Connecticut College provides a range of support for scholarship, creative achievement in the arts, professional development, and teaching. Application procedures and other details, as well as information on support for students, can be found on the Internal Funding 101 document on the Moodle page for the Office of the Dean of Faculty. New initiatives and opportunities are often announced over email.

Support for New-Hires

All new full-time permanent faculty receive start-up funds for the first three years of service. Also available are a limited number of term endowed chairs, or named professorships, that carry funding for professional development costs.

The Susan Eckert Lynch ’62 Faculty Research Fund offers stipends to all newly hired tenure-track faculty in their first, second, and third years of teaching. Elizabeth McGuire and Anthony T. Enders Endowed Fund fellowships, carrying two years of support, are available to up to three faculty in the Humanities upon successful completion of the third-year review.

Professional Development Leaves and Sabbaticals

After successful completion of the third-year review, tenure-track faculty receive a one-semester professional leave at 100% of their salary. This may be extended to a full year if combined with an unpaid leave or grant for one semester. Immediately after tenure, faculty are typically eligible for a year’s sabbatical at 80% or a one-semester sabbatical at 100%. Thereafter, tenured faculty are eligible for a one-semester sabbatical at 80% after six semesters of service or a full year sabbatical at 80% after 12 semesters. (Tenured faculty may also opt to take a one semester sabbatical at 100% of their salary after 12 semesters.) Following a positive sixth year review, continuing part-time faculty are eligible for a one-year professional development leave at 80% of their salary. Thereafter, following successful three-year reviews, they are eligible for one semester at 80% of their salary upon completion of six semesters of uninterrupted service. 

Additional Support for Scholarship, Creative Achievement in the Arts, Professional Development, and Teaching

The R.F. Johnson Faculty Development Fund supports conference travel, research, and supplies for tenured, tenure-track faculty, lecturers, and continuing part-time faculty members (full-time visiting faculty are eligible once per year); the Hodgkins Fund supports the same activities for tenure-track faculty. Both funds are awarded twice yearly. Neither fund is available to holders of endowed chairs or Lynch fellows.

Research Matters awards support scholarship and creative achievement undertaken by tenured, tenure-track, and continuing part-time faculty. The awards, made three times annually, may be used to fund conference travel, research, and supplies, including collaborative research involving students. Awards are also available to faculty reading and writing groups formed around a common interest, and the fund supports grants-related programming as well.

About three dozen endowed chairs, or named professorships, are held by faculty typically at the rank of full professor for at least seven years. Unlike term chairs held by some untenured assistant professors, these career chairs are normally held until retirement.

The Ammerman Center for Arts and Technology supports research collaborative projects involving faculty from different disciplines spanning any of the creative fields and technology, together with students.

The Holleran Center for Community Action and Public Policy offers Margaret Sheridan ’67 Grants in support of community learning courses or research in the local community.

The Center for the Critical Study of Race and Ethnicity supports individual or team research into race and ethnicity by faculty, staff, and students, including relevant research and conferences.

The Joy Shechtman Mankoff Center for Teaching & Learning promotes engaged and effective teaching that cultivates significant student learning through a variety of programs and initiatives. These include Talking Teaching events, support for faculty learning groups, the Class of ’57 Seminar for Incoming Faculty, and Camp Teach & Learn, a conference held the week following Commencement. Curricular development funds are available from the International Curriculum Development Fund, Office of Global Initiatives, as well as the Ammerman Center for Arts and Technology and the Holleran Center for Community Action and Public Policy.

The division of Information Services, through its office of Instructional Technology, provides support for faculty teaching in the form of pedagogy, technology training, and programs to support the innovative use of technology within the curriculum. The Tempel Summer Institute, a weeklong program in early June, provides participating faculty with a focused opportunity to learn how instructional technologies can enhance student learning. The Technology Fellows program supports faculty who seek to improve the student learning experience through the effective implementation of digital technology. The Digital Scholarship Fellows Program (DSF) supports the development of research projects involving some combination of digitization, computational analysis, and/or online publishing. Information Services also offers technical support for computer and technology issues for faculty and staff.

The Research Support & Curricular Technology team provides grants to support Open Education Resources (OER), educational materials distributed at no cost and that have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-­purposing by others. 

The Faculty Student Engagement Fund, open to all faculty for both fall and spring semsters, supports engagement with groups of students—either advisees or students—beyond the classroom in innovative and exciting ways.

The National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity is an independent faculty development center dedicated to supporting academics in making successful transitions throughout their careers. Up to two faculty members per year in Center’s signature Faculty Success Program, as part of the Research Matters program sponsored by the Office of the Dean of Faculty.  By virtue of our institutional membership, all Connecticut College faculty and staff enjoy access to the Center’s considerable online resources.

External Funding

Every year Connecticut College faculty win prestigious external grants and fellowships. To pursue support for an individual project or institutional initiative, contact the Office of Corporate, Foundation, and Government Relations.