Professional Council

The Professional Council invites members of the faculty to submit proposals for Faculty Development Grants (FDGs).

FDG award amounts and eligibility guidelines:

• All full-time teaching faculty* are eligible to apply for up to $2,500 per year of FDG funding from the Professional Council. If a faculty member is traveling internationally, the total available award will be $3,000 to accommodate increased airfare costs (other caps still apply; see below).
• Eligible part-time faculty** [those persons who (1) do not have a full-time faculty employment contract, (2) have taught at least 18 courses for the College in the past, and (3) are currently teaching at least one course] are eligible for up to $1,000 of FDG funding from the Professional Council.
• Faculty in primarily administrative roles as defined in the Faculty Handbook are not eligible for FDG funding.

Note that the fiscal year of the College begins on June 1 and ends May 31.

* Please refer to Section III.B of the handbook for clarification.

** Please refer to Section III.C of the handbook for clarification.

Caps:

The following caps apply to all grants:

• domestic economy class airfare – $600 (including baggage)
• international economy class airfare – $1,150 (including baggage)
• hotel (per night) – $200
• meals (per day) – $60

Information about deadlines:

All applications must be submitted prior to the deadline preceding the activity. The Professional Council will not consider FDG requests for retroactive funding. The deadlines are listed at the top of this page.

The following example is meant to provide clarity concerning deadlines and when to submit the application: If a faculty member’s professional activity occurs on Mar. 17 and the Professional Council meets to consider FDG applications on Feb. 9 and Mar. 23, the application must be submitted by the Feb. 9 deadline. In the above scenario, an FDG application submitted after Feb. 9 would be considered as retroactive funding and the funding request would be denied.

Finally, note that any FDG applications arriving after the 4:00 pm ET deadline will be considered during the next funding round.

Grant criteria and reimbursement levels:

The Professional Council will evaluate applications using the following guidelines:

Tier A: eligible for 100 percent funding, subject to caps:

• Support for scholarship resulting in imminent publication, performance, exhibit, or appearance in some other peer-reviewed forum. Examples of funding support include: page costs, exhibit costs, travel costs or other costs associated with finalizing the product or data collection (please provide specifics as the how the product is near completion).
• Support for conference participation (including travel) where the faculty member is presenting their creative works or scholarship (including the scholarship of teaching and learning). Additionally, conference participation is supported if the faculty member’s work is being presented by a coauthor or a student researcher/coauthor.
• Support for conference participation (including travel) where the faculty member is serving in some official capacity (e.g., organizing a session, serving as a discussant, an invited speaker, or serving as an officer of the sponsoring professional society).

Tier B: eligible for 60 percent funding, subject to caps:

• Support for participation in professional workshops, courses***, and seminars intended to develop teaching or for curricular development.
• Support for conference attendance where the faculty member is not presenting their work nor serving in an official capacity.
• Support for the discovery phase of a research project or exhibit.

*** The Professional Council does not fund courses taken towards the completion of a degree.

Additional notifications:

• FDG awards cannot be used to hire research assistants or student workers nor to pay faculty stipends. However, small payments to recruit study participants and payments for professional services (e.g., copy editing) are generally considered allowable costs and will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
• FDG funds cannot be split across two fiscal years to pay for a single event, conference, etc.
• Faculty members who make non-refundable purchases (e.g., airline tickets) prior to receiving official approval of their FDG application do so at their own risk. If the FDG application were to be denied, the PC will not reimburse the faculty member for their purchase.

Grant proposals:

We ask that you answer the following questions in the course of your proposal. Applicants must submit their proposals through the online Process Maker form.

• Proposed activity – Describe the proposed activity and your role in the activity.
• Goals and assessment – How will your proposed activity enhance your professional development and the development of your discipline? How will you assess your progress?
• Efforts to obtain other funding – Have you sought or will you seek additional funding for your project from other sources? Can the FDG be used as “seed” money in obtaining external funding? For help with attaining outside funding please contact Julie Sweitzer in the Development Office.

