FACULTY RESEARCH COMMITTEE
STUDENT RESEARCH ASSISTANTS PROGRAM
Competitions to be held in 2003-2004 for the 2004-05 Academic Year


The purpose of the Faculty Assistant Program is to enable faculty to hire undergraduate research assistants.

DEADLINE: The Faculty Research Committee will review proposals for the Student Research Assistants program under two deadlines in 2003-2004. No later than 4:00 p.m. on either deadline, nine (9) copies of the proposal must be received by Janet Marotto, Administrative Assistant to the Associate Deans, Williams 232. Late applications will not be considered.

 

Applications Due

Notification of Results

Fall competition

Tuesday, October 21, 2003

Friday, December 5, 2003

Spring competition

Tuesday, January 27, 2004

Friday, March 12, 2004


ELIGIBILITY: All Trinity College faculty members on continuing full-time appointments are eligible for Faculty Research Assistants. Applications may be made either independently of or in conjunction with applications for Faculty Research Expense Grants.

DURATION OF GRANTS: June 1, 2004, to May 31, 2005.

SIZE OF GRANTS: Research assistants will be paid a wage of $10.40 per hour. Faculty may apply for up to $3500 to provide stipends for research assistants. These stipends may be paid at any time during the grant period. Housing will be made available as needed for research assistants who are employed during the summer recess.

SUMMARY REPORT: It is the responsibility of faculty members awarded research assistants to ensure that each research assistant submit a summary of work to the Dean of the Faculty at the completion of the research assistant's contribution to the project. The summary should describe the academic gains the student made as a result of work with the faculty member.

Although the Faculty Research Committee includes faculty from each of the four curricular groupings of the College (Humanities, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences and Mathematics, and the Arts), each proposal is read and voted on by all members of the Committee (six faculty members and the Dean of the Faculty). It is, therefore, imperative that proposals be written in language that can be readily understood by a college-wide faculty committee, the members of which are not specialists in the applicant’s field.  Particular care should be taken to avoid jargon; if technical language must be employed, it should be accompanied by a clear explanation. Care should also be taken to ensure that the proposal is free of grammatical and spelling errors.

In the proposal, applicants should clearly and concisely explain the aims and goals of the proposed research, delineate the specific tasks appointed for the student research assistant, and describe the anticipated educational benefits to the student research assistant. In evaluating requests for Student Research Assistants, the committee considers whether the anticipated educational benefits to the student are commensurate with the specific tasks appointed for the student.

Decisions will be based solely on the written applications submitted to the Committee. Because the Committee expects to receive more applications than it can fund, applicants are generally limited to one research assistant. If a faculty member wishes to apply for more than one research assistant, a separate application form must be completed for each position requested. Preference is given to applicants who have not recently had a research assistant funded through this program. Preference is also given to research assistants who are undergraduates during the research period. In exceptional cases, faculty members may request that a recently graduated student be funded as a research assistant.

Application Form [Word document]

For your guidance, successful proposals from previous years are available on the committee’s website at http://www.trincoll.edu/comm/facresearch. If you need further information, contact John Platoff, Chair of the Faculty Research Committee, or Cynthia Merritt, Director of Faculty Grants