Course Enhancement Grants

Weinberg College Course Enhancement Grants (CEGs) are intended to assist faculty in enriching the content of their undergraduate courses.

What can the grants cover?

Grants may be used for a variety of purposes, such as:

• Trips to museums, theaters, special lectures, readings, or exhibitions. CEGs are designed to make it possible to require such trips for your class, and therefore include them on your syllabus, by making them inexpensive and/or easily accessible. They can be used to rent buses from the Motor Pool, for instance, so that students can get to a location easily and as a group. They can be used to subsidize tickets so that students need to pay only $10.00 for a ticket to a local theater. CEGs may NOT be used to cover the cost of reimbursing a group of students who have taken public transportation. And typically the cost of a movie, when announced on a syllabus, is a cost that should be assumed by students.
• Field studies for observation and data collection.
• Purchase of materials for out-of-classroom use, for example: films to be viewed at the Multimedia Learning Center, or special items for student use in the library. (All equipment or materials purchased through a Course Enhancement Grant will ultimately belong to an appropriate unit of the College, not the individual instructor.)
• Honoraria for guest lecturers up to $100.00. This maximum is intended to keep honorarium requests from depleting the fund. These funds may be combined with funds from other sources, such as departments or programs, to provide a speaker with a larger honorarium.

A faculty member with an idea for an enhancement that is not included in the above list can email Mary Finn, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Academic Affairs (mfinn@northwestern.edu) to ask about the likelihood that this idea will meet the criteria for a Course Enhancement Grant.

The following restrictions apply to all Course Enhancement Grants:

• Grants are made only for particular offerings of courses; they are not permanent commitments.
• Application must be initiated by the instructor in charge of the course.
• A grant must benefit an entire class, not an individual student or subset of students.
• The supported activity must be required of all students and must take place during the regular academic quarter.
• Grants may not be used for entertainment or social events.
• Grants are typically limited to $500 per course.

How to apply

Faculty may submit requests by email at any time during the academic year. Requests should be submitted to Mary Finn, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Academic Affairs (mfinn@northwestern.edu). Include the course number and name, the quarter in which the course will be taught, enrollment or expected enrollment, a description of how you would use the funds to enhance the course, and a budget. While there is no deadline, requests should be made as soon as possible to ensure funding in time for an event or in time to obtain materials needed for a course.

Questions about Course Enhancement Grants should be directed to Associate Dean Mary Finn, mfinn@northwestern.edu, 847-491-7560.

Other funds for teaching and research