Faculty Grants Committee - Academic Senate

Operating Procedures

I. Membership

A. The committee consists of 9 voting members and two alternate members. The alternates shall serve when one or more Committee members have submitted proposals for a grant program. In addition, they may be asked to serve if a full member cannot attend a scheduled meeting to review proposals for a grant program. The Dean of Graduate Studies and Research shall serve as a nonvoting ex officio member. Article XII of the Constitution of the Academic Senate shall determine membership.

B. A quorum shall consist of five (5), voting members.

C. In the spring, before the last meeting of the year, an election will be held for the positions of Chair and Secretary.  The term of office shall be one calendar year. The Chair-elect must have at least one year's experience on the Committee.

D. In order to insure sufficient membership in the interim between the close of the academic year and the opening of the fall semester, the Committee may, at the discretion of the Chair, include faculty who have been appointed to the Committee for the next academic year.

E. If a regular voting member is absent without a valid excuse for two or more meetings in any academic year, the Chair is authorized to seek the immediate replacement of that member.

F. Approval of a motion shall require a simple majority of those members present and voting. Amendments to these Procedures shall required approval by two-thirds of the eligible members present and voting and be subject to the approval by the Academic Senate.

II. Meetings

A. The committee will meet on a regular basis throughout the academic year to discuss and recommend funding for proposals submitted to the various grant programs. Other business may require the Committee to meet outside of the normal grant cycle.

B. Prior to a meeting, the chair will distribute an agenda and arrange to have copies of any proposals sent to the Committee members for review. Meeting dates will be scheduled before the grant programs' deadlines for submitting recommendations to the Academic Senate or Graduate College (as listed in the Guide to University Funding of Research and Creative Works).

C. Committee members will be expected to read proposals carefully before the scheduled meetings, noting strengths and weaknesses according to the evaluation criteria for that particular grant program. Committee members will come to the grant review session with preliminary ratings of proposals, but may modify these based on committee discussions.

   In the case of the Faculty Grants Program, one Committee member will act as the lead reviewer for each proposal. The lead reviewer will give the proposal an especially thorough reading, and will present a short summary of the proposal's strengths and weaknesses to the full Committee. Notes concerning discussions on the proposals will b kept by the lead reviewer. The lead reviewer will send a summary review to the Chair, who will forward these comments to each grant writer, after the Academic Senate has acted on the committee's recommendations.

D. Funding Recommendations

1. When all proposals have been presented and discussed, the Committee will begin a two-stage ranking process. Any proposal that fails to adequately address one or more of the grant requirements (as determined by a majority of the Committee) will not be ranked. All other proposals will be ranked by each committee member, with the highest being "1" and successive ratings receiving "2" and "3". The total of all committee members' rankings for each proposal will be used to determine a final ranking.

2. Final rankings and recommendations will be forwarded by the Chair to the following bodies:
Faculty Grants Program:            Academic Senate, with notation made of    first-time applicants
Peter White Scholar Award:      Dean of Graduate Studies and Research
Charles C. Spooner Award:       Dean of Graduate Studies and Research
Instructional Improvement
& Curriculum Development:    Academic Senate

E. Conflict of Interest

1. If a member decides to submit a grant proposal for one of the grant programs administered by the FGC, this member shall inform the chair two weeks before the proposal deadline. The Chair will then assign an alternate member to serve in place of this member. Members submitting grant proposals will not participate in the activities associated with those particular grant programs.

III. Responsibilities of Officers

A. The Chair shall be responsible for convening meeting sand communicating funding recommendations to the appropriate academic bodies.

B. The Chair shall send an agenda to Committee members prior to any meeting, along with submitted grant proposals for review.

C. The Chair shall send comments to grant applicants indicating how the Committee ranked their proposal and commenting on their proposals' strength and weaknesses. Comments sent to Faculty Grants applicants will be based on notes taken by the lead reviewer during the Faculty Grant evaluation session. For Spooner Grants and the Peter White Scholar Award, a copy of the comments sent to the authors shall be sent to the Dean of Graduate Studies and Research.

D. The Chair shall send a yearly report of the Committee's activities to the Academic Senate, preferably before the Senate's last meeting of the year.

E. The Secretary shall be responsible for maintaining a record of the meetings and shall assume duties of the Chair during his/her absence.

F. The secretary shall file approved minutes of the FGC meetings with the Academic Senate.

Faculty Grants Committee Meetings

Meetings are not public. Minutes are available through the Senate office. Anyone with questions should contact the committee chair.