College Scholar Awards
The College of Arts and Sciences College Scholar Award (CSA) program will provide one semester of course replacement funds to enable tenured faculty to pursue research/creative scholarly activities. The funds will be provided to the recipient’s department to fund costs of course replacement that occur during the semester the award recipient is released from teaching. These awards can be used in conjunction with a sabbatical (although sabbatical is not required). Nine awards will be provided this cycle: 4 for the Natural Sciences, 3 for the Arts & Humanities, and 2 for the Social Sciences.
A. Eligibility
The following criteria apply. At the time of application:
- Applicants must have been full-time tenured faculty members for at least two years in the College of Arts and Sciences.
- At least four years must have passed since the applicant’s last University of Colorado at Boulder sabbatical. To be eligible, the faculty member’s last sabbatical would have been in Spring 2018 or earlier.
- If the applicant has not previously taken a UCB sabbatical, they must have held a full-time UCB College of Arts and Sciences tenure-track appointment for at least four consecutive years.
B. Application procedure
Each applicant should notify their Chair of their intention to apply for a College Scholar Award well before the application deadline. Unit size and adequacy of teaching coverage will be considered in determining the number of applications. Specifically, one application per unit will be accepted from units with 15 or fewer tenure-track faculty. Two applications can be considered from units with 16 or more tenure-track faculty. If a unit has more than the requisite number of applicants, the unit Chair/Director/Executive Committee should decide which proposals will be forwarded to the College.
All applications are due by 12 noon on Nov. 1.
All information and inquiries should be sent electronically, in *one* PDF (the letter of support should be separate, and sent by the Chair, Director, or Executive Committee), to francisca.antman@colorado.edu.
Applications must include the following, in 12-point font.
- A concise (750 words or less) description of the proposed activities during the award period, including the title and goals of the project. The description should be general in nature explaining the value, importance and timeliness of the project.
Whenever possible avoid technical details; the description should be understandable to people not experienced in the field. In order to avoid conflict of interest, any member of your department who may serve on the awards committee will not be present during the evaluation of your proposal. Because your proposal may be evaluated by scholars/artists outside your field, it should be written so it can be understood by faculty in other disciplines.
The proposal should explain why the project demands extra time and describe what is exceptional about the project.
Explain how the fellowship will enhance the candidate’s research/creative work and/or teaching capabilities and potentially impact the candidate’s scholarly/artistic career.
The proposal should be self-contained: only information in the proposal description can be considered.
Finally, please include a statement explaining whether or not the award will be used in conjunction with a sabbatical.
- A vitae no longer than 3 pages. If applicable, include the date of previous sabbatical. Provide a list of selected publications/performances/exhibitions/ screenings and service performed and recognition, honors, awards and/or fellowships. For the past four years, list courses taught and any external funding awards (including source, dates, amount, and your role as PI, co-PI, etc.).
Applications that exceed the page limit will be returned.
- Applicants must obtain a letter of support from the unit Executive Committee or Chair/Director (no more than two pages) regarding the applicant’s project and record of accomplishment including:
- the applicant’s stature in field
- the importance of the CSA to the applicant’s scholarly/artistic career
- applicant’s nature and quality of teaching
- applicant’s current teaching commitment and description of “normal” teaching commitment
- information about any previous release time, including sabbaticals, fellowships, course buyouts, etc.
C. General information about the CSA process
- Previous recipients of the College of Arts and Sciences’ College Scholar Award will evaluate proposals and make recommendations to the Dean.
- The College Scholar Award must be taken in any one of the four semesters beginning the fall semester after selection.
- The dean will notify the unit Chair/Director of the award recipients.
- According to A&S records, the following units currently have more than 15 tenure track faculty: ANTH, APPM, APS, AAH, EBIO, MCDB, CHEM, ECON, ENGL, GEOG, GEOL, HIST, IPHY, MATH, PHIL, PHYS, PSCI, PSYC.
D. Additional information
- The CSA program is intended to provide one semester of teaching release that will allow awardees to pursue research/creative work.
- Although not required, these awards can be used in conjunction with a sabbatical. When taken in conjunction with a sabbatical these (sabbatical and College Scholar award) should be used in series, not in parallel.
- CSA funds are provided through the Leaves & Replacement (L&R) process for one semester of replacement costs while the faculty is released from teaching.
- The unit will use CSA funds to pay for replacement lecturer costs during the semester the awardee is released from teaching.
- The award recipient will determine the semester they want to pursue research/creative work (no teaching).
- The recipients’ unit chair/director will request replacement lecturer funds through the L&R process for the semester the award recipient is released from teaching.
- The unit chair/director should coordinate with their respective Divisional Dean to identify the CSA replacement funding in their L&R request.
- The awardee will continue to be paid as usual.
- The College Scholar Award is only a release from teaching duties, and it does not imply a release from other duties or leave of absence from the university. Faculty award recipients should expect to remain in residence at the university during the period of the award.