Issuing Office

Office of the Provost

Affected Parties

Faculty

Policy Language

The University understands that professional development is a shared responsibility. The faculty member must, first, desire to continue to grow as a professional. The University, recognizing that commitment, will endeavor to assist the faculty member in achieving those goals which the individual has established in a written plan for professional growth.

University assistance for faculty development encompasses the following:

• Travel to, and participation in, scholarly professional meetings, workshops, and seminars. Full-time faculty members may use a maximum of five days per semester for such purposes.
• Professional memberships in scholarly societies.
• Purchase of scholarly journals related to the faculty member’s area of teaching expertise.
• Discipline-related software and other types of technical support for teaching.

Policy Rationale

Professional development is an obligation and a challenge that faculty members accept readily. Without such ongoing development, faculty members lose touch with their professions and, eventually, their teaching and research stagnates.

Definition of Glossary Terms

None specified

Procedures

The budgeting/disbursement process for faculty development is governed by the following guidelines/procedures:

A. The Provost will gather information on faculty development needs in each college or school. That information will be supplied by each academic dean in the spring of the year prior to the beginning of the new budget cycle based, in part, on faculty growth plans and departmental plans.

B. The Provost will review the requests and develop a budget proposal reflecting a uniform dollar amount for each full-time faculty member for developmental plans.

C. The Provost will present the request to designated budget officers of the University. Following discussions among those individuals, a final dollar amount for each full-time faculty member will be determined and included in the new budget.

D. A line for professional development will be included in the budget for each academic department which reflects the sum total of the budgeted amount for each full-time faculty member.

E. Each Department Chair is responsible for administering the budgeted faculty development funds in a manner that meets the professional growth needs of as many faculty members as is possible.

• A faculty member may neither carry over unexpended development monies from one year to the next, nor may that individual request an advance on development monies from subsequent years.

• If the Department Chair believes the development needs of a faculty member in a particular year justify expenditures beyond the individual’s allocated amount, informal discussions may ensue among the Chair, the faculty member requesting an additional amount, and any faculty member in the department wishing to forego all or part of development monies for that year so that additional assistance might be available to a colleague.

• If agreement is reached among the individuals involved, the Chair drafts a memorandum reflecting the agreement, including the additional amount involved. The agreement will further note that this amount will be added to the sum available to the faculty member (in the next budget cycle) who is foregoing development money in the current budget cycle. The amount will be deducted, in a similar manner, from the sum available to the faculty member who has received additional assistance in the current budget cycle.

• All requisitions for professional development must be processed through the Department Chair’s budget. Each Department Chair is responsible to carefully monitor total expenditures and, to the extent possible, spread expenditures for professional development over the entire year.

Sanctions

None specified

Exceptions

None

Initial Approval Date

6/26/2015

Date of Last Review

11/09/2022

Date for Review

11/09/2027