Professional development stipend grants are designed to support substantial projects with a tangible outcome predominantly related to professional development. These stipends will be funded at $3,500 per award. Up to four (4) stipends may be awarded.
1. All tenured and tenure-track Shepherd University faculty and full-time faculty librarians are eligible to submit stipend project proposals, except for those who received a stipend award in the previous year. It is the intention of the University to particularly encourage those faculty who have not sought or received previous support. However, the purpose of the stipend is not to support graduate education.
2. A faculty member may submit only one application for a given summer. A faculty member will normally be allowed to teach at most one course during the summer in that a stipend award is received. However, if a graduate course is scheduled in collaboration with an undergraduate course permission to teach the extra graduate course will usually be given by the dean of the college. Also, applicants should clearly state if funding from other sources is obtained, how separate accounting would be clearly delineated.
3. A proposal prepared jointly by two or more faculty may be submitted, but will be considered as a single proposal.
4. Proposals are to be submitted to the Administrative Assistant of the Provost. The Administrative Assistant will record the proposal author(s) and forward all proposals to the Professional Development Committee after removing the cover page identifying authorship. All project submissions are to be with no identification of the author(s) in the text.
5. Proposals are to be submitted by February 13, 2023 for the following summer.
6. Proposal selections will be announced no later than March 6, 2023. Each proposal should be a maximum of five pages in length and should contain:
- A description of the project sufficient in detail to provide the reader with a clear idea of the project scope and objective(s). At the completion of each funded project, a tangible product will result, e.g. manuscript/article submitted for publication, a composition, review, artwork, performance, etc.
- A rationale explaining how the project will positively impact the effectiveness of the applicant(s) in conducting Shepherd University faculty functions of teacher, advisor, mentor, etc. As indicated in item #2 above, additional funding sources sought for the project and the accounting for these funds should be indicated in the proposal.
- Submit the request electronically as a Word document with a cover page identifying the applicant to the Provost’s office. The cover page will be removed by the Provost office for distribution to the Committee in order to facilitate a blind review.
The proposals will be reviewed by the Professional Development Committee with recommendations then being made to the Provost. Any questions regarding summer stipends should be directed to the Chair of the Professional Development Committee.
7. By January following the summer in which the stipend was awarded, the faculty member shall provide the Provost, the Chair of the Faculty Professional Development Committee, and the Office of University Development a copy of the completed “product” or a statement of what has been accomplished with the funding received. Failure to meet this standard will result in the individual being ineligible to apply for a Summer Faculty Professional Development Award, or any other internal university funded award or Shepherd Foundation award, for a period of five (5) years.