A Pot of Gold

Announced last week in an email from HR, staff development grant funds are now available for all to apply for. Totaling approximately $87,000, the one-time funds are like a pot of gold to us, especially now when the nation faces its most serious economic and financial crisis since World War II, to cite Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

Based on my communication with HR, I'd like to offer some points of clarification in hopes that many of you will seize this opportunity to apply for the funds to satisfy a training need.

1. All employees--full-time faculty, part-time faculty, and classified staff--can apply.
2. The project can be on either the supply side or the demand side, meaning you can apply to offer training to colleagues or to receive training for yourself and your colleagues.
3. Examples of such projects include training courses that an individual or group could attend, or consultants coming to campus and training a group of people.
4. If a replacement for a faculty or classified member--say, a substitute or a short-term worker--needs to be hired in order to allow the applicant to give or receive the proposed training, these funds could be used.
5. In fact, any and all funds that are needed should be stated in the proposal request.

The proposal form, the criteria for the project, the submittal deadline, and the HR contact information can all be found here.

Let me know if you see a training need in our dept. and would like to send in a grant proposal. I would love to facilitate your efforts. I would love to see one or two problems in our dept. get eliminated or remedied as a result of these training projects. Let's not let this golden chance pass us by.