UCET/FACET Faculty Development Awards

Applications are accepted until 5:00 pm of each of the following dates: September 30, November 30, January 31, and March 31. Please send completed applications to the UCET Office via email: ucet@iusb.edu.

All full-time and part-time faculty are invited to apply for UCET/FACET Faculty Development Awards.

Awards are for travel/fees related to instructional/course development (e.g. to attend faculty development seminars, conferences, workshops, or to visit a faculty member or program on another campus). There should be a potential direct impact to one’s teaching, either in terms of the content of a course or courses that you teach or in terms of pedagogical methods to teach a course. For example, travel to a disciplinary conference where sessions are primarily oriented toward disciplinary research is rarely, if ever, funded. The more that the direct impact on one’s teaching is apparent, the more likely that funding will be granted.

Kennesaw State University keeps a valuable database to help you find the right venue. The Teaching Conferences directory is here.

You can search by geographical region, discipline, and more. They update the directories fairly frequently.

Individual proposals submitted to the awards committee should focus especially on how the activity for which funding is being sought will specifically impact one's teaching at IU South Bend. This could include, but is not limited to, references to the specific course which you hope to develop, a concrete description of how it will be improved, and/or a discussion of how your activity will specifically develop and improve your teaching at IU South Bend in general. A concise statement of how this activity directly, or indirectly, affects your teaching is the most critical documentation in your application.

Since funds are limited, the committee is reluctant to fund more than one faculty member from IUSB to attend the same meeting. It would prefer to fund one individual and have that person bring his/her knowledge back to the campus. There are, however, exceptions to this general rule. These exceptions are primarily for situations where transfer of the experience would be difficult.

Although preference will be given to requests for funds to present at faculty development or teaching-related conferences, travel grants have been awarded for travel that does not include a presentation. Applications will be reviewed by the Awards Committee. Since funds are limited, faculty are encouraged to apply early. Partial funding of proposals is typical. A faculty member may only receive one travel grant per academic year.

Recipients of all awards will be expected to participate in a follow-up activity within the calendar year in which the award was granted. Activities include a workshop, a brown-bag presentation, or participation in the UCET Holiday event.

Application Process has been updated to an electronic process using email:

Download the application (MS Word document)
Complete the application using a computer.
Include all pertinent information, including links to supporting websites (conferences, colleges, etc)
Request a letter of support. An email with the header intact is acceptable for the letter of support, or it may be sent as an attachment.
Send the completed application and letter to ucet@iusb.edu by the last day of the month.

** Your application and letter of support MUST be received by the LAST day of the month for consideration by the Review Commitee on the FIRST day of the following month.

Application forms are available here or by request from the UCET office (520-4894). To view previous awards, please click here for the academic year 2007-2008, click here for the academic year 2008-2009, and click here for the academic year 2009-2010.

View examples of presentations by faculty members Micheline Nilsen (2005) & John B. Davis (2007) (both PowerPoint files). Vincci Kwong, Assistant Librarian, shares her experiences at the LOEX 2008 conference that was funded by the Faculty Development awards.

Guidelines

Guiding Principles

UCET/FACET Faculty Development Awards are open to all full-time and part-time faculty each year.
Priority will be given to requests that involve the development of new skills which then might be shared with others on campus.
High priority will be given to requests involving faculty desiring to present at a given faculty development conference. Recipients of all awards (whether presenting at a conference or not) will be expected to participate in some type of follow-up through UCET, such as a workshop presentation or report.
Incomplete applications will not be evaluated in the current cycle and will be deferred until the application is complete. A complete application includes a letter of support as well as an indication of whether additional funding has been solicited and, if so, how much funding will be received from the other source.
Awards can be used for travel/fees related to instructional/course development, such as:
- to attend faculty development seminars, conferences, workshops
- to visit another campus (e.g., biology lab in Mansfield, Ohio)
Awards cannot be used for costs associated with the annual FACET Conference or the annual Midwest SoTL Conference. (So many of our faculty attend those conferences that our funds would be quickly depleted.)

Selection Committee

The UCET/FACET Awards Committee will be made up of four faculty (two representing UCET and two representing FACET). If possible, the selection committee will include an associate faculty member. The committee will elect a chairperson. The committee will be responsible for making the decision as to how award monies will be distributed. The committee will establish timelines and guidelines for the decision-making process, as well as determining the necessary documentation to be submitted for a given type of award.
Awards Committee members will be selected by UCET and FACET in April of each year. Committee members will serve on the selection committee for a two-year term. One half of the committee will carry over to assure consistency of procedures etc.

Selection Process

Awards will be competitive.
Awards will be made in the fall and spring semesters.
Announcements of awards and award deadlines will come from the UCET office.
Timeline
- April 1–July 1: Selection of Awards Committee
- Application Deadlines: Last day of the following months - September, November, January, March

Travel Grant Committee Members

Beth Kern

Kylie Rogalla

Andrea Rusnock

Peter Bushnell