for more than twenty-five years. At CUNY SPS, Dr. Everitt has taught in the Liberal Studies program for the past five years; his courses include LBL 101: Pro-Seminar in Liberal Studies, and LBL 498 & 499: Capstone in Liberal Studies (I and II).
A highly experienced instructor and long-time advocate for a liberal arts education, Dr. Everitt was granted the award for his dedication, innovation, and commitment to student learning. His approach includes creating a highly supportive, structured, student-centered, and inclusive online learning environment where he offers clear, detailed, and timely feedback to help students fully understand both the course material and expectations.
For Dr. Everitt, the care he puts into his instruction is part of a larger goal to emphasize the importance of a liberal education, which is increasingly threatened in the age of AI. As he explains in his statement of teaching philosophy, it is necessary “…to redouble our obligation to the humanities as a response to the emergence of this new ‘artificial’ form of intelligence.”
This timely mission has inspired Dr. Everitt to reshape his courses to promote the values of deep reading, writing, and critical thinking as much as possible. “…I have foregrounded for my students the idealistic, ‘humanistic’ values of my courses. These values were always there, but they were cited as supporting the more practical, career-oriented learning objectives of the course,” Dr. Everitt reflected. “This foregrounding means that I make explicit the purpose of every assignment—a kind of metacommentary on the curriculum that I communicate through weekly announcements, semester-by-semester revisions of individual assignments, and responses to their writing.”
About the Adjunct Faculty Teaching Excellence Award
Responding to CUNY SPS Student Association members’ interest in highlighting faculty excellence, Tracy L. Meade, former senior associate dean for strategy and innovation, established the Adjunct Faculty Teaching Excellence Award. This prize, which is given at the end of each academic year, acknowledges an adjunct instructor’s creative and innovative online teaching practices in undergraduate courses, and includes a $1,000 prize. Candidates are nominated by CUNY SPS students in online undergraduate degree programs; the nominees must then be endorsed by their program directors and provide a statement of their teaching philosophy, and a panel of students and faculty select each year's recipient.
About the CUNY School of Professional Studies
As New York's leading online school since 2006, the CUNY School of Professional Studies (CUNY SPS) offers the most online bachelor's and master's degree options at the City University of New York and serves as the University's first undergraduate all-transfer college. With 26 degrees and numerous other non-degree and grant-funded workplace learning programs, CUNY SPS meets the needs of adults who wish to finish a bachelor's degree, progress from an associate's degree, earn a master's degree or certificate in a specialized field, and advance in the workplace or change careers. Consistently ranked highly by U.S. News & World Report for its online offerings, CUNY SPS has emerged as a nationwide leader in online education. The School's renowned and affordable online programs ensure that busy working adults may fulfill their educational goals on their own time and schedule.
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