Kokomo Experience & You (KEY) Program Grants
Description
Kokomo Experience & You (KEY) Program Grants are intended to provide funding support for authentic learning experiences that engage students in activities reflecting the real efforts of individuals in a discipline, while helping them build connections among themselves, their peers, faculty, the institution, and their discipline. The KEY program is designed to be faculty-driven, student-centered, and flexible. In general, KEY activities target specific audiences of students for specific purposes and highlight a particular area of study. KEY program student learning outcomes include applying knowledge in real-world settings, integrating distinct concepts or subjects, collaborating with others to explore ideas and achieve goals; taking the initiative to learn, solve problems, or lead; and developing a mindset of lifelong learning and success.
Eligibility
All full-time and part-time faculty are eligible for KEY Program Grant funding support.
Grant Funding Criteria
The Office of Academic Affairs will award as many KEY Program Grants as possible each year with the budget provided, and when making funding decisions will:
- Fund academic units’ highest priority events, when feasible.
- Award funding to academic units in approximate proportion to their size, in terms of faculty and student headcounts.
- Fund a range of KEY experiences that includes both larger, higher cost events and smaller scale, lower cost events, as well as a variety of event types.
- Give funding priority to multidisciplinary KEY events and events which can be offered at little or no cost to students, when feasible.
- Consider KEY event cost relative to the number of students expected to participate.
- Consider the KEY experience hallmarks of authenticity and engagement, and the KEY learning outcomes of application, integration, collaboration, initiative, and mindset.
Application Process
Faculty should submit KEY Program Grant requests for the next academic year to their deans, chairs and/or KEY Coordinators, using a timeline determined by the academic unit.
Academic units should create a prioritized list of their KEY Program Grant requests for the next academic year, using methods of their choosing for determining priorities.
Prioritized lists and the pertinent details related to each KEY Program Grant request should be forwarded to the Office of Academic Affairs by June 1 of each year.
Prioritized KEY Program Grant request lists must be updated and submitted each year, even if the events on the list or their priority order have not changed from the previous year.
There is no limit to the number of KEY Program grant requests academic units may include on their priority lists.
Review & Selection Process
Each funding cycle, the Office of Academic Affairs will use academic unit prioritized KEY request lists and the criteria described above when awarding KEY Program Grant funding
KEY Program Grant funding decisions will be made by consensus among the Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Vice Chancellor for Finance, and the academic deans.
The Office of Academic Affairs will notify academic units and KEY Program Grant recipients by August 1 of each year.
KEY Program Grant requests not funded will be waitlisted for the duration of the year, subject to possible funding at a later date.
Grant Conditions
Grant recipients must confirm KEY Program event dates with the Office of Academic Affairs by September 15 for Fall semester events, January 15 for Spring semester events, and March 15 for Summer events.
The Office of Academic Affairs reserves the right to withdraw funding for events without confirmed dates, and to redirect grant funding to other requests on KEY waiting lists.
Grant recipients must notify the Office of Academic Affairs of any significant budgetary changes that occur with their KEY event.
All KEY Program Grants are subject to university spending and purchasing rules, regulations, and procedures.
Office of Academic Affairs Fall 2024