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 19 th Biennial Conference on Chemical Education Purdue University August 3, 2006

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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 Annual Report of Institutional Progress, p. 2

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 Annual Report of Institutional Progress, p. 10.

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

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.

“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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Acknowledgements  National Science Foundation Grant , 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.