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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.

Purposes of the Program

The Presidential Fund for Professional Development is a special fund of $11,000 that has been set aside to assist University faculty in becoming excellent teachers and scholars. Monies from this fund are intended to support faculty members traveling to conferences to improve their teaching or to present their research and scholarship at national or international conferences. Priority will be given to those attending conferences about teaching. 

Awards from the Presidential Fund for Professional Development will be given in amounts up to $1,000 per fiscal year, per faculty member.

Eligibility to Apply for Funding

To be eligible to apply for teaching conference funding, the faculty member must attend a conference or conference track related to teaching. If the applicant chooses to attend a teaching track at a disciplinary conference, they must attend at least three sessions on the teaching track. The applicant does not need to present at the conference.

The conference can be directly related to the applicant’s field (list disciplinary conferences) or a general teaching conference (for example, a Lilly conference). After the conference, the faculty member will meet with Adams Center staff to share what they have learned.

Alternatively, an applicant may be presenting their research at a national or international conference or program within his/her discipline. The event must be generally recognized by the discipline as a major conference or program. The presentation can be either a paper or poster accepted through a peer-review process or an invited presentation. 

Monies from this fund may not be used to supplement participation that is otherwise funded by the conference organization. Monies from this fund must not be used to exceed the costs of conference participation. 

Application Process

Applications will be submitted to the Faculty Development Committee through the online form. Applicants should be prepared to provide: 

Rationale for attendance

• • • • A description of the teaching conference the faculty member wishes to attend and a rationale for how the conference will enhance the applicant’s classroom teaching, OR 
      • A description of the faculty member’s selection for participation in the meeting (noting how peer review has been involved in his/her selection). A copy of the acceptance or invitation letter for the presentation must be included, along with an abstract of the presentation.
      • 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.
• 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:
  • Summer Cycle: 5 p.m. on the second Monday in April. This cycle includes travel to events that occur from June through September.
  • Fall Cycle: 5 p.m. on the second Monday in September. This cycle includes travel to events that occur from October through January.
  • Spring Cycle: 5 p.m. on the last Monday in January. This cycle includes travel to events that occur from February through May.
• Applications must be supported by a recommendation from the faculty member’s Department Chair. For (1) teaching conference applications, the chair should address the appropriateness of the teaching conference and its fit with departmental needs; OR (2) for national or international presentations, the chair should confirm the prestige of the conference or program and the significance of the faculty member’s participation. The Chair will receive an invitation to complete the recommendation form once the application has been submitted. Prior to applying, therefore, applicants should discuss with their Chair their plans to apply for Presidential Funds.  
• Complete applications will be evaluated by the Faculty Development Committee, and this committee will make a recommendation for awards to the Provost’s Office.
• The Provost’s Office will notify faculty members in writing whether or not they have been awarded funds. Upon award, funds will be transferred to the departmental FOAPs provided by the faculty member on the application.

Criteria for Awarding Funds

If the Faculty Development Committee receives more applications from eligible faculty than can be funded in a given cycle, they will use the following criteria to select which applications to fund: 

• Based on the mission of the Adams Center for Teaching and Learning, priority will be given to applicants who are attending conferences that directly address teaching and classroom practices.
• The committee will consider the quality of the proposal, the conference’s scope of influence, and the applicant’s need for funding. 
• Preference will be given to applicants who did not receive Presidential Funds within the current or previous fiscal year. 
• Preference will be given to junior faculty building their portfolios for tenure and promotion. 
• The committee will aim to distribute Presidential Funds across the widest variety of departments and colleges. If there are multiple applicants from the same department, the committee will use the above criteria to select which applicants receive funding. In some cases, the committee may choose to offer smaller awards in order to fund multiple applicants from the same department.