Honors Tutorial College

Travel Research Grants Information

2013-2014

Please read the following carefully before proceeding with a proposal. All questions about HTC Travel & Research Grants should be directed to Dean Webster at or Business Manager Kathy White at .

Source of the Funding. Alumni and friends of the Honors Tutorial College donate funds to facilitate student research and unique educational opportunities, including education abroad and internships. Additional funds are budgeted by the university. It is hoped that at some future date recipients of HTC Travel and Research Grants will consider making their own contributions so that another generation of students can benefit.

Eligibility. To qualify for funding you must complete this form in a timely manner, be in good academic standing within the college (i.e., have a 3.5 GPA overall), have contributed recently in some substantive way to the health and well-being of the HTC community or the wider university, and be able to explain the significance of the requested funds for your research, creative activity, or travel. Please note that we are unable to use the funds for purposes normally paid for by scholarships (tuition, room, board). We also cannot pay for activities that occur after graduation nor can we pay for activities that are not primarily academic in nature.

Availability of Funding.Requests are considered on a rolling basis. The Dean, in consultation with the Business Manager, attempts to manage the money judiciously so that funding is available during each academic quarter, but because of the number of requests and the finite amount of resources inevitability the money often runs out prior to the end of the academic year. The maximum funding level is usually $1000. This maximum level is awarded to students in good academic standing with extensive service to HTC.

Timing. Dean’s Discretionary Funding is most often deposited directly into your checking account. These grants must be processed through the university scholarship and financial accounting systems. In making a request, please recognize that it often takes at least 30 days to move through all the stages of the process from dean’s approval to fund dispersal. Plan accordingly.

Scholarship Issues. In some rare circumstances receipt of Dean’s Discretionary Funding might affect your scholarship distribution. If the dean approves your request, the amount of the funding granted is forwarded to staff members at the Financial Aid Office. They will determine if receipt of the funding will cause any financial aid eligibility problems. If there is a problem (which is rare), the college would notify you and provide you with the opportunity to turn down the funding awarded through the HTC Travel & Research Grants.

Final Report. Each recipient of an HTC Travel & Research Grant is required to complete a written and an oral final report describing a) how they spent the money they received and b) how this money helped them achieve or move toward achieving their academic and/or career goals. Students are responsible for scheduling their 5- to 10-minute oral presentations, which can take place in the common room either as part of a brown bag lunch or during an HCC meeting. Contact Laura Schaeffer ( or 593-2723) to sign up for your presentation. Until these are completed, an individual will not be eligible for additional support from the Dean’s Discretionary Fund. The form for the written report is included in this document.

Prioritizing of Funding. When reviewing requests for funding the following considerations come into play:

  • How central is the project to the student’s academic development?
  • What contributions has the student made to HTC?
  • To what degree would the project directly contribute to a successful thesis?
  • How likely is it that funding of the project would result in the student being able to use her or his experience to make a scholarly contribution either through a public presentation or as an author or co-author on a publication?
  • Does the project provide a unique opportunity that typically would not be available to an undergraduate?
  • Does the request demonstrate clear intellectual investment in the work or activity to be undertaken?
  • Where appropriate, has the student determined if there are other sources of funding (e.g. Provost’s Undergraduate Research Fund, Student Enhancement Awards, external awards forstudent research, departmental funding, faculty grant funding, etc.)? Is the student willing to invest some of his or her own resources in the project or activity?
  • Has the student submitted a final report for previous Dean’s Discretionary Funding?

Revised July 2013