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Academic Administration

BYU–Hawaii Professorship Award

Request for Proposals

Overview

Brigham Young University–Hawaii encourages all faculty to engage in continuous development and improvement in scholarship. In order to support scholarship, and to highlight its importance for faculty, the university is offering a professorship award. Scholarship may be hampered because of a lack of resources (funds, equipment, time, student support, etc.) for the faculty to achieve the level of research or scholarship at which they ultimately wish to perform. This award is to help address those concerns for faculty who would like to push themselves to a higher level of scholarship. The professorship will be a one-year award that can be renewed for up to two additional years based on successfully attaining predetermined objectives, goals and quality of the scholarship, and available resources. An additional professorship will be awarded each year so that after two years, three concurrent professorships could be in place.

Goals

The goals for BYU–Hawaii in offering the professorship award are the following:

  • Encourage a higher level of scholarship and highlight its importance for faculty
  • Foster scholarly collaboration amongst both faculty and students
  • Reward faculty for pushing themselves in the area of scholarship
  • Foster scholarship at all levels of faculty rank (assistant professor, associate professor, and professor)

The Award

The professorship award is flexible in nature, and faculty are encouraged to be creative in their approach. The award could be used to obtain equipment, travel funds, student support, stipend, release time/hiring of adjunct faculty for replacement etc. A successful proposal will take a moderate approach to the budget, but how the funds are used is flexible within the existing university rules and guidelines. Faculty proposals may also request up to nine (9) credits of releases a year with agreement of relevant director(s)/dean(s) for a maximum of eighteen (18)-credit releases over the entire length of the award (if the project will last more than one year, up to three years).

Encouraged Criteria

The Professorship Award is intended to inspire creativity and all disciplines within BYU–Hawaii are welcome to apply and the following criteria are encouraged.

  • Collaboration within or across Faculty units (proposal submitted by principal investigator).
  • Scholarship in our home region (Oceania and Asian Rim).
  • Student participation is highly favorable.
  • Open to any rank.

Proposal Requirements

A completed proposal for the BYU–Hawaii Professorship Award should have the following components in one single PDF file:

  • Cover letter.
  • An Abstract.
  • Detailed proposal (no more than 2000 words).
  • Budget (including details regarding travel, number of course releases requested, student hires etc. if essential for the project). 
  • List of objectives and deliverables for each year (up to three years).
  • Letter of support from director(s)/dean(s).
  • Other documentation as necessary.

Completed proposals should be submitted to Yifen Beus at yifen.beus@byuh.edu and copied to candice.tupou@byuh.edu.

Selection Process

There is a two-step process:

  • Academic merit (FAC).
  • Feasibility of the budget (AVP).

After the proposals are received by the associate academic vice president (AAVP) for Faculty, they will be given to the Faculty Advisory Committee to judge them based on academic merit. The FAC may receive input from subject matter experts outside of the university to better understand the merits and feasibility of the proposals. A rank order of the proposals will be delivered to the AAVP and the Academic Vice President for negotiation of the budget and selection of the award.

Award Deliverables

Faculty presented with the Professorship Award will be expected to provide the following deliverables: A significant part of the …in addition to the deliverables proposed by the author…the following will be expected.

  • Stewardship report to and meeting with the AAVP at the end of each academic year.
  • Presentation at a FAC Forum and a professional conference.
  • A scholarly product beyond a presentation (performance, publication, work of art, etc.).
  • Student presentations at BYU–Hawaii’s undergrad conference or professional conference are highly desirable.

Continuation

The Professorship Award is a one-year renewable award for up to three years pending performance and availability of funds. There is no expectation that the award should be greater than one or two years in length should the applicant wish for a shorter time frame. At the end of each academic year there will be a stewardship report to and subsequent meeting with the AAVP for Faculty and/or AVP. The AAVP may invite subject matter experts and representatives of the Deans Council and FAC to the stewardship meeting. The AAVP and dean(s) in communication with the AVP will determine if the award should be renewed for another year if requested.

Proposed Timeline

  • FAC-sponsored RFP forum: December or January before submission deadline.
  • Proposal submission deadline: March 10 (including dean’s support letter).
  • Submission review: March 13-April 30 (FAC).
  • Notification of awardee(s): by May 15.
  • Professorship Award start date: first day of the following fall semester.

Direct all questions to AAVP for faculty office.