College triples Humanities Faculty Research and Travel Grants

Reflecting its commitment to research in the humanities, the College of Arts & Sciences has announced that it has tripled the guaranteed Humanities Faculty Research and Travel (HFRT) grants it currently provides to tenured faculty members in humanities and related departments. (In other departments and programs, individual faculty research and travel is funded through other mechanisms.)

Previously, tenured faculty received $1,000 guaranteed HFRT grants, with additional funds provided to the department for which faculty members could apply. 

“We wanted to increase the guaranteed funding for tenured faculty to the same level as that provided for junior faculty,” says Gretchen Ritter, Harold Tanner Dean of Arts & Sciences. “It’s one way we can show our appreciation and support for the exciting research being done by our hardworking faculty.”

The increased HFRT amount will be funded through philanthropy and by redistributing unused HFRT grants. Faculty will normally be permitted to accumulate no more than $6,000 in their HFRT accounts; anything in excess of that amount at the end of the fiscal year will revert to a departmental account. Faculty may accumulate larger amounts for pre-approved  specific purposes.

HFRT funding can be used in a wide variety of ways, from bringing a speaker to campus to attending a conference to purchasing books or a new research computer. “The increased grant amount will enable faculty to meet their research and travel needs in a more flexible way,” says Scott MacDonald, senior associate dean and Norma K. Regan Professor in Christian Studies.