Senate Funding Opportunities

Supplemental Travel Award

To assist faculty in pursuing their professional development goals, the AS offers supplemental funds for faculty who wish to attend a conference related to their discipline or College role.These supplemental funds would be used only if the faculty member has exhausted their travel-related professional development funds, which are capped at $2,500 per academic year. Visit the Professional Development website to learn more > 

To apply for supplemental travel send the name of the conference and the link to the conference website, the date, the amount requested, a short paragraph explaining how the conference will enhance your existing course or program area (you may copy/paste your answer to question 4 in the Personal Statement portion of thePrior to the Conference, Workshop, or Project Application) to Cañada Academic Senate (canacademicsenate@smccd.edu). 

After submitting the request, the Academic Senate will contact the Business Office to confirm that the applicant has used up their travel-related professional development funds.

After confirmation, the request will be agendized at the next available Academic Senate meeting. Note that since this will need to be an action item, we can only add it to the agenda 72 hours before that week’s Academic Senate meeting.

Most years, the Academic Senate’s total fund for all supplemental travel is capped at $2,100.

For information about the current supplemental travel award, contact Cañada Academic Senate (canacademicsenate@smccd.edu).

First Year Tenure-Track Faculty Professional Development Award

For 1st-year tenure-track faculty, Academic Senate can provide up to $300 per person per academic year toward conference expenses, since these faculty are ineligible for Professional Development funds. 

Contact Cañada Academic Senate (canacademicsenate@smccd.edu) to apply. Include the name of the conference, date of the conference, and amount requesting.

Speaker Honorarium Fund

To provide students with up-to-date information and different perspectives in classroom lectures, the AS offers funds for honoraria granted to guest lecturers in regularly scheduled classes. For the 2026-2027 Academic year, faculty may request $200 toward Speaker Honorarium twice per fiscal year. Most years, the Speaker Honorarium award is not to exceed $2,000 (about 10 speakers a year).

For information about the current Speaker honorarium award, contact Cañada Academic Senate (canacademicsenate@smccd.edu). 

The application will include the following information:    Explain the value of the guest lecture to the students, and what specific experience or specialized skills the guest lecturer will bring to campus Is the lecture for registered students only, or will it be open to the public?  If open, will it be publicized? Will it benefit multiple sections of a class or multiple classes? Identify the requested amount (up to $200) Please note that the selection of guest speakers must comply with Board Policy 6.38 Criteria for Selection of Guest Speakers Application Process: The instructor of record will email the application to Cañada Academic Senate (canacademicsenate@smccd.edu). The details will be agendized at a regular Academic Senate meeting where Academic Senate will vote on whether to award the honorarium.