Submission format:

Applications for FDGs should be filed electronically through Process Maker. Do not access Process Maker using Internet Explorer. Supplemental materials can be emailed as an attachment in electronic format to the Professional Council at profcouncil@albright.edu. Please include the subject heading “faculty development grant items for [your name]”.

Important notifications and reminders:

Reporting – Please carefully read the PC Faculty Development Report information. A narrative report and the expense report must be submitted WITHIN ONE MONTH AFTER THE COMPLETION OF THE PROJECT OR TRAVEL or the applicant will not be reimbursed. The expense report and receipts should be submitted to Leigh Anne Fernandes in Academic Affairs.

The narrative report should be submitted via Process Maker.

Advances – The PC will advance up to 50% of the awarded funds. The remainder of the funds will be reimbursed when the receipts for all expenses and the written report have been filed. Faculty members who have received advances but did not submit receipts or the narrative report in the prior academic year will not be eligible for FDG funds in the current year.

Expense reports for funded proposals go through Leigh Anne Fernandes and subsequently the business office of the College – NOT the Professional Council.

All full-time faculty, including faculty in interim administrative roles, may request up to $550 in funds annually for professional development separate from faculty development grants (FDGs). These requests go through Academic Affairs and can be reimbursed retroactively. All receipts along with a completed expense report should be sent to Leigh Anne Fernandes. Do NOT use Process Maker for $550 reimbursement requests. $550 funds will NOT be automatically applied to FDGs unless the faculty member indicates that they would like to use these funds towards their application. Note that the fiscal year of the College begins on June 1 and ends May 31.

The $550 funds can be used for the following:

• conference attendance, research travel and associated costs*
• academic or professional association memberships
• research materials (e.g., books, journal subscriptions, equipment, or software**)
  

* $550 funds cannot be used to cover airfare or hotel costs that exceed FDG funding caps (see above).

** Software uploaded to College-owned computers must be registered with DSI. All software and equipment purchased with College funds remain the property of the College.

Faculty Development Grants

Albright College has a thriving research and creative community with which the college community and the general populace should be made aware. The Professional Council (PC) would like to promote the hard work done by our faculty in order to increase awareness of the research and creative activities on campus. The PC has provided you funding for an experience which will further your research or professional development. The PC encourages you to write a short report describing your work and how the funding was used. These reports should be written in a popular style and may be used to disseminate your results via the Albright College website and other media. The PC encourages you to see this report as a celebration of your work, not an onerous task that must be completed. However, additional PC grants will not be awarded until the report is completed and receipts of expenses submitted.

In order to maximize the effectiveness of the report the PC encourages you to consider the following when crafting your article:

1. This should be written in a popular article style with consumption by the general populace in mind.

• Assume a target audience of graduating high school seniors and underclassmen undergraduates with only general familiarity with your field.
• Include a general overview of your scholarly background, specific research topic, and how the activity funded by the PC expands upon it.
• Avoid excessive use of jargon or other specialized terms when possible. Define them if unavoidable.
• Focus on the big picture rather than the details of your work.

2. Please write no fewer than 200 words; however, we encourage you to limit your text to fewer than 500 words.

3. Remember that your report will be publicly available. As such, do not include proprietary data, non-copyrighted images, or other information that you do not want available to the general public.

Summer Stipends

Albright College has a thriving research and creative community with which the college community and the general populace should be made aware. The PC would like to promote the hard work done by our faculty in order to increase awareness of the research and creative activities on campus. In order to achieve this, the PC will ask sabbatical and summer stipend awardees to supplement their report of their work which will be used to disseminate their results via the Albright College website and other media. In addition, awardees will present their work to the college community at a live event. The PC believes that these requirements will help create a culture of research and creativity that will encourage collaboration and promote high quality scholarly work. This document will provide guidelines for the live presentation and written report. The PC encourages the faculty to treat these presentations as a celebration of their work, not an onerous task that must be completed. You will be working hard this summer or over your sabbatical so please take this as an opportunity to show off your results. Moreover, we strongly encourage all faculty to attend this speaker’s series, as we would like these to be a series of events that bring faculty and students together to celebrate the intellectual life of the Albright Community.

