Columbia University in New York City has received a $12 million gift from university trustee Gerry Lenfest to establish an awards program honoring exceptional teaching in the arts and sciences.

Lenfest's gift will create the Distinguished Columbia Faculty Awards, which will be given annually to faculty of unusual merit across a range of professorial activities — including scholarship, university citizenship, and professional involvement — with a primary emphasis on the instruction and mentoring of undergraduate and graduate students. Each year up to ten faculty members will be honored at a public ceremony and will receive annual awards of $25,000 for a three-year period.

"Columbia is proud of its longstanding and continued tradition of academic excellence and faculty achievement," said university president Lee C. Bollinger. "Gerry's remarkable generosity gives the university another way to recognize and support the outstanding faculty in the arts and sciences who excel in their roles as teachers and mentors."

A longtime supporter of the university, Lenfest donated $15 million to the its Earth Institute in May 2004 and previously contributed $15 million toward the construction of Lenfest Hall, a residence for students at Columbia Law School, from which he graduated in 1958.