Miller Faculty Fellowship Program

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Miller Faculty Fellowship Program

Background

The Miller Faculty Fellowship Program provides recipients with opportunities to enhance their scholarly work in the university’s undergraduate academic programs. It also allows recipients to develop innovative approaches to enhance student learning. Recipients have up to 12 months to meet the goals of their Fellowship project.

The Miller Faculty Development Fund was made possible by the generosity of F. Wendell Miller, who left his entire estate jointly to Iowa State University and the University of Iowa. Mr. Miller, who died in 1995 at age 97, was born in Altona, Illinois. Mr. Miller grew up in Rockwell City, Iowa, graduated from Grinnell College and Harvard Law School, and practiced law in Des Moines and Chicago before returning to Rockwell City to manage his family’s farm holdings and to practice law. His legacy helped to establish the F. Wendell Miller Trust, the annual earnings of which, in part, help support faculty development proposals that advance the university’s strategic plan. The program is administered by the President’s Office and the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching.

How to Participate in the 2024-25 Miller Faculty Fellowship Program

  • First, please review the program details about eligibility, proposal content and inclusion, application directions, the review process, and expectations.
  • Attend our series about the Miller Faculty Fellowship Program (to be announced in August).
  • Consider using the Miller Proposal Guide (DOCX) to help you through the process.
  • Then, follow the application directions, and submit your Miller Faculty Fellowship Program Proposal Form (DOCX) by Monday, December 11, 2023.
  • If you have any questions, please email us at celt-miller@iastate.edu or call 515-294-5357.

Program Details

  • Any faculty member at Iowa State University (tenured, tenure-eligible, term, or a staff member with teaching appointment) may apply for a fellowship. All Iowa State faculty may submit proposals as individuals or may join with others to submit a proposal as a faculty team.
  • To increase involvement, preference will be given to first time Miller Fellowship applicants.
  • Applicants who are CELT staff or members of the CELT Advisory Board may submit a proposal for consideration for a Miller Fellowship grant, but are not allowed to serve as a principal investigator.
  • CELT staff or Advisory Board members who apply are not allowed to participate in the Miller Fellowship review process.

Applicants can propose to develop innovative new approaches to the teaching of existing undergraduate courses or to develop entirely new courses that will enrich the undergraduate experience. Funding for 2024-2025 will include three categories of grants:

  • Requests up to $5000
  • Requests up to $15,000
  • Requests up to $25,000.
Proposals must utilize the Proposal Form and not exceed four pages (excluding title page, budget worksheet, and a required letter of department chair endorsement). Each proposal must include the following:
  • Title page – clearly indicate the department(s) and college(s) involved. All faculty and collaborators involved must be listed and their position(s) identified. Include address, phone number and e-mail for the primary contact person.
  • Proposal Form Consists of following required elements:
    • Abstract – List project title and abstract of 150 words or fewer. Abstract must be suitable for public distribution, should proposal be funded, and must list total amount requested.
    • Project Significance – 250 words or fewer. Include statement on project goals and their importance for meeting departmental, college, or university strategic goals and student learning outcomes.
    • Enhancement of Student Learning Outcomes – 300 words or fewer. Include description of how the student learning experience will be enhanced through improved pedagogy and instructional delivery.
    • Assessment Plan – 300 words or fewer. Include an assessment plan that addresses proposed measures, data collection, and analysis appropriate to the stated objectives.
    • Statement on Intended Scholarship and Dissemination – 100 words or fewer. Include description of intended scholarship (publications, presentations) associated with this project and a dissemination plan for sharing results.
    • Project Plan – 250 words or fewer. Clearly identify the person(s) who will be responsible for carrying out the proposed work (e.g., name, title, role within the project), the methods and resources to be used, the specific course(s) and the number of students affected, and the timeline for project completion.
  • Budget Worksheet – Provide an itemized budget and budget rationale (maximum one page) that clearly specifies all anticipated expenses for the proposed Miller project. Clearly indicate the relevance of each budget item to the project being proposed. The maximum grant award amount is $25,000 (see the Proposal Content tab). Additional matching funds are encouraged but not required. The following are not allowable as budget items:
    • Faculty salary and benefits cannot be requested from the Miller funds.
    • Travel funding to conferences cannot be requested from the Miller funds.
    • Equipment purchases should be identified with improving a specific course and not with the general upgrading of classroom facilities.
    • Any of the above can be utilized as matching funds. If matching funds include any faculty salary or benefits, a signed statement from the college fiscal officer (in addition to the letter from the department chair) must be attached to the proposal to verify the commitment level.
  • Department Chair endorsement letter
  1. Download the Miller Faculty Fellowship Program Proposal Form (DOCX).
  2. Prepare the proposal, consisting of a title page, proposal form, budget worksheet, and department chair endorsement letter. Also, include a signed statement from the college fiscal officer if your proposal consists of any faculty salary and benefits as a part of the proposed matching funds. 
  3. Save your completed proposal form as a PDF using the naming scheme “yourname-miller.pdf.” 
  4. Submit one electronic copy of the proposal (as a single pdf file) by December 11, 2023, to the following:
    1. Your College Dean
    2. CELT at celt-miller@iastate.edu. Note: By emailing it to celt-miller@iastate.edu, we will receive the email/attachment along with it automatically uploading your proposal to a CyBox folder.
  5. If CELT receives more than one submission per college, the Dean will submit an email listing the proposals in priority order to CELT at celt-miller@iastate.edu by in January.

All proposals will be reviewed and ranked by the CELT Advisory Board, which will make recommendations to the Provost. The Provost will make the final selection of Miller Faculty Fellows and announce by April. Review Criteria Include

  • Significance for the undergraduate program at Iowa State University. Successful proposals will improve the quality of the undergraduate curriculum for students. Proposals should indicate the impact on curriculum, instructional delivery, and the students served. The proposal should directly support departmental, college, and/or university strategic planning goals.
  • Enhancement of student learning outcomes and students’ learning experiences through the improvement of pedagogy and instructional delivery. Successful proposals will clearly identify intended outcomes and will demonstrate a clear connection between the pedagogy that will be implemented and specific outcomes.
  • Scholarship resulting from the project enhances the understanding of teaching and student learning in the discipline. Successful proposals will include a plan to assess whether the project has achieved its desired outcomes and a plan to disseminate what is learned by the project to others.
  • Clarity of the project plan. Successful proposals will have a clear design, a strong link between design and intended outcomes, and a high likelihood of the proposers being able to complete the project within the timeline provided.
  • Clarity, appropriateness, and relevance of the proposed budget. Successful proposals will include a budget with a clear rationale for each expenditure in accordance with the project’s overall plan and desired outcomes. Matching funds are not required as part of Miller Proposal budgets. However, proposals that include matching funds may receive higher ratings for their proposed budget.

Download the Miller Faculty Fellowship Proposal Evaluation Rubric (DOCX).

  • Projects for 2023-24 are to be completed by June 30, 2024.
  • A final report must be submitted by July 31, 2024, to the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching. Failure to submit the final report may adversely affect future funding opportunities as part of the Miller Fellowship program. To prepare, download the Miller Final Report Template (DOCX) and email the completed report to celt-miller@iastate.edu.
  • Miller Fellows will present their results at a formal Miller event during the fall semester following the completion of their project. They may also be invited to present informational sessions and/or posters about their projects at university functions throughout the year.
  • CELT strongly encourages all Miller Fellows to publicly share the findings of their Miller project with colleagues and peers in their respective departments and colleges, across campus through university forums, and beyond campus through conference presentations and journal publications.
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