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Course Release

The Office of the Provost's Scholarly Course Release Program allows full-time faculty to apply for a 3-credit course release, freeing up time from their usual teaching load to advance or complete important scholarly work.  This release will afford faculty additional time to advance or complete important research, scholarship, or grant projects. Consideration will be given to the faculty member's teaching load and scholarly accomplishments in previous academic year as well as accomplishments during any past course release(s). The criteria below are intended to provide some guidance for "unusual academic or research assignments" beyond the ordinary expectations for research and scholarship as referenced in 7.9.a of the Faculty Guide. These releases are available to all departments. We are accepting applications for Fall 2027 and Spring 2028 semester.

Application Process

In no more than one page, provide the following information:

  • Project description.
  • Relevant publishers, funding agencies, or expected outcomes and submission dates.
  • Indicate any relevant deadlines or dates that are related to this project.
  • If you were granted a course release in the past, provide the accomplishments from that course release.
  • Provide your current teaching load for the last academic year and the academic year for this application. Note that courses compensated by overloads or stipends do not count towards the regular teaching load.

To be awarded:

  • Applications must be approved by the Department Chairperson with a statement to the Dean detailing the level of additional support needed, if any, for the Department to meet its programmatic responsibilities.
  • The Dean of the College will then review requests and rank approved applications for her/his College/School and submit their rankings to the Provost's Office.
  • The Provost's Office will review all applications and determine the final releases. The Provost’s Office will also approve reasonable replacement expenditures to cover the release.
  • Deadline to apply to your Dean with Chairperson evaluation is Wednesday, November 4. Deans’ deadline for ranked applications to the Provost’s Office is Wednesday, November 18.

Research Criteria

  • Applicants must advance research, experiments, writing, or other scholarly activities to the point of completion or manuscript submission to a recognized scholarly journal, press, or other appropriate venue, depending on discipline.
  • Applicants must develop and submit significant grant proposal(s) to external agencies.

Other Considerations

  • Applications for a course release the year before or after a sabbatical will be less competitive than those supporting faculty between sabbaticals. Special considerations will be given to junior faculty, who are encouraged to apply.
  • Competitive course release will be judged on the potential of the projects evidenced in the applications and the evaluations and rankings of the Dean and Department Chairperson.