Rationale:
The policy below was developed to serve the needs of the Communication and Theatre Arts Department faculty and instructional academic staff.  It is based on the following principles and priorities:

• That the professional development needs of the department as a whole through meetings and seminars must be given equal weight to the needs of individual department members.
• That time and effort spent in professional development outside of the classroom and in off-campus projects is revitalizing for the department member and serves, even if indirectly, her or his students and the department as a whole.  Equally important, professional development activities undertaken by department members can make significant contributions to the communication and theatre arts disciplines.
• That participation in conferences, seminars, workshops, and the like, is a way for members of the department to stay current in their fields and to come into contact with new ideas in their discipline and new methodologies for use in their classrooms and theatres.
• There is limited financial and temporal support for professional development in the Colleges.  The new policy of funds distribution makes it incumbent on the departments to provide as much financial support as possible, especially for Tenure Track faculty.
• That it is essential that department members meet face-to-face at a Spring Seminar.  The costs for overnight stays, except when necessitated by distance traveled, however, are not necessarily commensurate with the benefits gained from enrichment activities.  It is the assumption of this policy that the Executive Committee and the Spring Seminar Committees will keep Spring Seminar costs to a minimum and that planning will be focused on what can be accomplished in one day.
• That there are professional development projects which require the purchase of materials, but that there are channels in the system (libraries, instructional technology fee, etc.) which should be explored before requests are made to the department.
• That the Professional Development Committee will be the final arbiter in the acceptance of requests for funding and in the distribution of funs, including those requested by the Spring Seminar Committee.  If some or all proposals will be evaluated before acceptance or rejection, the Professional Development Committee will develop and distribute to the department members criteria for such evaluation.

The Professional Development Committee will be a permanent committee of the CTA Department.

The Professional Development Committee will consist of three members, al least two of whom must be faculty.

The term of office for each member will be three years.  The terms will be staggered so that one member will be elected each year.

The committee shall elect its own chair by majority vote.

Elections shall be held at the Spring meeting.

Revise as necessary policies to guide professional development funding and use of department resources to support professional development.

Provide information on available research and professional development opportunities for faculty and instructional academic staff, when possible.

Develop criteria to be used to assess the outcomes and effectiveness of the use of professional development funds.

At the end of the year, submit a report to the Chair on all research and professional development proposals requesting funds.

• Members of the department will submit requests to the chair of the Professional Development Committee by the following deadlines:  September 15th, December 31st, May 1st for summer activities.  [Note from webmaster:  Check with the committee on these dates.  According to our minutes of 4/27/2001 the Spring deadline is April 1st, not May 1st.]

• Department members may apply for funding for each professional development activity undertaken during the fiscal year.
• The Professional Development Committee will consider requests in face-to-face meetings, by telephone, and/or by e-mail.
• The Professional Development Committee will notify applicants of their decision within three weeks of the application deadline.

1. 1.  Fifty percent of the Professional Development Funds allocated to the department will be encumbered for the Spring meeting.
2. 2.  The remaining funds will be divided as follows:
• Event Category:
• All Tenure-Track Faculty applicants and Tenured Faculty or Instructional Academic Staff applicants who present or otherwise participate in a significant way at a conference or professional meeting are eligible for 25% of the cost of the event up to $200 (per event).
• Instructional Academic Staff and Tenured Faculty who just attend such an event are eligible for 15% of the cost up to $125 (per event).
• Special Projects Category:
• Those who travel or incur expenditures other than purchase of materials for faculty development (e.g., take a workshop, hire someone for transcription of interviews) are eligible for 25% of the cost of such expenditures, up to $200 (per event).
3. 3.  If the requests total more than the available money, tenure-track faculty will be funded at maximum level possible.  Every other request will be reduced by an equal percent until the total of awards equals the funds available.
4. 4.  If there is money left over, requests for purchase of research-related materials may be funded at the 15% level.
5. 5.  The committee may request that unused S & E funds in the department's budget be transferred to the Professional Development funds in May before the end of the school year.  This money will be used to fund requests for professional development activities occurring in the summer.
6. 6.  At the end of the fiscal year remaining funds are divided equally among those who received funding previously.  No one, however, may receive more than 100% reimbursement for a professional development activity.
7. 7.  Department members who receive funding are responsible for submitting TERs and appropriate documents to the chair of the CTA Department.

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