Written Report

This report will take the form of a written article (sent as an attachment as a .docx or Rich Text Format) that gives an overview of the research done during your sabbatical or over the summer. Your report will help form the face of research and creative activity at Albright. These documents will be converted into HTML web-pages and linked from the faculty research section of the Albright College website. Your article may also be featured on the main webpage or used in whole or in part in college publications or promotional materials..

This article is to be submitted to the PC chair AND to the Provost’s office no later than six weeks into the academic year following your award. Failure to submit this article by the deadline will result in exclusion from consideration for all PC funding opportunities. The articles will be reviewed by the PC, which reserves the right to request modifications or revisions before finalization of the document.

In order to maximize the effectiveness of the report the PC encourages you to consider the following when crafting your article:

1. This should be written in a popular article style with consumption by the general populace in mind.

• Assume a target audience of graduating high school seniors and underclassmen undergraduates with only general familiarity with your field.
• Give a brief biography of your scholarly background, field of work, and why you are interested in the subject.
• Include a general overview of your specific research topic and how your project expands the knowledge of it.
• Avoid excessive use of jargon or other specialized terms when possible. Define them if unavoidable.
• Focus on the big picture rather than the details of your work.
• Pictures, Graphs, or other images are strongly encouraged. Including an image of you participating in the work will help put a face on your research or creative work.

2. Please write no fewer than 500 words; however, we encourage you to limit your text to 2000 words or less excluding images or other reference material.

3. Please include a literature cited for works referenced in the article. (. URL addresses for references and other sites where more information can be found are encouraged to be included).

4. Remember that your report will be publicly available. As such, do not include proprietary data, non-copyrighted images, or other information that you do not want available to the general public.

Sabbaticals

Albright College has a thriving research and creative community with which the college community and the general populace should be made aware. The PC would like to promote the hard work done by our faculty in order to increase awareness of the research and creative activities on campus. In order to achieve this, the PC will ask sabbatical awardees to supplement their report of their work which will be used to disseminate their results via the Albright College website and other media. In addition, awardees will present their work to the College community at a live event. The PC believes that these requirements will help create a culture of research and creativity that will encourage collaboration and promote high quality scholarly work. This document will provide guidelines for the live presentation and written report. The PC encourages the faculty to treat these presentations as a celebration of their work, not an onerous task that must be completed. You will be working hard over your sabbatical, so please take this as an opportunity to show off your results. Moreover, we strongly encourage all faculty to attend this speaker’s series, as we would like these to be a series of events that bring faculty and students together to celebrate the intellectual life of the Albright community.

Written Report

This report (email attachment as a .docx file) should give a thorough overview of the research done during your sabbatical leave. Your article may be featured on the main webpage or used whole or in part in College publications or promotional materials.

This report is to be submitted to the PC chair AND to the Provost’s office no later than the last day of the semester following your award. Failure to submit this article by the deadline will result in exclusion from consideration for all future PC funding opportunities. The articles will be reviewed by the PC, which reserves the right to request modifications or revisions before finalization of the document.

In order to maximize the effectiveness of the report, the PC encourages you to consider the following when crafting your article:

1. The article should be written with a general audience in mind.

• Assume a target audience of graduating high school seniors and underclassmen undergraduates with only general familiarity with your field.
• Give a brief biography of your scholarly background, field of work, and why you are interested in the subject.
• Include a general overview of your specific research topic and how your project expands the knowledge of it.
• Avoid excessive use of jargon or other specialized terms when possible. Define them if unavoidable.
• Focus on the big picture rather than the details of your work.
• Pictures, graphs, or other images are strongly encouraged. Including an image of you participating in the work will help put a face on your research or creative work.

2. Please write no fewer than 500 words; however, we encourage you to limit your text to 2000 words excluding images or other reference material.

