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Roy R. Charles Center

The Committee Encourages Proposals that...

The Committee encourages proposals for projects that plan.
Projects in this category may include May Seminars, Teaching Project groups, etc.  For instance, a May Seminar met to plan how to develop and support projects in a wide range of courses that use GIS.  Planning projects may involve a single faculty member or several faculty drawn from one or several departments and programs. The highest priority will be assigned to planning projects that involve faculty from several departments.

The Committee encourages projects that experiment.
Proposals may seek support to develop research/inquiry components to be added to single courses, to sequences of courses within a given department or program’s curriculum, or to a set of related courses offered by more than one department.

New research/inquiry experiments may be designed to take place during either the summer or the academic year.  An example of the former could be teams of students and faculty organized in “REU”-like structures, or an inquiry-based curriculum in Theatre that draws on the Shakespeare Festival.

The Committee encourages proposals that make use of special collections or other resources in Swem Library, or of available electronic resources. 
It will also fund the purchase of appropriate software or research materials, and the building or purchase of data sets / databases that will be used for undergraduate research/inquiry projects.

Faculty are encouraged to experiment with new teaching methods that will allow them to “teach with research.”  For instance, there is significant funding available to employ both undergraduate and graduate students to help with these experiments  

The Committee encourages projects that assess.
The Committee requires all proposals to identify a plan for assessing the success of new courses or projects, and for making adjustments in light of assessment findings. 

The Committee enfourages projects that disseminate.
The Committee encourages plans to disseminate the results of new courses or projects.  This, for instance, could take the form of a presentation to an appropriate department or program, a Teaching Project workshop, or a May Seminar.

The Committee does NOT encourage proposals with significant equipment budgets.
The Mellon Foundation has made it clear that its support is intended for people, implementation, and dissemination. Similarly, the approved QEP focuses on arrangements, processes, and programs that will enhance the culture of research and inquiry to the benefit of undergraduates rather than on the acquisition of equipment. As a result, the funding of equipment purchases has low priority and, except in extraordinary cases, should not comprise as much as half of the requested funds.

Equipment purchase requests will be considered more favorably when 1) the cost is relatively low, and 2) the number of students who will have a significant learning experience is relatively high. In addition, equipment purchase requests should make clear what other sources of funding have been sought. In addition, applicants should provide clear answers to the following questions: what is the expected lifespan of the equipment?; who will own the equipment?; who will have access to use of the equipment?; who will manage and maintain the equipment?

 

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