The following guidelines provide insights into the kinds of applications that will be considered for the award. Please read this information thoroughly.
Identify a Significant Challenge. The challenge should have broad and deep implications for the community/technical college field. The issue you address may be:
- New or emerging, marked by uncertainty or confusion
- Long-standing but largely ignored due to its complexity
- Intrinsic and persistent, often unrecognized or deemed unsolvable
Be Bold and Practical. The Provocateur Award is not only about innovation but also about provocation: ideas that challenge entrenched assumptions, disrupt traditional practices, and catalyze national or global dialogue. Your approach must be:
- Courageous and innovative
- Provocative in its challenge to the status quo
- Practical and scalable for widespread implementation
Focus on Systemic Impact. Applications should address system-level issues rather than localized best practices. The goal is to provoke transformational change across the field, not incremental improvement in discrete institutions. Applications should focus on challenges and solutions with broad applicability to the community/technical college field as a whole. While examples may draw on local experiences, the primary focus must be on system-level change at national or international levels and transformation across the field.
Study the Legacy. Applicants are encouraged to consider how their proposed solutions or approaches echo O’Banion’s legacy of inspiring systemic reform. Before submitting an application, especially if you are unfamiliar with O’Banion’s work, read the following articles from The Terry O’Banion Papers. These writings exemplify how O’Banion’s bold ideas challenged and disrupted higher education. These are examples only, not suggested topics.
