About the CLCE
Community Letter
Community Letter from the Policy Committee on Lectures and Cultural Affairs
Spring 2013
Dear Colleagues:
I am writing to you about funding opportunities for academic and cultural events available this Spring Semester through the Policy Committee on Lectures and Cultural Events (CLCE). Our remaining application deadlines for the 2012-2013 Academic Year are Monday, February 25th, for events on March 4th and beyond, and Friday, March 29th, for events on April 5th and beyond. There will also be a special deadline on Tuesday, April 30th for events during the Fall 2013 semester. I also want to share some ways that faculty and staff may improve your CLCE applications.
But first, please note that if you wish to plan a lecture or event, you should begin with the automatic individual $500 classroom lecture allowance and the $1500 program budget given to your Department or Academic Program by CLCE. These funds are administered respectively by your Administrative Assistant and your Department or Degree Program chair. Please begin your event planning by inquiring about these funding sources.
1. CLCE particularly solicits applications this Spring for two of our competitions: Major Events and Wellesley Wednesdays.
A. Major Events Competition. This academic year we have inaugurated a new competition for faculty and staff that authorizes total grants of $5000 or more for individual events, more than three times our normal lecture fee guideline. We are pleased to have received a number of successful applications for major events, but more funds are available in this year's budget. No special application form is required, but please be sure to note on your application that your proposal is in fact a Major Grant Application and to provide detailed information for all aspects of the proposed program and its budget.
B. Wellesley Wednesdays. We are grateful for the Wellesley Wednesdays proposals that have sustained this Presidential program thus far this year, but there are still some open dates available: February 13, February 20, and April 10. If you are inviting a speaker or performance that has campus-wide appeal, please consider scheduling it in the Wednesday noon community time slot on one of those remaining dates. We will prioritize all Wellesley Wednesdays applications.
2. Over the past year we have coordinated scheduling and the flow of information between the Student Organization Funding Council and CLCE. Through an amendment to the Articles of Government we have also placed a non-voting SOFC representative on CLCE. These new arrangements end decades of funding impasse between CLCE and Student Government and powerfully facilitate the processing of student applications through these two funding sources.
By contrast, however, CLCE routinely returns faculty and staff applications due to inadequate information, leading to delays and possible loss of funding. We strongly recommend that you observe the following guidelines:
A. Only use the current application form. It is posted on the CLCE website (www.wellesley.edu/clce). Some of you are submitting outdated forms and therefore provide insufficient information for a decision to be made. We continually make changes to the form based on developing budget and evaluative policies, so make sure to use the current online form.
B. Consult with a member of CLCE about your application. Any member of the Committee can respond to a proposal idea or draft application and can report on our current review procedures and policies. Such consultations have proven most helpful to applicants and the success of their applications.
C. Provide detailed program and budget information. The most common reason applications are returned or rejected is because they do not supply the requested information in sufficient detail. Two areas have the most frequent shortfall:
1. Program information. Applicants must not assume that CLCE has familiarity with your lecturer or cultural performer. Although there are faculty representatives from Groups A. B, and C on the Committee, we are joined by a large group of administrative and student representatives. Such a collaborative body will not necessarily know anything about your proposed program, and it is your responsibility to explain to us in substantive detail what your speaker or performer will do, for what part of the Wellesley community, and why your event is academically or culturally significant.
2. Budget information. Faculty and staff applicants often provide much less detailed budget information than student organizations do. CLCE has funds that are limited in amount and earmarked for various uses that we apply to support individual applications. We examine budgets very carefully and observe in-house guidelines such as a $1500 maximum fee for academic speakers (apart from the Major Events Competition) and $50 per person for faculty dinners. Food, fees, and travel receive special scrutiny, and we try to keep these amounts as equitable as possible. We ask that you provide itemized budget statements based on documented estimates wherever possible.
D. A note for faculty. Many of us submit applications for research funding to the Committee on Faculty Awards. Those applications require detailed statements of purpose, project narratives, and budget. We take significant time and effort to complete those requirements. Yet the amounts that faculty request for lectures and cultural events often exceed the College maximums for in-house research grants. It would seem, then, that the care we give to applications to CLCE for academic and cultural events should be commensurate with those we make for our research projects. Such an upgrading of faculty applications will make them much easier for the Committee to process and much more likely to receive full funding.
In conclusion, let me reiterate that our remaining application deadlines for this semester are February 25th and March 29th, and that we still have openings for Wellesley Wednesdays programing on February 13th and April 10th. Thank you very much for your attention. We look forward to receiving your new proposals.
Stephen Marini, Chair
for the Policy Committee on Lectures and Cultural Affairs
4 February 2013
CLCE Members:
Faculty Chair: Stephen Marini 10-13 (B)
Administrative Director CLCE: Corinne Frazer
Administration:
Student Services Representative: Megan Jordan
Cultural Advising Network Representative: Karen Shih
President's Designee : TBD
Faculty:
Margaret Carroll 12-15 (A)
Katherine Grandjean 10-14 (B)
Alden Griffith 12-15 (C)
Koichi Hagimoto 11-14 (A)
Student Representatives:
Maggie West '14
Erin M. Yeagle '13
Christine Prevel '14 - Alternate
SOFC Representative (nonvoting) Maya Rabinovich
