First Presidential fellows win time to work on their career portfolios

UW President Richard L. McCormick today announced the first six faculty recipients of the newly created Presidential Faculty Development Fellowships—a funding program enabling talented junior faculty to focus on one special aspect of their portfolio, whether teaching or research.

“The Presidential Faculty Fellowships are important because they provide opportunities for UW assistant professors to have some uninterrupted time to complete their research and writing before being reviewed for tenure,“ McCormick said. “The UW’s expectations for faculty are very high in both teaching and research. These fellowships will contribute to enabling faculty to fulfill those expectations.”

The fellowships provide assistant professors with this extra focus for up to one academic year and may be awarded only once in a faculty member’s career. The fellowship provides the recipient’s department with support to replace the faculty member’s teaching and is available for assistant professors in tenure track and non-tenure track positions. The fellowships can also help meet the recipient’s project expense, such as travel and research expenses.

Recipients, who submit extensive nomination packets, must be nominated by their dean. A faculty advisory committee that includes representatives of several relevant Faculty Senate councils makes recommendations to the provost, who makes the final selection. Preference is given to assistant professors who will benefit from a year of reduced teaching or research duties in order to concentrate on the other, and for whom the year will substantially improve their likelihood of achieving tenure and promotion.

Because recipients will spend the fellowship year concentrating on only one aspect of their portfolio, the year will not be counted on the mandatory tenure and promotion clock.

Vice Provost Steven Olswang will administer the program. ¶

1999 Presidential Faculty Development Fellows