3. Please include a literature cited for works referenced in the article (URL addresses for references and other sites where more information can be found are encouraged to be included).

4. Remember that your report will be publicly available. As such, do not include proprietary data, non-copyrighted images, or other information that you do not want available to the general public.

Eligibility

Full-time, tenured faculty are eligible for their first sabbatical leave after six years of full-time teaching have been completed since beginning employment at the College. A faculty member becomes eligible for successive sabbatical leaves after each set of six years of full-time teaching. Applications for sabbatical leave are submitted to the Professional Council in the fall semester of the academic year prior to that of the requested leave (see the section above concerning deadlines for the specific date). If a faculty member is uncertain about their eligibility, they should contact Academic Affairs.

Proposal Requirements

Sabbatical leave is important for promoting faculty development. The Professional Council is charged with evaluating applications for sabbatical leave and making recommendations to the Provost based on the quality of the applications. All proposals must include a well-developed plan for scholarly or creative research in any phase of the process intended to result in one or more of the following:

• • a publication, performance, exhibition, or appearance in some other peer-reviewed format
  • the development of new courses, new areas of expertise, or other new curricular development
  • the comprehensive revision of existing courses
• All sabbatical requests are final once the application deadline has passed. Materials submitted after the deadline will not be considered. Revisions will not be solicited or accepted by the Professional Council.

The following elements must be part of the sabbatical proposal:

• A current CV.
• A prospectus (approximately 3-5 pages) outlining the project to be undertaken (i.e., introduction, methodologies, planned activities, etc.) along with any supporting materials. Applicants should indicate the dates of their most recent sabbatical leave, if applicable.
• A faculty member may include a detailed budget ($1,200 limit) as part of their sabbatical proposal (for travel expenses, research materials, etc.).
• A letter of support from the chairperson of the applicant’s department. The letter must contain specific information about how curricular responsibilities will be covered in the applicant’s absence; the letter may be developed in consultation with the Provost, if necessary. A department chairperson applying for sabbatical must include a letter of support from a senior member of their department. If no senior member is available, the Provost (or a designee) – in consultation with the department – must provide an explanation of how the curricular responsibilities will be covered.
• The proposal must be submitted as a single document (except for the chairperson’s letter, which can be submitted separately) in either Microsoft Word or PDF format (PDF is preferred). Proposals should be emailed to profcouncil@albright.edu as an attachment. Please include the phrase “sabbatical request” in the subject line of the email.

All full-time faculty who will be continuing at Albright in the following academic year are eligible to apply. Award includes a $2,000.00 stipend. This award is designed to foster faculty scholarship, creative activity and research during the summer months. All forms and phases of faculty scholarship, including collection of materials, production of creative works, writing, laboratory and/or field research, and the like are eligible for this funding. The award is not for course development.

NOTE. Faculty are encouraged to apply for a faculty development grant to defray costs associated with the project.

Requirements:

• Completed application form (MS-Word Document). This should be the cover page of your application. Your application should be submitted in an electronic format (MS Word or PDF preferred) and emailed as an attachment to profcouncil@albright.edu with the subject heading “summer scholarship application”.
• The award is restricted to use in the summer session for which it is awarded.
• Presentation of project on campus (e.g., experience event, faculty talk) during the following academic year (arranged by the Professional Council).
• A report will be submitted no less than six weeks after the beginning of the fall semester. Please see the reporting requirements.
• Preference will be given to applicants who have not received a summer scholarship award in the past five years, are not scheduled for a full summer ACRE project, and are not scheduled to teach over the summer.

Selection Criteria (in order of priority):

• Likelihood of project resulting in a publication, presentation, exhibit, or performance.
• The extent to which proposed project is consistent with and will help meet the faculty member’s long-range scholarship development and goals.
• Feasibility of successful completion of the project.
• The contribution the project makes to the field of study as defined in the project description.
• Completeness of the application and extent to which it follows specified guidelines.