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University of Florida

Faculty Professional Summers

 The College Faculty Professional Summers Program is designed to provide full-time faculty an opportunity for a high-quality, state-of-the-art professional experience in an industrial setting and in a geographic location outside the faculty member’s normal work environment.  The professional summers offer an occasion for professional renewal and a chance to re-connect with standards of practice in journalism/communications fields, which, as we know, are undergoing rapid change.

The award amount is $7,000. If you wish to be considered for one of the 2017 awards, please submit an application to your department chair by March 4.

The following rules will be used to assess applications:

  • The faculty member must be paid at least minimum wage, and the faculty member must attach to the application a letter from the employer stating that such a minimum, at least, will be paid. If the faculty member is to be given equivalent expenses, this must be stated clearly in the letter.
  • The professional experience must be for a minimum of four weeks of full-time employment, and the letter from the employer must state the work period.
  • The expectation is that awardees will use the award to replace other summer employment, allowing the recipient time to focus on gaining relevant professional experience.
  • Faculty members appointed to professional summer award shall be eligible to teach in one summer session, but not the one in which they receive the professional summer award.
  • Faculty members awarded a professional summer will submit a report on their activities by September 1 of the same year.

Applications, with a recommendation from the appropriate chair, are due to the dean or executive associate dean by March 11.  The Faculty Welfare and Development Committee will review applications and make recommendations to the Dean’s office. Assuming that we have information about the summer budget, decisions about recipients will be made by March 25.