Provost Office: Memorandum
To: All Faculty
From: N. John DiNardo, Vice Provost, Academic Affairs
Subject: The 106 Club - A message from Bill Stephenson
Date: 18 November 2005
A number of years ago the University established the 106 Club as a way stimulate an increase in the level of research funding by recognizing faculty who participated in securing external research grants and contracts of more than $1M.
During the past decade we have matured considerably as a research university and achieved the notable milestone of realizing over $100 M in research expenditures last year. Clearly this program has achieved its purpose. A number of other positive changes have occurred since the program's inception. Notable among these is the expansion of qualifiers for the 106 Club, growing from a handful to more than fifty researchers last year, and the quadrupling of the number of researchers holding multiple grants over the last four years.
Thus after much deliberation we feel that it is appropriate to evolve this program. Specifically, the funds that have been set aside to support this program will be used to expand the Research Achievement Awards to recognize outstanding scholarly achievement by all of Drexel's faculty, including those who are engaged in research in areas that are not traditionally funded by external agencies, as well as to seed newer research and graduate programs.
The expanded awards program, a recommendation from the Associate Deans for Research from the Colleges and Schools, will be reviewed by the Faculty Research Review Committee, and new and existing Faculty Research Achievement Awards will be presented at Research Day, 2006. With the funding made available with this recommendation, a new research-seeding program will also be announced shortly. The Faculty Research Review Committee will also design the details of this program.
Dr. Ken Blank and I are continuing to identify ways that we can improve the research environment at Drexel, such as the recently implemented reduced tuition for post-candidacy Ph.D. students. We welcome your input in this process. Please email us at bill.stephenson@drexel.edu or kenneth.blank@drexel.edu.