TBC Small Interim Grant
All College of Arts and Letters faculty, including adjuncts and visitors, are eligible to apply for a Teaching Beyond the Classroom Small Interim Grant for their undergraduate classes. Graduate Students are not eligible for these grants, even if they teach their own section of a class, unless they hold adjunct faculty status. For graduate student grants, please see Graduate Student TBC Grant page.
Teaching Beyond the Classroom Small Interim Grants provide funding up to $1,500 for activities aimed at enhancing teaching and student learning beyond the classroom. Examples of such activities include:
- Taking students to a play, film, opera, or other cultural event located on campus, in the South Bend community, or within a relatively short distance of campus
- Inviting an outside speaker to address primarily undergraduate students (within a course or within a specific department)
- Inviting undergraduate students to accompany the professor to an academic conference (at which the students are not speakers)
- Hosting large-scale events (such as festivals) for Arts and Letters undergraduate students.
Individual faculty members may apply for up to four separate grants (but only one per course) during the academic year, provided that the total funding requested does not exceed $1,500 annually. Additionally, department chairs, directors of undergraduate studies, and other department leaders may make one application per year for large-scale events not tied to a single course. Proposals are reviewed on a rolling basis throughout the year, except for summer.
Once the online application is submitted, a proposal of no more than 500 words, providing a description of the proposed event, cultural excursion, or other activity, a clear explanation of the ways this will help advance learning beyond the classroom, and an itemized budget for expenses needs to be submitted to Brenda Teshka. When necessary, please provide proof of compliance with the Office of Risk Management and Safety — e.g., liability waivers or campus-issued driver certifications for faculty and staff transporting students in personal or University-owned vehicles. Contact the Office of Risk Management at 574-631-5037 and ask for a waiver and release of liability form or use the forms on their website.
- After the grant is awarded, the funds will be transferred directly into the awardee’s discretionary account. The awardee will have 30 days after the event to supply receipts for expenditures. Any excess will be transferred back into the grant account. If the awardee fails to supply receipts within 30 days, the full grant award will be transferred back into the Teaching Beyond the Classroom account.
- If the awardee is not able to use personal funds to secure third-party vendors such as guest speakers, arrangements should be made through the Undergraduate Studies office to pay by Notre Dame Accounts Payable, within 30 days before or after the event. Please make these arrangements with Brenda Teshka (574-631-9468; Teshka.1@nd.edu), prior to securing your third-party vendor so that funds transferred into your discretionary account can be reduced by this amount.
- Tickets from a Notre Dame vendor (DeBartolo Performing Arts Center, etc.) will be arranged by you and we will supply the vendor with the grant account number, after you instruct them to contact Brenda Teshka at teshka.1@nd.edu. This cost will be deducted from the award amount transferred to your discretionary fund, if any.
- For faculty members who do not have a discretionary account, arrangements will be made with the awardee’s department to use a special account. If this is not possible, TravelND will be used.