DEI Programming Grants

With financial and administrative support from the Office of the Provost, the Office of Academic Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion invites full and part-time faculty members and staff to apply for monetary grants up to $1,500. This year’s grants will support interdisciplinary collaborative public programming across the college.   
 
Academic DEI Programming Grants will be reviewed and awarded by the DEI Executive Committee. Please read all instructions carefully. Incomplete applications will not be accepted. All applications must be emailed as a single PDF file to the Office of Academic Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: dei@colum.edu.
 
Spring 2022 Semester Review Cycle

Spring 2022 Theme: Complex Collaboration
This year, we seek joint applications that will build our capacity for DEI on our campus through interdisciplinary, collaborative programming. The grant will support collaborative programming that addresses more than one disciplinary perspective, and the potential to attract audiences with different questions, modes of analysis, and notions of “product.” Applications must consist of two or more collaborators with preference given to partnerships across schools and/or different disciplinary perspectives.
 
Types of projects
Proposals should clearly articulate how the programming supports or further develops DEI efforts throughout the College. The DEI Executive Committee especially values proposals that interrogate structures of power and privilege as articulated in the DEI Mission, and that encourage collaboration, interdisciplinary practice and critical engagement with students and other units of the college.
 
About
The grants offer full and part-time faculty, and staff the opportunity to address issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion through public programming events available to the greater Columbia community.
 
DEI Mission Statement
Columbia College Chicago actively promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion as vitally important to its present and future success. These principles are essential to the educational experiences of our students, staff, and faculty. The present standing and history of systems of racial oppression permeate all levels of our society, and intersect with discrimination based on age, class, disability, ethnicity, gender, national origin, religion, and sexual orientation, among others. We believe these structures of power and privilege need to be studied and understood by all members of our community. We are committed to dismantling these systems within Columbia College Chicago by creating policies, programs, and opportunities that will ensure that diversity, equity, and inclusion thrive and are at the center of all that we do.

Conditions and Terms of Eligibility
All currently employed full and part-time faculty and staff are eligible to apply. Those currently holding upper-administrative offices (i.e. Deans, Associate/Vice/Assistant Provosts, Provosts) are not eligible.
 
The grant recipients’ department will charge approved grant expenses to the Academic DEI Office in the Office of the Provost. Outlined below are lists of expenses that the Academic DEI Programming Grants will and will not support.

Academic DEI Programming Grants support programming such as, but not limited to: DEI Programming Grants do NOT Support: Amount
DEI Programming Grants will fund proposals up to $1,500.
 
Application Procedure
All applications for the Academic DEI Programming Grant must be emailed to the Academic DEI Office: dei@colum.edu no later than 5 p.m. on the date of the deadline. Please be sure all application materials are saved as a single PDF file and named with first initial+last name+semester and year of grant cycle (for example, rmonroeSPRING2022.pdf).

A complete application consists of the following five components:
  1. Cover Sheet
  2. Narrative Proposal (maximum 750 words)
    • Clearly describe the program, the audience it will serve, and how it addresses the theme of complex collaboration.
    • How will you engage audiences from multiple disciplines? For example, how will you attract the greater Columbia community beyond a given class?
    • Why do you want to offer this program? Summarize your desired outcomes as they relate to the DEI mission and complex collaboration.  
    • Describe how you will measure the success of your program.
  3. Program Date and Relevant Timeline–Grant monies must be used by June 1, 2022.
  4. Detailed Project Budget – The DEI Executive Committee requires that programs are achievable and well-planned. Itemize all expenses necessary to complete the program in a timely and efficient way. If you are seeking funds to support a portion of a program, indicate clearly which expenses you expect to cover with funds from your grant and which expenses will be covered with funds from other sources.
  5. Two to three-page CVs for all primary collaborators—required as an element of the single PDF file.
  6. Bio and two to three-page CV for guest speakers—when appropriate as an element of the single PDF file.
Post-Grant Reports
All grant recipients are required to complete a post grant report by the due date specified in their award letter and mentioned in the above grant cycle timelines. Recipients must email the post-grant reports to the Academic DEI Office: dei@colum.edu; full-time faculty are also required to upload their reports to Interfolio. 
 
In 300-500 words, please address the following:

For more information, contact Raquel Monroe or Jessica Meharry, Co-Directors of Academic Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at rmonroe@colum.edu or jmeharry@colum.edu.