The Mellon 8-College Faculty Career Enhancement Grants
Williams has recently received a three-year extension to the Mellon 8-College Faculty Career Enhancement grant. Since 2002-03, this grant has provided the faculty with a variety of opportunities to enhance teaching and scholarship. Each member of the 8-college cohort (Williams, Amherst, Grinnell, Oberlin, Pomona, Reed, Smith, and Wesleyan) has now received an additional $187,500 to further the goals of the grant on their campus. At Williams, we are budgeting the new funds to sponsor faculty discussions on pedagogy, and also to provide grants for faculty research.
Purpose. Drawing inspiration from the Mellon New Directions Fellowships program, which provided paid leave time to faculty members to train outside of their own disciplines, the Williams version of this program will provide grants to three categories of faculty members:
- those who could enhance their research by acquiring new and systematic training outside their own disciplines or in a related interdisciplinary field of study;
- those who, embarking on a major new line of research within their own discipline, may require a significant investment of time or money to update their research skills or acquire a necessary level of background knowledge; and
- those who are renewing their research programs after a hiatus, perhaps due to a period of very heavy administrative or teaching responsibility.
Awards. These grants can be configured flexibly, with budgets up to $25,000. Ideally, the grants would be used to pay for tuition and fees at another institution, or for research, equipment, travel/lodging, or student assistance. While most proposals might be constructed along these lines, there are at least two options to be considered.
- One option would be to request a course release with no salary reduction during an otherwise active year of teaching, with research and/or tuition expenses provided as appropriate. Part of the award might also be applied to hiring a replacement teacher, if necessary, so that the home department or program suffers no curricular loss. Proposals for course release require a department or program statement of approval.
- A second option, if the proposal is clearly linked to a month or more of full-time work or supervised training, would be to request a salary grant (not to exceed one month’s salary). For example, the grant might be used to make possible an extended term of leave if that leave is dedicated to supervised training or an apprenticeship that will bring benefit to teaching and research at Williams. Salary grants will be made only to facilitate research that would not otherwise be possible, and not simply to enhance income.
Eligibility. All continuing faculty are eligible to apply, though priority will be given to tenured faculty and to those for whom external funding may not be readily available.
Application Procedure. The application deadline is November 7 each year (until 2008), with subsequent requests for proposals to follow until the annual budget is exhausted. Awards are made available the following summer on July 1. Applications should be submitted to the dean of the faculty and should include the following elements:
- Project Title and Abstract. One or two brief sentences on how the project fits the purposes (see above) of the program.
- Project Description and Timetable. Describe the basic ideas, problems, works, or questions to be addressed. Give an overview of the planned approach, methodology, and schedule for the project.
- Context Statement. Review the relationship of the proposed work to the applicant's overall program of scholarship, placing it in context of previous research. Clarify how the project will contribute to the applicant’s plan for future research and scholarship.
- Budget. Provide a detailed budget request and/or outline of the request for course release or salary supplement.
- Curriculum Vitae: Attach a current CV.
- Letter of Appraisal. Include a letter of appraisal from an informed colleague (preferably from Williams). The letter should describe the importance of the candidate's proposed research for his or her field and other relevant matters.
- Letter of Department Approval. If the proposal includes a request for course release time, it should include an explicit statement of approval from the department chair, either as part of the letter of appraisal (above) or in a separate document.
There is no set length for the application. It should be thorough but concise, and accessible to non-experts in the field. Supporting materials (e.g., bibliography) are welcome but not required.
Selection Process. In determining the recipients of these grants and the size of the awards, the dean of the faculty will review applications with the Committee on Appointments and Promotions (CAP).
Post-Award Requirement. All recipients of these grants will be required to write a brief report summarizing the work accomplished. These summaries should be suitable for inclusion in an annual report to be sent to the Mellon Foundation.
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