Faculty Funding Opportunities
The Office of the Provost is pleased to offer several grant-funding opportunities for faculty, specifically related to teaching development, student success, and reducing classroom material costs.
LIFT Fellowships
The LIFT Fellows program is a part of the Transformative Change Initiative, funded by a 2016 student success grant. LIFT (Learn. Inspire. Foster. Transform) offers faculty programming to help improve the student educational experience at WSU. The program promotes teaching methods and modules shown to improve students’ engagement, connection, and learning to decrease course withdrawal and fail rates, and to increase retention.
LIFT Fellows application closed for 2022
Oaks Academic Technology Award for Faculty
In recognition of the visionary leadership of Dr. Muriel Oaks, Academic Outreach and Innovation established the Oaks Award to recognize the innovative use of technology to transform teaching and learning. The award winner will receive $3,000 in faculty development funds, distributed to their academic department. Instructors on any WSU campus are invited to submit an application. You may also nominate others or encourage deserving colleagues to apply.
To learn more about the award, including the evaluation metric, and to apply, please visit the Oaks award webpage.
The 2023 Oaks Academic Technology Award for Faculty closed on March 22, 2023.
Smith Teaching and Learning Grants
The Vice Provost for Academic Engagement and Student Achievement is responsible for soliciting grant proposals for innovative ideas that enhance teaching and learning at WSU. Projects are sought that address WSU’s commitment to Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access (IDEA); a second IDEA grant added in 2022 is the Transformational Change Initiative (TCI) Grant for Advancing IDEA. Applications for both awards are due in spring; the deadline for the current round of Smith Teaching and Learning Grants is March 13, 2023. Smith grants are typically awarded and announced in mid- to late April.
The Smith grant program was established through the Samuel H. and Patricia W. Smith Teaching and Learning Endowment, begun in 2000 when WSU President Smith retired.