Interdisciplinary Course Support Grants
Apart from course development grants, the institute will entertain requests from faculty members for interdisciplinary course support grants. These grants are intended as a further means of fostering the institute’s commitment to an interdisciplinary approach that will bring as many disciplinary perspectives to the study of the Catholic intellectual tradition as possible. As with course development grant proposals, faculty members may submit an interdisciplinary course support grant proposal to the director only after the course in question has received endorsement from the applicants’ chair and the dean of the college. Moreover, any interdisciplinary course developed with the sponsorship of the institute must be in accordance with the norms for interdisciplinary courses in the college.
The high priority that the institute has given to an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the Catholic intellectual tradition is reflected in the institute’s commitment to support the development of courses across a variety of disciplines. In addition, the institute seeks to provide appropriate funding to encourage a multi-disciplinary approach to a body of material or set of issues within a given academic course. In pursuit of this end, the institute will entertain proposals that envision two or more professors teaching an institute-sponsored course.
Interdisciplinary course support grants are subject to the same procedures and requirements for approval previously explained in the section above on course development grants. In addition to the outlined procedures and requirements, faculty seeking an interdisciplinary course support grant should include a formula, which denotes the anticipated proportions of shared responsibilities for co-teaching the course, and can be used as the proportional basis for compensation.
After approval of a course for an interdisciplinary course support grant, the institute will provide the dean with $3,000 to compensate the faculty members, according to the agreed-upon formula submitted at the time the request was made, for their contributions to co-teaching the course.
The financial assistance provided by the institute through an interdisciplinary course support grant will make it possible for students to benefit from the insights of two or more professors and allow them to draw upon each professor’s particular expertise.