How to Keep Going When the Funding Runs Out

1. How to Keep Going When the Funding Runs Out Or How to Get Started Without a Grant Lucille B. Garmon University of West Georgia Presented at the 19th Biennial Conference on Chemical Education Purdue University August 3, 2006

4. Gafney Suggestions • WPA grants • Unpaid leaders • Leaders get credit for an accompanying course for which tuition is waived. • If selected for a second leadership experience, student is paid. • This more likely to be successful at four-year institutions than at community colleges. • Grants for curriculum innovation, serving minorities, etc. • Grant may explicitly include PLTL as a teaching/learning initiative. • If student stipends not included in grants, they may pay for faculty time and thus free up funds in instructional budget. • Internal soft money • Dean or president may have discretionary funds. • At Western Oregon, professors chipped in to pay leaders.

5. Gafney Suggestions (continued) • Internal fees • Lab fees can be set to cover cost of peer leaders. • At Miami-Dade, even non-lab courses have a $10-$15 lab fee. • Work-study • Can be used for leaders who qualify for federal work-study. • Academic assistance centers (learning centers) • These may have personnel who assist in training leaders. • They may also provide partial funding for leader stipends. • System-wide initiatives • A tuition increase in Indiana was used to encourage teaching initiatives. IUPUI received funding for a project in which PLTL was a key component. • Institutional budget line • Permanent institutional funding is ultimate goal.

7. What to Tell the Dean • How does PLTL express the mission of the institution? • Convince the dean that PLTL is of value in meeting mission-related institutional goals. • Does it help minorities or otherwise underrepresented groups the institution is trying to reach? • Share your data. • If you had a grant, don’t just send assessment data to the NSF (or other funding agency) in your final report. Give it to the dean! • Have a plan and discuss it with the dean. • If you were funded by a grant and it will expire, talk to the dean a year before it ends. Show a plan, such as the possibility of larger lecture sections if PLTL is in place. • Show dean that this could work in other disciplines. • Assuming dean wants to see academic transferability.

8. What to Tell the Dean (continued) • Can this be called faculty development? • If PLTL rejuvenated your teaching, it may do the same for others. Dean would then have a rationale for using this [sometimes separate] pot of money. • Consider various “in kind” trade offs. • Course credit for leaders instead of stipends? • Tuition waivers? • A dedicated scholarship fund? • Can faculty workloads be adjusted appropriately?

10. Hide Not Thy Light under a Bushel • Any positive outcomes from PLTL need to go in department chair’s annual report to the dean. • If you can, get it into the dean’s report to the president. • Even better, see what you can make good enough to get in the institution’s report to the board.

11. Peer Leader Training Promotes Learning Center • “The Freshman Center added new activities which included: a campus-wide faculty seminar for advising the core curriculum, and development of a leadership course for peer leaders in chemistry workshops.” • From State University of West Georgia 1999-2000 Annual Report of Institutional Progress, p. 2

12. Test Scores Go Up • “A new instructional method in Introduction to Chemistry has resulted in an increase in scores on the American Chemical Society’s standardized test.” • From State University of West Georgia 2002-2003 Annual Report of Institutional Progress, p. 10.

13. from Business Week, September 13, 2004, p. 124

15. Institutional Foundations • Most educational institutions, public as well as private, have a foundation which solicits support from faculty, staff, alumni, and the community. • This foundation often will fund special programs that reflect well on the institution. • Advantage of this funding agency: no competition from colleagues at other institutions.

16. “Course Packets” for Workshop • Many professors prepare “course packets” of notes, reprints, etc. • These are sold at bookstore. • Students in course are expected to purchase. • Department can usually set price per packet. • Or, department may develop “in-house” laboratory manual, also sold at bookstore. • Workbook for workshops could be done the same way.

17. Advantages of In-House Workbooks • Topics and problems included with each workshop can be tailored to the course at a particular institution. • Can even be slightly different for sections taught by different instructors. • Can include additional material specific to the institution (calendar, syllabus, etc.) • Sale price, minus bookstore cut, comes back to department.

18. The Case of UWG • Workbook is developed by chemistry faculty. • Is duplicated by publications and printing. • Students are also given, in class, handouts of notes and laboratory activities. • Students buy a voucher in bookstore. • Voucher is to cover cost of workbook plus above handouts. • Students bring voucher to Chemistry Department and get workbook.

19. Doing the Numbers • The cost of the voucher is $36. • Current pay for leaders is $6.50/hr. • New leaders are paid only for the time they are actually leading workshops. • Veterans are also paid for time preparing and attending leaders’ meetings. • Average is about $20 per week per leader, or $300 per semester. • Eight students in a group X $36 = $288.

20. Conclusions • There are ways to get PLTL on the road. • Please help yourself to a sample USG workbook while the supply lasts.

21. Acknowledgements • National Science Foundation Grant 9950575, which got chemistry workshops started and paid for them until the grant ran out, • The administration of the University of West Georgia for seeing that workshops kept going.