General Policies
Purpose: The Psychology Endowment Fund is established to enhance the education of psychology majors by providing funds for student research and for the purchase of equipment for faculty and student research. Additional funds will be made available for student travel to conferences for the purpose of presenting their research.
Eligibility:
Students eligible to apply for funding are those who:
- Have declared psychology as their major (consideration will also be given to non-majors working with psychology faculty, but priority will go to majors)
- Are working on an Independent Research, Independent Study, or other research with a member of the St. Olaf College Psychology faculty
- Have submitted their Institutional Review Board (IRB) Application
- Have expenses associated with their research for which there is no viable alternative funding source.
Appropriate Requests: Although the Psychology Endowment Committee will review applications for any amount, it is generally assumed that research requests will range from $15 to $200. Travel funds will be limited to a maximum of $700 per person. Due to the limited amount available in the endowment fund, travel requests will be considered carefully, and students are encouraged to apply for funds from other sources (see below). Students should first apply to CURI as their primary source of funding, and then to the endowment fund as a supplemental source. All applications require a signature by the students’ research supervisor.
Psi Chi (MPA): http://www.psichi.org/regions/midwest.aspx
Psi Chi (national): http://www.psichi.org/awards/undergraduate.aspx
Funding Considerations: The clarity and comprehensiveness of the proposal, the pertinent benefits of the research, and the identification of specific needs for funds.
- The impact of granting any given request on the possibility for funding additional requests from others for the academic year in question.
- Priority for equipment requests will be given to applications that demonstrate a breadth of possible uses of the proposed equipment by students and faculty, and a reasonable length of time that the equipment is expected to be serviceable. All equipment purchased will remain the property of the Department of Psychology.
- Consideration will be given to IS/IR/396 projects first, followed by other research projects.
- Applications for travel funding will only be considered for presenters at conferences. Applications must be submitted within 3 months of the completion of the students’ senior year and before the start of the next term, and will only be considered for data collected during their time as a student at St. Olaf. Funded travel must be completed within 1 year of graduation. Documentation of submission and acceptance will be required before travel funds are released (submitted or accepted abstract and complete list of authors).
Applications:
- Applicants will complete the electronic Psychology Endowment Fund Application Forms. Separate forms exist for Travel Fund requests and Research Fund requests.
- Applications will be accepted any time and reviewed as needed. Each Fall the Psychology Endowment Committee will set aside a portion of the available funds for use in the spring semester. This amount may vary, but will generally be around 1/2 of the total available in the endowment. All applications will be considered on a first come, first served basis.
- Applicants can expect to have a response within 1-2 weeks of submission.
- In addition to accepting and funding a proposal (or rejecting the request), the committee may recommend that the proposal be rewritten and submitted again, and/or that only partial funding be approved.
- Students may be asked to appear before the committee to elaborate on their proposal and/or their research plan.
- Announcements will be made periodically each year regarding the amount of fundable money remaining in the Psychology Endowment.
Research Summary and Acknowledgments: At the conclusion of the research project, the recipients of a Psychology Endowment Grant will submit an abstract of their research to the Chair of the Psychology Endowment Committee for possible inclusion in the following year’s Research Brochure. All papers and publications resulting from research with Psychology Endowment Fund assistance will acknowledge receipt of financial assistance from the Fund. Students who receive a Travel Award will be expected to write a brief summary (1-2 paragraph) of their experience at the conference, which will be posted on the Department website.
Supervision: The faculty supervisor of the IS/IR or other research project is responsible for working with the student who receives funds from the Psychology Endowment Committee to insure responsible grant management.
The Psychology Endowment Committee: The Psychology Endowment Committee will be composed of one or two Department of Psychology faculty members chosen by the department faculty, and the departmental academic administrative assistant.
The Psychology Endowment Committee will meet periodically to (1) review and make decisions on funding requests, (2) make decisions for small modifications in the General Policies statement, (3) discuss bringing major revision suggestions to the department faculty, and (4) elect a chair.