Introduction

Last Spring, the Student Technology Fee Committee (STFC) approved a third year of funding for faculty to acquire software to support instructional purposes. An amount of $7,500 was provided for the 2011-2012 academic year. The STFC charges the Academic Technology Committee (ATC) to manage this program. The STFC established the following provisions for these funds. First, funds are to be limited to software that is accessible to students. Second, a report on utilization of funds shall be provided to the STFC by March 15, 2012.

Funding Eligibility

Software funded must be used for instructional purposes and be accessible to students. Examples include (not in any priority order):

1. Software to be installed in a campus lab for classroom instruction;
2. Software to be utilized by students for classroom assignments or research activities--likely to be accessible in a campus lab environment;
3. Software used by faculty for instructional activities,
   1. installed on smart classroom(s) computer workstations,
   2. installed on individual faculty workstations provided that the software will be used for an instructional, classroom-related purpose.

Application Process (2011 - 2012 Academic Year)

1. Proposal deadline is February 24, 2012
2. Proposals will be submitted to Mike McHugh, Chair of the ATC, via the online form below.
   http://www.smsu.edu/InformationTechnologyServices/form328.cfm
3. Applicants will be notified by March 2, 2012 regarding funding decisions.

Evaluation Criteria*

Funding decisions will be made by the ATC upon a review of applications in light of the criteria listed below**:

1. Strength of academic rationale for request
2. Number of students to be served per academic year by software
3. Number of academic programs to benefit from software
4. Software costs
5. Non-availability of alternative software products
6. Annual recurring costs (e.g., software maintenance fees)
7. Existence of any matching funds

* The ATC reserves the right to allocate funding among departments/programs as it deems appropriate in order to ensure that a diverse group of departments/programs can benefit from these funds.
** The ATC reserves the right to partially meet applicant's funding requests. Applicants to be considered for partial funding will be contacted prior to the final funding decisions in order to determine their willingness to accept a reduced funding amount.