Chatham University
AC-7: Incentives for Developing Courses

Chatham University's current capital campaign includes three priorities: Reach the Summit, Strengthen the Core, and Enhance the Experience. Within these priorities is $5 million for faculty chairs, both intended to foster the mission of women’s leadership and preparing students to succeed in an interconnected world through community engagement and sustainable practices. For the 2012-13 academic year, 5.6% of the institution’s operating budget ($703,000 of $12,438,000) was allocated to supporting institutional engagement with the community. These allocations were derived from tuition and endowment revenues and are permanent to the extent that they are mission and strategic initiatives of the institution. Funds allocated to faculty for course and program development include Global Focus ($25,000) to partner with the annual community partner specific to the selected region of study, as well as for funding internal incentive grants for faculty such as Mim Seidel’s urban garden project with Larimer Green Team ($35,000), and faculty fellow awards for work with a variety of community partners ($20,000). Faculty and staff are regularly funded to attend events and conferences related to community engagement activities. Engagement activities are supported through faculty sabbaticals and research funding. For example, an internal grant of $2000 was provided to Ms. Miriam Seidel to conduct a feasibility study for engagement of identified community participants in a community garden project. In partnership with the Larimer Green Team, Ms. Seidel’s study explored whether subjects recruited for an evidence-based group diabetes program would concurrently participate in a community garden when given the opportunity and encouragement to do so. As a result of this grant, a similar project was conducted in Pittsburgh's Hazelwood neighborhood in Summer 2014. Research for both projects was conducted by students in the FST (Food Studies) 613 Community Research: Food and Health course. The institution regularly funds international travel for developing partnerships with global institutions. A contingent of university administrators and board of trustee members traveled to EARTH University in Costa Rica to develop ongoing sustainability partnerships between the institutions. As a result, the university received funding to develop courses in conjunction with EARTH. In Summer 2015, Falk School of Sustainability faculty members Nadine Lehrer and John Taylor led a two-week, three credit Global Agriculture course to Costa Rica taught at EARTH University and on nearby farms.

Community engagement is recognized as one form of scholarship. As the majority of Chatham’s graduate programs are applied in nature, engaged scholarship is frequently substantial in the faculty reviews for promotion and are routinely assessed and rewarded. The University recognizes that faculty teaching and research interests are enhanced through planned travel, whether it is to a professional meeting or to consult with research colleagues at other institutions, or another type of travel activity that leads to professional development. Consequently, the University invests in faculty’s broad involvement and activities and makes available, through the Office of Academic Affairs, reimbursement of partial expenses for these purposes for interested full-time faculty. For the 2012-13 academic year, the University supported over $87,000 in faculty travel.