Grants and Professional Travel

The Teaching and Learning Center at Simpson College supports faculty travel to academic conferences for professional development. Below you will find forms for application, travel, and reimbursement.

Please make sure to fill out your application materials before any expenses are made.

Professional Travel Grant Policy

Professional Travel and Reimbursement Forms

Please note applications for faculty research travel must be submitted and approved before the travel has occurred.

It is important for all faculty members to keep current in their disciplines and in the development of pedagogy. Because the college recognizes it shares this responsibility, the faculty development office administers funds for full time faculty to attend one annual conference within their discipline. If a faculty member has unused funds from one conference within a year, the rest of the unused money can be put toward a second conference, as long as it occurs within the same year. Unused funds are no longer allowed to roll over from one year to another.

Any tenured or tenure-track full-time faculty member is eligible to apply for professional travel funds. Faculty on leave are also eligible as well as faculty who are teaching specialists, full-time adjuncts, and on joint appointments.

Eligible faculty may be reimbursed up to $500 for expenses related to professional travel each year (beginning on June 1). Travel to conventions, workshops, or meetings directly related to professional activities represent appropriate use of these funds. Normally, regular funds may not be used for professional expenses other than conference attendance and travel. Unused funds are no longer be allowed to rollover.

Faculty members who are presenting, performing, moderating a session, or have a position within the organization that requires them to attend a specific event are eligible to be reimbursed up to $1500. That number is contingent upon annual budget allotments and may change at any time.

Faculty who are attending a conference outside the United States are eligible to be reimbursed for an additional $400. Faculty are eligible to receive international travel funds only once during a budget year.

Expenses for faculty travel to attend professional conferences and/or performances and presentations will only be reimbursed to the maximum appropriate above the expenses covered by any honorarium or stipend received by the traveler. The amount of the honorarium should be subtracted from the total costs of the trip at the time of the request for reimbursement. For example, a faculty member agrees to be the keynote speaker at a conference and is paid $500. The trip costs a total of $1200. Even if the faculty member would otherwise be eligible to be reimbursed for $1200, the maximum reimbursement is $700.

After returning from a trip, faculty who have been awarded travel funds should complete the Travel Expense Report, attach all receipts, and submit it to Mark Pleiss. The report form should include all the expenses associated with the trip regardless of whether the expense was actually covered by travel grant awarded. This will enable Faculty Development to determine whether to request an increase in faculty travel funds. The information will also be used to double check the accuracy of office records of charges on the faculty member’s procurement card. A Travel Expense report must be submitted in order for future travel funds to be awarded.

Faculty Development Grants

RESEARCH, SCHOLARSHIP, AND CREATIVITY GRANTS

All RSC Grants for 2024-2025 have been awarded. RSC Grants for 2025-2026 will be reviewed on March 31, 2025 by the Campus Advisory Committee.

Each year, RSC Grants will be received and reviewed on the following dates:

  • The last day of March each year; paid out after June 1. 
  • If grants remain following the March deadline, the second deadline will be the last day of August.

Purpose of RSC Grants: To help full-time faculty to continue to grow in their expertise by regularly contributing to the development of their discipline. (One RSC application per person per year.)  Maximum possible award: $2,000.

Direct questions to the Chair of the Campus Advisory Committee or the Director of the Teaching and Learning Center.

Below are past successful application samples to review:

Application for $500 Faculty Stipend to Design Online Course

Applications will be accepted year-round. Please check with the Dean of CGOE before proposing a new course for that program.

Purpose: The purpose of this stipend is to support faculty efforts to research and develop/redesign new online courses.  Applications accepted on a rolling basis.

Course Development and Enhancement Grants

CDE Grants will be reviewed on the last day of March (accepted applications in March will be paid out on June 1), August, and January until all grants are filled.

Purpose: To help faculty to develop new courses and redesign existing courses. (One application for this grant per person per year.)  Maximum possible award: $500

Direct questions to the Chair of the Faculty Development Committee or the Director of the Teaching and Learning Center.

Below are past successful application samples to review:

Professional Development Exigency Grants

Purpose: To support professional development needs that are not eligible for coverage under the professional travel grants and that fall outside the timeline for Research, Scholarship, and Creativity grants.  Maximum possible award: $500

** Exigency Grants are awarded throughout the year based on need. A total of four grants per year will be awarded. 

Call for Proposals

May Term Enrichment Grant

Purpose: To take advantage of the special experiential opportunities available during May Term. Appropriate uses for these funds include but are not limited to guest speakers, travel by van to local museums, businesses, service agencies, and equipment to be used to increase the interactive nature of the class. May Term Enrichment Grants are not to take the place of appropriate course fees.  (One application for this grant per person per year.)

Maximum possible award: $200

Direct questions to the Chair of the Faculty Development Committee or Director of the Teaching and Learning Center

ADDITIONAL GRANT OPPORTUNITIES

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Grants

FACULTY GRANTS FOR INCLUSIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING

  • Submit fully-completed applications to the Director of the Teaching and Learning Center or the Chair of CADI.

Purpose: This in-house small grant program is designed to help faculty to include diversity-related content in courses and to increase inclusivity. More specifically, this grant can be used to achieve any one of the following faculty goals:

  1. To make meaningful changes to an existing course (whether or not that course has a Diversity and Power [DP] designation) in order to increase the diversity-related content of that course.
  2. To help faculty make major changes to the pedagogy being used to teach a course in order to increase inclusivity.
  3. To develop a new course that to modify an existing course so that would have a strong DEI component

Maximum possible award: $750, up to $500 can be taken as a stipend

Call for Proposals – Diversity & Inclusivity CDE Grant 

This in-house micro-grant program is designed to help faculty to identify ways to:

  • to increase in breadth or depth the diversity content in their course(s), or
  • increase the range of inclusive pedagogy utilized in their course(s), or
  • intentionally build their self-awareness and cultural responsiveness as an increasingly equitable educator.

The hope is that recipients of starter micro-grants will apply for another Inclusive Teaching and Learning grant in the future.

Maximum possible award: $250, up to $100 can be taken as a stipend (from the amount remaining after materials needed to facilitate growth sought are purchased)

Call for Proposals – Diversity & Inclusivity Startup Micro-Grant

Purpose: This in-house small grant program is designed to help teams of faculty work collaboratively to:

  • increase in breadth or depth the diversity content in their course(s), or
  • increase the range of inclusive pedagogy utilized in their course(s), or
  • intentionally build their individual and collective self-awareness and cultural responsiveness as increasingly equitable educators.

Teams must include at least four people that share some sort of commonality. They might all come from the same major or minor. They might teach students who want similar careers (e.g., health-related careers). They might all teach using a similar teaching style (e.g., experiential learning). they might all be interested in being culturally equitable educators. They might be interested in more activism and care to work to develop themselves as anti-racist or anti-sexist or anti-homophobic (etc.) educators.

Funding will be used to purchase a chosen common book (or material to facilitate growth sought – but not conference attendance) for each participant as well as food/snacks for during team-discussion sessions.

Maximum possible award: $2500, up to $200 per person can be taken as a stipend (from the amount remaining beyond books/materials and food).

Call for Proposals – Diversity & Inclusivity Team Grant