Presidential Funds

In 1994, the President of the University established a Professional Development fund to be used to supplement currently budgeted monies dedicated to faculty enrichment. This document summarizes the purposes of the program, the process used to allocate the funds, and the closing dates for applications to be received.

Contents:

Purposes of the Program
Criteria for Eligibility to Apply for Funding
Process for Determining Awards
Application Form

Purposes of the Program

The Presidential Fund for Professional Development is a special fund of $11,000 which has been set aside to assist University faculty as they make unusual contributions to their professions' scholarly development. Monies from this fund are to supplement departmental travel budgets, and thus allow faculty members the opportunity to present scholarly papers at national or international conferences, to deliver invited presentations at national or international meetings, or to serve as officers or trustees of national or international professional organizations.

Twenty-two (22) or more grants (depending on the distribution of the funds by the Fund manager) will be awarded by the Presidential Fund for Professional Development. Awards will be given in amounts up to $500 per fiscal year, per faculty member.

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Criteria for Eligibility to Apply for Funding

In order to be eligible to apply for funding, the faculty member must meet the following criteria:

Participating in a national or international program or organization within his/her discipline; the program must be generally recognized by the discipline as a major national program or organization.
Satisfy condition (a) or (b):

a. Presenting information that has been peer reviewed to determine its relevance and importance to his/her profession, or be an invited presenter whose subject matter reflects content of peer reviewed work that the faculty member has done;

b. Serving as a major officer of a recognized professional organization in your discipline (President/Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary/Treasurer, Trustee, or similar position). Subcommittee leadership, divisional or sectional office holding, or similar memberships do not meet the criteria for these awards.

Monies from this fund may not be used to supplement participation that is otherwise funded by the organization.

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Process for Determining Awards

1. Applications for awards will be accepted three times each fiscal year for as long as the Fund remains in effect. Closing dates for applications are:

Fall Cycle: 5 p.m. on the second Monday in September
Spring Cycle: 5 p.m. on the first Friday in February
Summer Cycle: 5 p.m. on the second Friday in April

Applications must be prepared using forms provided by administrator of the Fund. Applications that are not initially funded will be held through one year of cycles, or until the proposed date of the meeting, for future consideration. (This means that if a faculty member applies in September for a meeting in March, but is not funded in the fall cycle, he/she will be considered again in January.)

2. Applications must include a recommendation by the faculty member's Department Chair and the Dean of the appropriate College.

3. Applications must include a budget for the trip. The budget must reflect any funds allocated by other sources, including the faculty member's department. The budget should indicate how the funds that are being requested will be used (travel, registration fees, and so on), and should reflect the total expenses that the faculty member expects to incur.

4. Applications must include a narrative description of the faculty member's selection for participation in the meeting (noting how peer review has been involved in his/her selection); in the case of papers or presentations, a copy of the acceptance letter and abstract of the presentation must be included. For faculty members who are serving as officers of organizations, the narrative must include date and nature of election, term of office, and the date when the term of office expires.

5. Awards will be pro-rated by Colleges (based on the proportion of full-time faculty in each College). In the event that a College is under-represented in applicants in any cycle, surplus monies available will be distributed equitably among other acceptable applicants.

6. Applications will be submitted to a co-chair of the Faculty Development Committee, room 243 in the Adams Center, and processed as follows:

All applications will be screened for completeness by the Faculty Development Committee. Incomplete applications will not be accepted; the Faculty Development Committee is not obligated to inform the faculty member that the application is incomplete prior to acting on requests submitted in a particular cycle.
Complete applications will be evaluated by the Faculty Development Committee; this Committee will make recommendation for awards.
Awards will be authorized by the Provost of the University and his/her designee, acting in consultation with each other. Unless a procedural error has been made by the Faculty Development Committee, that Committee's recommendation will be accepted.
Faculty members will be notified in writing of the disposition of their requests and, in the case of approved applications, the amount of the award, within thirty (30) days of the closing date of the cycle. In rare cases, when it is necessary for the award to be granted earlier because of program dates, an earlier disposition may be announced to an applicant. Upon award, funds will be transferred to faculty member's departmental FOAP.
During the year following the funding, recipients will make a presentation to the faculty based on their Presidential Fund.

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Application Form

Download application form: Presidential Fund

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