TAF Proposal Process

The TAF proposal process is the most visible component of the TAF budget, since faculty and staff have the opportunity to submit proposals for technology-related items to be funded using the year's TAF funds. TAF funds are limited, and only a portion of TAF funds are used to fund TAF proposals, and so the process is competitive. The TAF committee has worked to make the proposal process as simple as possible and has tried to ensure that everyone who applies has a chance at being funded.  The following steps outline the process that the TAF Committee has developed for collecting and considering TAF proposals.

1. The TAF process begins in November when the call for proposals (CFP) is sent out to all faculty and staff. CFP announcements are sent via email, as well as through avenues such as Govs At A Glance.  Periodically, the committee may request that announcements be made at various meetings around campus. Reminders that the submission process is open are periodically sent out until the submission deadline.
2. The deadline for proposal submissions is at the end of January. Faculty and staff who wish to submit a proposal should fill out the form for TAF Proposal Submission, which is available between when the first CFP announcement is sent out and the submission deadline.  Anyone with questions about their proposal or whether an idea is appropriate for a TAF proposal is welcome to contact the TAF Committee co-chairs.
   • Barbara J. Tucker, Staff Representative, Co-Chair
     Interim Associate Vice President and CIO/Director of Technical Services
     tuckerb@apsu.edu 
   • John Nicholson, Co-Chair
     Professor
     nicholsonja@apsu.edu
3. After the proposal submission deadline passes, all proposals are organized and grouped by school, the library, and non-academic units.  The proposals for each school are sent to that school's Dean, who then ranks the proposals from most important to least important. It is the committee's feeling that the deans and directors have a better understanding of the priorities in their unit than the committee members. The rankings are not the absolute determination of which proposals get funded. For example, proposals that are ranked highly by a dean may not meet TAF guideline for what the committee is allowed to fund or a proposal budget may be above what is available. Although the rankings are not used an absolute ranking, they provide valuable feedback to the committee when considering which proposals to fund.
4. The number of submissions received from each school, the library, and non-academic units varies widely. The committee wants to ensure that each group has a chance at having their proposals  considered and, if possible, funded. The committee also wants to prevent one group from receiving all available TAF funds. In order to even the chances for every proposal, the committee takes the available TAF proposal budget and divides it up into a set of starting budget guidelines for each unit. The library and non-academic units are each allocated 10% as a starting guideline, and the remaining 80% is divided among the schools based on a percentage of their student credit hours (SCH) calculated using fall enrollment numbers.  These breakdowns are used as a starting guideline by the committee to ensure that school or unit has at least some money available to it when evaluating the proposals.
5. Beginning in February, the committee meets to begin considering which proposals to fund. The committee uses the deans' rankings and the SCH guidelines as starting points, however other factors also influence the committee's decisions such as what TAF funds are allowed to fund and the information contained in each proposal. Proposals may be fully funded or partially funded. The goal is for the committee to reach final decisions by April.
6. Once the committee has decided on a set of proposals to fund, award announcements are sent to each proposer.  The announcement includes the amount funded, any necessary account numbers, and information on how to purchase items from the proposal.  The committee also sends an announcement to people whose proposals are not funded so that they are aware of their proposal's final status. The goal is to have these announcements sent out by the end of April