Faculty Handbook 2007-2008

This funding is for attendance at teaching workshops, conferences and seminars. The request should be made to the Provost's Office and include a rationale and itemized budget.

The purpose of the PD Account is to provide each full-time, tenured or tenure-track member of the teaching faculty (who is not already being supported by some other professional development account) with an account of $3,000 a year to support teaching and research. This account is unique among Denison's professional development funds in that it is a quick-access account. It decentralizes the process and makes access to the funds easy. (Faculty not falling in the above categories may request professional development funds, and their requests will be considered on a case-by-case basis.) These funds will take the form of individual accounts with specific numbers, and each faculty member will receive a monthly account summary from the controller.

The PD Account will fund any legitimate professional expense, such as faculty travel for research or attendance at professional meetings, journal subscriptions, memberships, books, software, research aids, and supplies. They also support research-related equipment that is not already covered by the College through a departmental or other account. They do not support teaching materials that should otherwise be covered by departmental budgets. Nor do they support student research or travel, which are covered by separate budget lines. Because the College already provides a computer for each faculty member, the fund also does not support the purchase of a second computer. It does not cover the purchase of a home computer, which may be purchased through the Salary Advance Program for the Purchase of Home Computers. It does, however, support the purchase of personal digital assistants that serve as mobile research and communication tools. Any equipment that you purchase with these funds becomes the property of the college. The special conditions of this professional development grant enable you to keep the journals, books, and other similar purchases you may make for your personal use. All other items purchased with university funds become the property of the university.

Faculty members should discuss the use of the PD Account funds with their chairs if they have any questions about what is or is not an appropriate use of the funds. If chairs have any questions about gray areas, they or the faculty member should contact the Provost's Office (Keith Boone).

Unexpended funds will carry over for one year beyond the initial year.

These funds may be accessed by sending a request for payment (with receipts), a travel report, or a purchase requisition to the Provost's Office.

Travel restrictions include a maximum $75 per diem for food. Plane airfare for coach only. Mileage reimbursed at current rate. (See "Professional Travel Policy" for further details.)

New faculty in tenure-track positions are allocated up to $5,000 per year for their first three years in support of teaching and research. Department chairs will approve expenditures from these accounts. Funds may be used for travel to conferences or research sites, books, subscriptions or memberships, page charges for journals, and the like. Faculty who receive a Fairchild grant are expected to use this account as their first resort for professional expenses, including travel to conferences.

This separately incorporated and funded organization, related to the College, makes grants to support the material costs of faculty research. DURF was established in 1942 through the generous bequest of a Denison alumnus, Elmer Jones. The income earned each year from the investments made from the original bequest provides the funds that are awarded to Denison faculty so that research and scholarly activities might be undertaken and sustained. The DURF Board sets policy in respect to the awarding of all grants. The Board meets in early March to consider faculty applications and to make the awards. The deadline for application normally is in late January. Further information and application forms can be found on the Provost's office web site. Questions should be addressed to the Associate Provost, Keith Boone. Applications are reviewed by the DURF Board, which makes the final decisions.

1) General Funding

DURF funds support equipment needs, research materials, travel, fees to attend institutes, book subventions, student assistants for faculty research, and the like. The primary consideration in evaluating an application is the nature and quality of the research project proposed. Grants will not be made for general sabbatical leave support, or for costs associated with producing a doctoral dissertation. Limited assistance for the publishing of a book that reasonably could be expected to produce financial benefit to the author might be awarded. DURF provides no stipends. Awards in this category normally range from $1000 to $8000, and preference is usually given to faculty with continuing contracts at Denison.

2) DURF Venture Award

Purpose The DURF Venture award seeks to fund research that takes a faculty member or a team of faculty down new pathways, that is innovative, that results in career diversification or transformation. It is imagined as "seed money" for new directions, for projects that fall outside of the parameters of other funding sources but hold great promise for the faculty member's scholarly development. Projects that are collaborative and/or interdisciplinary in nature are particularly welcome, but projects of any kind are invited.

Examples of the kinds of projects suitable for a DURF Venture Award include (1) the pursuit of a career-diversification project, such as a literature professor studying one of the fine arts, or a quantitatively-oriented social scientist writing an oral history, or a physical/biological scientist exploring an issue in the social or behavioral sciences; (2) exploration of a new area within a faculty member's discipline, perhaps by engaging in a collaborative research project or taking a course at another institution; (3) an excursion beyond the boundaries of one's home discipline, perhaps through an interdisciplinary research project.

Amount The total amount available for DURF Venture Awards will be up to $40,000 annually. Project budgets in the $10,000-$20,000 range are most likely to be funded. One or more awards may be given in any year.

Criteria and Process for Selection Projects will be evaluated on the basis of (1) the conception, definition and organization of the project; (2) the merit of the project and the extent to which it is innovative, takes the researcher in a new direction, and falls outside the parameters of other funding sources; (3) the likelihood that the project will achieve its stated goals. Projects will be evaluated and selected for funding by the DURF trustees.

Application Process A completed application will consist of a 5-10 page packet including:

The DURF Venture Award Symposium Awardees are expected to discuss their experience with their transformational project at an annual DURF Venture Award Symposium.

Each year the DURF Board provides the Office of the Provost a small DURF Contingency Fund, used to assist faculty research and scholarship with small grants (normally not over $500). Requests for a contingency grant should be made to the Associate Provost, Keith Boone. The Contingency Fund cannot be used to meet large requests from faculty during the year. Large requests must be made through the annual DURF application process.

Denison belongs to a group of colleges whose faculty may enroll in one of four annual scholarly seminars organized by the University of Chicago specifically for faculty in the Midwest geographical region. Denison covers the expenses of attendance at these seminars, whose topics represent a wide variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary interests. Announcements about the seminars appear in the Faculty Newsletter and in emails to the teaching faculty.

Each year the GLCA (Denison's college consortium) sponsors teaching workshops for its members. In the past, these have included topics in teaching and learning, teaching and technology, and the introduction of issues of diversity into courses. Denison covers the costs of its faculty members' attendance at these conferences. Faculty will be notified about these conferences as they are announced by the GLCA.

Denison provides a 36-month interest-free loan of up to $2,500 for full-time teaching faculty to purchase home computers. Contact Mary Philipps in the Office of the Provost, x6243.