FACULTY DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE

Operating Code

FUNCTION: To advise the Dean of the Faculty on faculty development policies; to initiate ideas for faculty growth and improvement, including programs to support both scholarly and professional activity and the improvement of teaching; to allocate such research funds as the Dean shall designate; to represent the faculty on the award of pre-tenure paid research and sabbatical leaves, and to make recommendations on such leaves to the Dean of the Faculty; and to select the annual Edwin Moseley Faculty Research Lecturer.

MEMBERSHIP: Four faculty members with tenure, one each from the areas of the humanities, the natural sciences, the pre-professional programs, and the social sciences, each member to be elected for a two year term; the Assistant to the Dean of the Faculty for Faculty Development, non-voting

OPERATING PROCEDURES:

• The chair of the Committee, in cooperation with the Committee secretary (a staff member from the DOF office),C builds the Committee agenda, and convenes the Committee for deliberations, and for making awards.
• The chair of the Committee, in cooperation with the Committee secretary, and academic departmental chairs assures that the faculty receive timely announcements of competition for Faculty Development Grants, and instructions on how to apply for these funds.
• At the end of each academic year, the Committee chair writes a summary of Committee transactions and awards, and submits this report to the faculty with a copy to the Dean of the Faculty.
• All proposals funded by the Committee are public documents available for inspection by all faculty members. All deliberations of the Committee are confidential. The Committee awards grants to faculty, when possible by consensus, and alternatively by majority vote. All funding decisions by the Committee are final, and not subject to appeal
• The Committee assesses proposals on the basis of their scholarly or pedagogical merit, and responds most favorably to proposals that strengthen the professional qualifications of faculty, enrich their abilities to teach Skidmore students, and help them to contribute more effectively to the mission of the College. When the Committee must, for budgetary reasons, select among proposals of comparable quality, it will favor the applications from tenure-track or tenured faculty over those from non-tenure- track faculty, applications from junior faculty over those from senior faculty.
• The Committee expects faculty to write proposals in language that is clear to the non-specialist, and that makes evident to the members of the committee the scholarly and/or pedagogical value of the proposed studies. The Committee also expects an itemized budget for the project listing other funding sources should the grant request not meet the entire budget for the project.
• The Committee will not consider proposals from faculty who have received earlier Faculty Development Grants, and who fail to submit substantive summary reports of their work after the interval of their grant has elapsed. The Committee will not ordinarily consider proposals that are submitted after the deadline for receipt of such proposals.
• The chair of the Committee, in cooperation with the Committee secretary, informs each applicant for Faculty Development Grants of the Committee decision with respect to his or her proposal. The Chair announces the recipients of those awards to the faculty at large by way of electronic mail.
• At the last meeting of each spring semester, the Committee selects one of its elected faculty (a continuing member) as Committee chair to serve for the following academic year.