What is a Faculty and Professional Learning Community?
Necessary Qualities for Building Community
The FLC Program Director's and FLC Facilitator's Handbook
The Consortium: Participating Institutions, Their Communities, and Program Directors
FLCs and the Scholarship of Teaching
Recommendations for Initiating and Implementing an FLC
FLC Conferences and Institutes in Review:
2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004
Seeking funds to support an FLC is an important task. The initial year is key: success usually brings funding for a second year. Do not overlook the assessment you must do to justify continuing funding (see components 25. – 27.)
One funding strategy is to look for partners to cosponsor an FLC: perhaps student affairs would like to involve faculty in service learning or the fine arts division would like to link the arts and the curriculum outside the arts.
Another strategy is to look for grants. Some may be in place already. For example, at one institution that was starting an FLC, the program director learned that a support unit had received a grant to increase the retention of first-year students, and the unit was looking for ideas. The FLC model worked well for them. Another approach is to find units applying for grants: NSF, NEH, etc. Since the FLC model is not well known, granting agencies may be interested in funding the new FLC approach. This happened at Miami as the American Studies Program received an NEH grant to fund the FLC Revising the American Studies Curriculum.
See the classification scheme that includes examples of institutions with a range of FLC budgets.
Here are several budgets for Miami FLCs. Each of your FLC budgets may include the cost of the FLC facilitator, which includes release time for one course each semester or professional expenses. The cost per person for the participants, not counting the facilitator as a participant (which often he or she is), varies by institution. This cost does not include the cost of the FLC program director, the administrative assistant, or office expenses such as routine copying and office supplies.
The program director and facilitator must work together on various budget issues, for example, how much to spend on refreshments or meals, what professional expense items are acceptable (i.e. do you limit expenses to FLC project related courses or permit general faculty development items). How much is available for group travel to retreats and conferences?
This project has been supported in part by a grants from the US Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE) and the Ohio Board of Regents.