Henry J. Copeland Fund for Independent Study

Guidelines for submission of a proposal

Below are some general guidelines you should follow as you prepare your proposal. You should remember that the intent of the Copeland Fund is to enhance the I. S. experience by providing for unique or remarkable opportunities not normally available to students. It is not intended to provide an alternative funding source for expensive I. S. projects.

Guidelines for preparing a proposal for the Henry J. Copeland Fund for Independent Study:

An acceptable proposal should exhibit/contain the following:

Travel Expenses

The committee wishes to encourage students to pursue opportunities off-campus and offers the following guidelines for preparing a budget that includes travel expenses:

• Reimbursement for car mileage is at a miminal rate of 48.5 cents per mile, but this figure may be reduced at the discretion of the Copeland Committee.
• In general, meal expenses are not reimbursed.
• Requests for lodging should be reasonable, and students should look for lodging at youth hostels whenever possible. The committee does recognize that there is considerable variation in this area.
• Airfare for travel is supported, but you should make every effort to hold down expenses by booking tickets well in advance and by staying over a Saturday night if that will reduce overall expenses.

For car travel you may find the website mapquest.com useful for estimating mileage. You will need to get into the Road Trip Planner. You may find travelocity.com and sites of low-cost airlines useful for estimating your air travel expenses. Do not quote Travelocity air and hotel packages unless the hotel rates meet the Copeland Fund guidelines.

Attending Meetings

Meetings that have a direct bearing on the I.S. project are encouraged. For example, students can receive funding to attend meetings at which a significant portion of the meeting is related to their I.S. topics or at which they would be meeting a person or persons who could have a significant impact upon the experience or analysis of their I.S. projects. Requests by students to attend large national meetings in order to present their data are not generally awarded. These requests are best handled within a department or through the Office of Student Research.

Copying Expenses

Copying expenses in excess of the College allotment can be a legitimate budget item, but the committee frowns upon copying texts simply for the sake of convenience. If a budget is to include reimbursement for copying expenses, the necessity of making copies for the enhancement of the I. S. must be made clear. It is assumed that students will normally incur the costs of copying texts needed for their I.S.

Interview and Presentation Expenses

Some departments ask that students send out invitations for the performance or presentation of their I.S. project. The Copeland committee does not consider these to be an enhancement to the I.S. experience and as such, they should not be included in the budget request. Under most circumstances, the Copeland Fund does not subsidize payment for assistance in transcribing interviews, conducting analysis, or providing food or gifts to research subjects.

Equipment

Any equipment or item purchased with Copeland Funds becomes the property of the College upon completion of the Independent Study. The Fund does not support requests for tape recorders, cameras, or laptop computers. In addition, the Fund does not provide support for students to enroll in classes during the summer. If an Independent Study involves the use of books or other typical classroom materials, the rule of thumb is that the student is expected to pay the equivalent of what he/she would incur in purchasing books for a course.

The Committee cautions against using the Copeland Funds for the purchase of Departmental equipment. Any small items of equipment or supplies purchased with Copeland Funds should be turned in to Dottie Sines, Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs, upon completion of the Independent Study.

Departmental Funds

Departments need to indicate if a regular budget or an endowed fund is available specifically to be usable for I.S. projects.

For those departments that have funds to support Independent Study, the proposal should state the amount that the student has available to him or her and deduct that amount from the total cost of the project; the remaining amount will be considered for Copeland Funding. Omission of information on departmental funds from the budget delays review of proposals since the Committee has to inquire concerning this matter.

Cancellation Policy

If a Copeland-funded trip is canceled for personal reasons, the student should reimburse the total grant to the College. If cancellation is due to an emergency or natural disaster, the grantee will be asked to try to get refund of airfare purchased/deposits paid to the extent possible. The chair of the Committee will be the final arbitrator of such matters.