Funding Available to Support Diversity in Graduate Education
Fall 2010
The Rackham Graduate School announces the availability of funding to support diversity in graduate education. Grants of up to $50,000 per year for two years(with the possibility of further renewal) will be available to support activities to improve recruitment, climate, academic progress and career success for Rack ham students.
Rationale
The Rackham Graduate School values the diversity of its students and its graduates as essential dimensions of excellence in graduate education. The University of Michigan’s commitment to diversity is long-standing, and reflected in active efforts to promote diversity and inclusion in all schools and colleges. For generations, Michigan has been a national leader in producing graduate degree holders who are more diverse demographically and intellectually than those from nearly all of our peer institutions. We are proud that our graduates from all backgrounds, and especially from backgrounds that have been historically underrepresented in graduate study, have used their Rackham degrees to build careers and assume national leadership across the disciplines and professions.
The Graduate School sponsors numerous activities aimed at recruiting an outstanding and diverse student body. We seek to provide intellectual, social, emotional and financial support so that students from groups that have been historically underrepresented in higher education feel welcome and thrive in their studies at Michigan. While the passage of Proposal2 in 2006 necessarily changed some of the ways in which we pursue this goal, it has not changed our fundamental belief that all students benefit from the rich and challenging experiences and perspectives offered by a diverse student community.
The diversity initiatives of the Graduate School complement the activities of the faculty to strengthen the diversity in individual graduate programs and departments. This grant opportunity is designed to identify faculty members with interest in building diversity initiatives with their own students and colleagues, and to support their activities with funds and with connections to other, like-minded faculty members across the Graduate School.
Eligibility
This program is open to faculty members in any Rackham degree program. The Principal Investigator (or primary author) must be a faculty member who has been designated as one of the Faculty Allies for Diversity. If you would like to submit a proposal and become a Faculty Ally, please contact us at facultyalliesinfo@umich.edu.
The proposal must describe a set of activities to encourage diversity in one (or more than one) Rackham degree program, in a way that encourages the recruitment of diverse students to the program(s),the academic progress of students, or the career success of students in the program(s). We will look favorably on shared initiatives across two or more departments or programs where that makes sense.
Schedule
We strongly encourage all faculty considering a proposal to attend a workshop on “Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education” planned for the third week in February (detail are forthcoming). The conference will help faculty members to develop their ideas.
Faculty Allies who wish to develop a proposal should submit a one page pre-proposal to Rackham Graduate School no later than March 11, 2011. The pre-proposal should describe the program’s needs and proposed activities. We will provide feedback for each proposal we receive.
Based on this feedback, full proposals will be due April 18, 2011 for this competition.
Funding for successful proposals will be available during the Summer of 2011.
Application
The full proposal should be a narrative of no more than 5 pages that includes:
- Summary of the current status of diversity within the degree program
- How the proposed activities will address the particular circumstances of the program in order to strengthen diversity
- Evidence of faculty commitment to the goals of the proposal
- Provisions for administrative support of the proposed activities
The proposal should also include a one page budget that shows the plan for spending. Funding is available for two years, but we will also consider proposals for one year plans.
The budget should also show whether the proposer has received commitments of financial support from other sources. We give preference to proposals that show cost-sharing by the department, graduate program, school or college, or other efforts to seek funding for the proposed activities.
The proposal should include a letter of support from the department chair, director, or dean with responsibility for the graduate program.
These grants may not be used to pay faculty or staff salaries or U-M tuition or fees.
Evaluation Criteria
Proposals will be evaluated based on:
- The fit between the graduate program’s needs and the proposed interventions
- The likelihood that the proposed interventions will make a significant, lasting difference to students in the graduate program
- The fit between the proposed intervention and the department or program’s academic and research directions
- Demonstrated commitment of the faculty and program or department leadership to the proposal,including willingness to share costs and to create structures to support the initiatives beyond the period of the grant.
Successful grantees will receive funds for the first year of support in the summer of 2011. We will expect to receive an annual report describing the uses of the funds and the activities pursued by the faculty. Faculty with funded projects may request a third and fourth year of funding, if the project is shown to be making a positive difference for students and for the graduate program.