Faculty Resources

The mission of the Sponsored Projects and Research Compliance Office (SPARC) at Lewis & Clark is to provide faculty and staff with professional and quality service in support of research and creative endeavors throughout their careers, which includes securing and managing external grants.

Key Items from SPARC

Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) Policy

Online Training Tools: LC subscribes to online training modules for the responsible conduct of research, research involving human subjects, research involving animals, and financial conflict of interest for federally funded research.

Intellectual Property

Human Subjects Research

Care and Use of Animals in Research and Teaching

Biosafety

Travel Grant Guidelines - 2025-26

Conference Travel Grants support travel to meetings where scholars and/or artists present their work and participate in other activities related to scholarship or creative work in their discipline or community of practice. Travel that is related to doing research or creative work (e.g., travel to archives or to do fieldwork) is funded through Research Grants.

For eligibility, guidelines, review criteria, and a link to the application form, please see the full Guidelines.

Travel Expenses

Lewis & Clark requires an itemized Expense Report via Chrome River for all travel expenses charged to a College account.

2025-26 Faculty Conference Travel Grant Application

Research Grant Guidelines - 2025-26

Faculty Research Grants may be used to purchase minor equipment, research tools, and expendable materials, and to pay for project-specific travel, research assistants, and other expenses that directly support scholarly or creative work.

For eligibility, guidelines, review criteria, and a link to the application form, please see the full Guidelines.

2025-26 Faculty Research Grant Application

This premiere five day writing seminar is designed for aspiring and established scholars seeking to present their research at professional conferences and/or publish their work in refereed journals. The retreat is based on a few simple premises: (1) a motivated, positive, and rigorous environment creates excellent work; (2) peer accountability and immediate feedback encourages productivity; and (3) scholarly work is enriched through collaboration.

Associate Dean’s Office

Albany Quadrangle 201

 

Please Apply by April 1, 2024

 

COHORT WRITING RETREAT GRANTS FOR JUNIOR FACULTY 2022-23

 

Cohort Writing Retreat Grants are intended to support tenure-track junior faculty in advancing their scholarship and/or creative work. The grant program is designed to provide small groups of faculty with time, space and community away from campus where they can focus on specific research and writing objectives in the context of peer mentoring from their cohort.

The grants are awarded by the Dean’s Office to support transportation and lodging costs up to $1500 for a group of three or more faculty to hold a weekend writing retreat at a local destination during the spring semester. The retreat is expected to focus on accomplishing writing objectives identified by each member of the cohort.

Eligibility:  Only junior tenure-track faculty are eligible to apply for a Cohort Writing Retreat grant. Preference will be given to cohorts that include two or more faculty from the 2023-24 first year cohort. We anticipate making two awards this year.

Application Process: A group of 3 or more faculty members may apply for a Cohort Writing Retreat Grant by submitting the following items to Associate Dean Goldsmith a short proposal for the retreat (1-2 pages maximum), which includes the following:

• names of the faculty in the proposed cohort
• the location and dates for the retreat
• a short description of the writing objectives for each member of the cohort
• a budget for the retreat, including transportation and lodging expenses.

Quality of applications will be determined from the specificity of the proposed format and objectives for the retreat.

Reporting Requirements: Cohorts awarded grants must submit to Associate Dean Goldsmith (daena@lclark.edu) within 30 days of their retreat a short report (1-2 pages max) describing how the outcome of the retreat compared to the proposed objectives and how the format of the retreat contributed to its success.

Administration of Funds: Faculty must use their P-card to charge transportation and lodging expenses; please work with Debbie Richman (drichman@lclark.edu) to submit receipts and complete the Per Diem Travel & Entertainment Expense Report within 60 days of the end of the retreat.

 

August 2018; Updated July 2021; Updated February 13, 2024

CAS Associate Dean’s Office
Albany Quadrangle 201

GUIDELINES FOR JUNIOR FACULTY START-UP FUNDS

Start-up funds for junior faculty are intended to cover non-personal expenses required for the establishment of a successful and sustainable program of scholarship and/or creative activity as a faculty member at Lewis & Clark College. Any expenses covered by start-up funds must be justifiable as necessary for the purposes of the faculty member’s scholarship and/or creative activity and are limited to those persons directly involved in the research and/or creative activity. Such expenses may include:

• Faculty stipends for summer research (Unless otherwise stated in your contract, you may use up to $5,500 of your start-up funds per summer as a faculty stipend for full-time research. However, if you have other external summer research support, the total amount you may receive is limited to 2/9 of your academic year salary per summer.)
• Research personnel (wages and applicable benefits for research technicians, undergraduate research assistants, etc.)
• Fees for professional research services (consultants, translation assistance, copy editing, etc.)
• Travel expenses for professional conferences, meetings and projects (charges must be commensurate with LC’s Travel Policy)
• Office supplies, furniture and renovations
• Research equipment and tools
• Computer software, hardware and ancillaries
• Materials and supplies for your research or creative scholarship

Limitations: Please note that additional restrictions may apply, depending on the source of your start-up funds (e.g., if part of the funding comes from an external grant).

Please note that the following are not allowable charges to your start-up funds: travel to and from campus, expenses for your partner to accompany you to a conference, a cell phone, etc.

Other limitations: Faculty should expend their start-up funds before applying for other internal funds. Some exceptions are as follows:

• Faculty Research Grant Program – no applications until startup funds are expended.
• Faculty Travel for Conferences Grant Program – applications allowed. However, faculty must indicate in their request whether they have start-up funds remaining. Priority will be given to applicants without start-up funds; but, depending on demand, conference travel grants may be available to faculty with some start-up funds remaining.
• John S. Rogers Research Program – applications allowed. Due to limited resources,
  faculty must use start-up funds for faculty summer research stipends (see above) before requesting faculty stipends from the Rogers Program. Faculty are eligible to apply for student stipends, but must use start-up funds for at least two students per summer before requesting additional funds from Rogers.
• Faculty-Student Summer Research Grants provided by Dean’s Office (Arts & Humanities and Social Sciences) — applications allowed. Preference may be given to applicants whose start-up funds are expended.
• Other Internal Support Available – applications allowed. Applicants must disclose availability of start-up funds, if applicable.

Administration and use of start-up funds: Start-up funds are administered by either 1) the Dean’s Office or 2) the Sponsored Research Office (if your start-up funds are partially or wholly funded by external support).

• General purchasing: Use your P-card to charge expenses to your start-up funds. Unless
  instructed otherwise, when you sign off on the transactions through Works®, charge the expenditures to your start-up account. Do not charge meals to your P-card.
• Purchase Orders and purchases over $3000: Follow the Business Office guidelines for
  purchases over $3,000, or to obtain a Purchase Order, if required by a vendor.  Requisition forms should be approved by your account fund manager.
• Travel: If using start-up funds for travel expenses, use your P-card to charge transportation, lodging and registration fees. Do not charge meals to your P-card. Complete the Per Diem Travel & Entertainment Expense Report within 60 days of the end of your trip. On the expense report, enter the allowed per diem for each day of your trip (deduct any meals paid with conference fees or provided by others). If your funds are being administered by the Dean’s Office, submit your expense report to Margaret Salstrom (msalstrom@lclark.edu) for review and approval. If your start-up funds are partially funded by an external grant, additional guidelines apply; submit your expense report and additional required information to the Sponsored Research Office at sponsres@lclark.edu.
• Any questions? Contact Margaret Salstrom or Sponsored Research Office.

Hiring Research Personnel or Student Research Assistants: Please contact Human Resources to hire anyone to be paid with funds from your start-up account, whether it is an outside hire, a currently enrolled student, or a recently graduated student. HR staff will help determine whether or not that individual may be hired as a student, regular or temporary employee, or as an independent contractor. Either Margaret Salstrom or Sponsored Research will need to verify how much funding you have available to support this position, and the availability of funds may restrict the type of position that you can offer; please make sure that your start-up fund manager is aware of any such expenditure plans.

Please note that any non-expendable equipment purchased with start-up or other internal funds are the property of Lewis & Clark College. If the faculty member leaves the College for any reason, Lewis & Clark retains ownership of this property.

Expiration of start-up funds: Unless otherwise stated in your contract, your start-up funds will expire at the end of the fifth year or the end of your junior sabbatical, whichever comes first. If you fail to expend all your start-up funds by the expiration date, they will revert to the College. Please notify the Associate Dean’s office in a timely manner if you will be unable to use your entire start-up fund package before its expiration. In qualifying cases, particularly those cases involving external grants, the expiration date for a start-up fund may be extended.

August 2018; Updated October 2020.

