Farber Fund Guidelines

The overall objective of the Farber Fund is the advancement and strengthening of the Department of Political Science at the University of South Dakota in its promotion of academically excellent student programs and activities, public service and civic leadership.

To meet this objective, the Farber Fund can be used to:

  1. Assist undergraduate students who participate in exceptional internship programs (which may take the form of assistance to defray travel expenses to distant internship locations). Please note: While internship support is possible it has a much lower priority than exchange programs and study tours
  2. Assist student travel to attend state, regional, national or international educational forums, seminars and conferences
  3. Provide travel grants for student research
  4. Provide scholarships
  5. Provide travel grants and other assistance to those students desiring to attend foreign institutions, as for example, a summer session, semester or year abroad

Farber Fund grants can be given for credit-bearing academic or non-credit educational activities.

Application Requirements

To be eligible for Farber Fund assistance, you must:

  1. Be a full-time political science, criminal justice, international studies major or a civic leadership minor, as reflected in the records of the Office of the USD Registrar at the time application for funding is made
  2. Have a minimum GPA of at least 3.0
  3. Be a currently enrolled student at the University of South Dakota (non-students and those who have graduated are not eligible for Farber Fund support)
  4. Secure the support of at least one political science/criminal justice/Farber Center faculty member for your proposal
  5. Submit a brief written evaluation within two weeks of completing the Farber Fund-supported educational experience
  6. Submit receipts for all relevant expenses for which you are requesting Farber Fund support

Unless ALL of the above conditions are met, no Farber Funds will be authorized and/or released. Additionally, all undisbursed Farber Funding is automatically rescinded and returned to the fund at the end of each fiscal year (June 30) unless an authorized recipient has previously been an extension of time to fulfill any outstanding requirements of his or her funding.

Funding Guidelines

In making funding decisions, clear preference will be given to:

  1. Faculty-led group events rather than individual activities
  2. Higher quality applications
  3. Language immersion programs
  4. Students who have not received prior Farber Fund funding; academically superior students
  5. Undergraduate over graduate students
  6. Upper class students when merit is relatively equal; and students who have submitted evaluations from previously completed Farber Fund activities

With respect to partisan political activities, students who are seeking Farber Fund support for participation in partisan activities will only be considered for such support when the destination of trips is beyond a 100-miles radius of Vermillion. Political activities with a clear educational component will be given preference over those which do not have such a component.

Cost Sharing

As one way to measure student commitment to the project for which Farber Funds are sought, students are normally expected to pay a portion of any Farber Fund supported activity, generally at least 20% of the total cost including meals, registration fees, transportation, housing, etc.

Depending on the total expense of the event, students pursuing high cost programs may only be authorized for a fraction of their total costs. In making decisions about the cost to be borne by Farber Fund participants, the following criteria will be used:

  1. Equity in funding among projects
  2. Total cost of the activity
  3. Length of the educational experience
  4. Quality of the educational experience
  5. Relevance of the educational experience to the student's program
  6. Size of the group
  7. Financial need of the students
  8. Availability of Farber Funds

To encourage students to participate in internships, support in the amount of $40/credit hour is available to subsidize internship tuition. Additionally, internship grants are available to support summer student interns receiving inadequate summer stipends but only after a final report has been completed and approved by the department.

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