Targeted Funding Initiative gives back
Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) Dr. Gregory Budzban has shed light on the Targeted Funding Initiative (TFI). Dean Budzban began the TFI in FY 16 and has expanded its reaches for FY 17.
The TFI uses revenue from the Winter Session and additional funding from the Dean’s office to support innovative ideas and programs within the College. The Winter Session provides resources since it reallocates funding back to the College and Departments offering Winter Session courses. With declining resources, Dean Budzban says there are fewer funding sources to reward and promote innovation. The Winter Session revenue sharing model, however, works against this hurdle.
The Winter Session has grown in the two years it has been offered. In 2015, CAS offered 918 total credit hours, while 2016 offered 2,174 credit hours, and 2017 is projected to generate 2,995 credit hours. The Winter Session began in 2013 under the previous chancellor Julie Furst-Bowe.
This year the TFI program, with a budget of $200,000, targeted four areas: instructional innovation, professional development, cooperative programs with the East Saint Louis Center, and student recruitment. Also new this year, the TFI accepted proposals from both faculty and staff members.
This year, 33 different proposals were submitted. These proposals range from: Music and Art, to Social Work, Mass Communications, Chemistry, and Physics. In short, proposals are being generated from virtually every discipline in CAS. Additionally, staff and the CAS advising offices have submitted proposals to this initiative. For example, eight proposals have been submitted with possible collaborative projects efforts with the East Saint Louis Center, a priority of new Chancellor Randy Pembrook. Jesse Dickson, Director of the East Saint Louis Center, says it is important that collaborations between SIUE and the East Saint Louis Center emerge.
A central goal of the TFI is to ensure that resources generated from work done by members of CAS are given back to the faculty and staff to nurture the next generation of ideas and innovation in the College, says Dean Budzban.
Filed Under: General CAS Stories