aka Teaching Release Blocks

Early each fall, full time tenured and tenure-track faculty with a 6-block teaching responsibility will be invited to apply for a faculty development (teaching release) blocks to be awarded for the following academic year. The one-block reduction in teaching is intended to support faculty research and scholarship.

Please see the Sept. 2023 call on the Dean of Faculty Internal Grants page.

Award: This is an award of one-block reduction in teaching for the following academic year and is not accompanied by any other funding. If an awardee could not take the release block in planned year because they no longer meet the eligibility requirements or for other reasons, the award cannot be “banked” for use in a future year. This is not a leave block – faculty are expected to continue to be in residence and fulfill other responsibilities and duties during the non-teaching block (e.g., advising, meetings, departmental and college service).

Eligibility: Full-time tenured and tenure-track faculty members with a 6-block teaching responsibility in the following academic year. Therefore, faculty with faculty-development or research-development teaching reductions in that academic year are not eligible (e.g., sabbatical, grant-funded release blocks). Those who received the Office of the Dean teaching release block award in the most recent 4 years, inclusive of the application year, are not eligible.

Goals: The award’s purpose is to support faculty to complete critical stages of research or creative projects, produce research results for publication, and/or perform work that leads to the submission of an external grant. This includes scholarship of teaching and learning, but not course development per se. Faculty members who have recently experienced heavy demand on their time from teaching and service are especially encouraged to apply.

Deadline: typically third Friday of Block 3

Application instructions: Applications will be submitted online. We recommend that you prepare the application in a word document and cut and paste it into the online form. You will need to upload a CV.

1) In 1,000 words or less, explain your proposed research and the impact a teaching-release block will have on advancing your research. Specify the current stage of the research.

2) List of recent (5 years) internal and external grants received in support of scholarship and/or teaching.