Start-up Guidelines (PDF)

Watzek Digital Initiatives. Digital Initiatives staff work with faculty to build online digital collections in support of scholarship and teaching. They are available at any time for consultations and there is a project proposal process for for larger-scale projects.

The College supports a limited number of student/faculty teams to conduct research during summers through two separate but parallel programs.

In the Mathematical, Natural, and Psychological Sciences: The John S. Rogers Summer Science Research Program. This program is supported by the John S. Rogers Endowment of Lewis & Clark College and grants from the James F. and Marion L.Miller Foundation and Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

In the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. The goal of the Faculty-Student Collaborative Research Program is to encourage collaborative research projects between Lewis & Clark College faculty and students. **Grants not available Summer 2025.

To access teaching evaluation settings and past teaching evaluations reports, log in at https://lclark.bluera.com/lclark/ with your LC credentials.

 

Faculty Guidelines for Managing Bluera (setting access dates for students within evaluation window)

Faculty Guidelines for Administration

1. As has been our long-standing practice, the evaluations should be conducted during a
   regular class period, not outside of class. Although it would be possible for you to allow
   students to complete the form outside of class, please don’t, because this will affect both the
   rate and the quality of responses.
2. Teaching Evaluations should be administered in all courses. Use of the Teaching
   Evaluation for students registered for independent study, activity courses, and other
   similar courses is at the discretion of the instructor.
3. Students should complete evaluations near the end of the term but not at the end of the
   last class period or during the final exam period.
4. Students should be allowed enough time to make written comments on the Teaching
   Evaluation Form. For this reason, students will complete the forms at the beginning of the
   class period.
5. At the beginning of the class session in which forms will be completed, the instructor
   asks for a volunteer proctor from the class to oversee administration of the evaluations and
   provides him/her with the instructions for proctors.
6. If the instructor supplies questions or forms in addition to the standard form, he/she
   tells the volunteer proctor to hand them out after the class has completed the standard
   evaluation form on line.
7. After making sure that your students can get access to the evaluation for his/her class,
   the instructor should leave the room, and let the proctor know where s/he will be. The
   proctor should call the instructor back after all the class members have completed their
   evaluations.

Student Proctor Guidelines

Student Account Overview

 

For process and policy questions, please email Associate Dean Daena Goldsmith at daena@lclark.edu. For technical questions, please email Margaret Salstrom, Administrative Assistant, at msalstrom@lclark.edu. 

The CAS Teaching Excellence Program (TEP) provides resources to faculty members to support them in strengthening and expanding their teaching expertise, with the goal of best serving the needs of Lewis & Clark’s undergraduates. Funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the program strives to create opportunities for collaboration and to provide assistance to faculty as they refine and share teaching practices with their colleagues.

TEP offers a number of resources and events designed to help disseminate best practices in pedagogy. The program is designed not only to assist professors, but also to bring faculty together – across all disciplines and throughout their careers – to discuss and apply teaching techniques that are engaging, inclusive, and innovative. By offering workshops, distinguished speakers, and hosting regular events, TEP dovetails with the efforts of other campus programs to support faculty development.

The Educational Technology group works with faculty, staff and students to show them how technology can be applied to their current activities so that they are better able to perform their job duties and/or pursue their academic and research activities. A major goal of this group is to help our faculty and students become self-sufficient with the technology that they need to use. Further, the Educational Technology team works closely with faculty to help them utilize instructional technology in ways that can augment traditional teaching methods.

Annual Events

Faculty Technology Showcase. Annual event at the end of Fall term where faculty colleagues demonstrate their uses of technology in their teaching and research.

Faculty Technology Institute. Each May, usually one week after commencement. Week of informal workshops including tutorials and conversation about using digital tools and techniques in teaching and research.

Academic Integrity Information for Faculty

The Consultation and Referral for Students Who Are Struggling Guide from the Vice President of Student Life and Dean of Students is a listing of important contact information for you and your students.

These funds are designed to support off-campus academic activities and excursions that supplement course goals. We are prioritizing requests that are most directly tied to curricular content and outcomes. Applications must come from faculty (or staff at faculty behest). Each faculty member can apply for one such grant per class per semester.

Requests received by the priority deadline for each semester will receive full consideration. Later requests will be considered if funding for that semester remains available.

• Priority deadline for Fall 2024: September 27, 2023
• Priority deadline for Spring 2025: February 14, 2024

 

2024-25 Student Course Event Funds Application (Google Form)