NIU faculty members will be eligible to receive money toward the enhancement of their careers this semester.

The Faculty Career Enhancement Grant Program has begun its third year of business. Faculty members can receive up to ten or more matching grants of up to $2,500 through the faculty development office. The funds can be used over a two-year period starting July 1, 1993.

The total amount, which can be up to $5,000, will depend on the capability of the department or college to provide matching funds and/or in-kind support.

Ed Simpson, director of the faculty development office, said the purpose of the program is to “help the faculty support their special needs.”

Grant money can be used for specialized training, travel, tuition, seminar fees, graduate/research assistants or employing instructors to partially release faculty members from teaching, he said.

Ronald Mazanowski, associate professor of art, said he used his grant money last year to partially fund his travel and living expenses on an invitation to the Republic of Honduras. He helped to replicate and copy ancient tomb figures recovered in 1989 for museums and research.

Jane Fisher, assistant professor of psychology, said she used the money she received last year to fund her travel expenses to attend the Alzheimer Association conference in Chicago last July and the Gerontological Society of America conference in Washington D.C. last November.

At the conferences she said, “I was able to enhance my research on behavioral disorders in Alzheimer patients by speaking with others about the work they’ve accomplished.”

Simpson said applications, which are due by April 1, will be judged by a committee of former grant receivers. Some requirements include justification for support of the project, a description of the kind of support needed, a time line of the supported activities which specifies when the money is to be used over the two-year period and a letter from the department chair.

The letter should reflect the relationship between the proposal and the department’s goals and the willingness of the department or college to share the costs.