Faculty Professional Development
Austin Peay provides a number of different avenues to support scholarly and creative activity as well as professional development. All the categories listed below are subject to the availability of resources and may also require that arrangements be made to cover the courses a faculty member would normally teach. Austin Peay also provides resources that are targeted directly to supporting student scholarly or creative work when they are involved with or being mentored by Austin Peay Faculty.
Each year, faculty members are provided with funds to be used for travel to professional conferences and activities. Each academic department is allocated $1,100 per individual; parts of these funds (25%) can be used to purchase materials or cover travel related to scholarly or creative activity or professional development. Interested faculty should speak to their department chair.
Faculty Professional Development Sabbaticals, are designed to contribute to the professional growth of the faculty member and enhance scholarship and the academic excellence of the University, while strengthening the curriculum and improving teaching at the University. Tenured full-time faculty who have completed six years at Austin Peay and who are in the ranks of associate professor or full professor are eligible. These faculty members must demonstrate scholarly or creative achievement in their discipline. The Faculty Professional Development Sabbaticals are outlined in APSU Policy 2:006 and are authorized by the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs each year as funds become available.
The Faculty Research & Scholarly Activities Support Grant provides support (typically $5000 per award) for faculty to engage in activities that are intended to improve, enhance, or strengthen the quality of faculty members' contributions within their scholarly and creative fields. Awards are made based on competitive review of proposals, and should be commensurate with the University's mission and goals. The request for proposals is typically announced in the fall semester. Information can found on the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs Website: https://www.apsu.edu/grants/.
The Instructional Work Load Policy 2:046 states that “For tenure track and tenured faculty, upon the approval of the department chair and the dean, the standard three (3) work load credits typically assigned for creative and scholarly activity, academic advisement, and committee and service responsibilities can be adjusted in the range 3-6 in order to provide a full 15 WLC assignment”. Faculty interested in exploring the possibility of more than the usual 3 WLC assigned to scholarly and creative activity, or in focusing their non-teaching assigned WLC purely on scholarly or creative activity are encouraged to speak to their chair
Professional Development Forms: