News

Student Technology Fee Committee
Request for Proposals 2009-2010

The Student Technology Fee was established to help supplement the availability of technology to UW students and to provide opportunities for innovative facilities and projects that require capital investment. Each year the STF Committee solicits a wide spectrum of student technology proposals from campus units for projects that meet the demonstrated technology needs of students and allow them to further their education and research goals.

The Student Technology Fee supplements University or external funding of technology for student use. The STF exists to improve technology and access to technology for the students of the University of Washington. Money from the technology fee is not to be used to fund items that should properly be funded by legislative or administrative funds. Awards made under this proposal are intended to be one-time sources of funding. Proposals should not be contingent upon subsequent years of funding.

We will begin accepting proposals for the 2009-2010 cycle on November 19, 2009, and the deadline for submitting proposals for the 2009-2010 cycle is January 13, 2010. There may be a second "revise-and-resubmit" round, for proposals which were not fully funded in the first round. No new proposals are accepted in the second round.

Further information may be obtained by visiting the STFC website or by contacting the committee at the address indicated at the end of this document.

Writing the Proposal

The proposal authors are responsible for familiarizing themselves with the STFC Proposal Guidelines, available at the website. The committee operates under strict funding criteria, and will not be able to fund items that fall outside of these criteria. A copy of the STFC handbook is available on the website and contains an overview of the Technology Fee Committee, how to write a successful proposal, instructions on submitting a proposal via the online database, and frequently asked questions.

Instructions for writing the proposal, examples of past proposals, and instructions for submitting the proposals can be found on the STF Website.

Proposed technology initiatives should:
> Primarily benefit students
> Include a summary of student input
> Provide a plan for long term operation
> Address the issue of student access

Additional considerations that enhance a proposal:
> Demonstration of cooperation between departments, schools, colleges, and other campus units
> Creative approaches to improving services for students
> Demonstration of additional sources of funding

The committee does not fund:
> Equipment used for classroom instruction
> Ongoing maintenance and supply costs
> Furniture, wiring or infrastructure costs
> Salary for full-time or part-time staff or students
> Wireless networking outside the University's central deployment

Eligibility

The faculty member or staff person directly responsible for administering the proposed project must submit proposals at the school. Applications will not be accepted from individuals. Proposals must be approved by the appropriate Dean(s) or Vice President. A signature page will be generated automatically at the end of the proposal submission process. The proposal author is responsible for printing this page from the STFC website and obtaining the necessary approvals. The committee will not consider proposals that do not have the necessary signatures.

Authors who have had proposals funded by the committee in past years should note that the committee is increasing enforcement our annual reporting requirement. When a proposal is funded by the committee, the author is required to submit an annual report detailing the implementation of the funding proposal. This report must be submitted once, in June the year after the proposal is funded, via our web site. A proposal author who has not submitted annual reports for one or more proposals funded more than a year ago will not have new proposals considered until the outstanding annual report(s) are submitted. Note that proposals funded in the 2008 - 2009 funding cycle will not count against an author's ability to submit new proposals, as the annual reports for those proposals will not be due until June 2010.

If you are unsure whether you will be able to submit a proposal this year due to this requirement, please check your "My Proposals" page on techfee.washington.edu to determine the annual report status for your previous proposals. If you still have questions, please contact the committee via e-mail.

Review Process

The voting members of the Committee will review proposals. Members may approach the proposal author to clarify or elicit further information about the proposal. In addition, members of the committee may ask to see equipment previously funded by the Student Technology Fee. Reviewers may enlist the aid of non-members to assist them in their decision.


The STFC requests that proposal authors keep an open mind in regard to funding alternatives. It is very possible that partial funding will be awarded to a number of proposals due to limited resources or other reasons. Because of this we suggest proposal authors prepare a back up request, or multiple alternatives, should the committee decide to vote in favor of the partial funding option. This could be in the form of a predetermined request presented at the time of the meeting, or simply a mental outline of your funding priorities.

Workshops

Dates for proposal writing workshops will be announced on the website.

Proposal Related Purchase and Cost Restrictions

In the interest of clarifying proposal related restrictions to proposal authors, the Committee adopted the below guidelines for purchases or other costs. The full text of this decision can be found at http://techfee.washington.edu in the documents section of the website.

Ongoing Costs: The Committee has decided to not fund ongoing costs. Proposal writers should avoid asking for anything that requires payment in more than one installment.

Extended Care Packages/Warranties: Because the Student Technology Fee has determined that most equipment funded through STF is replaced within three to five years, extended warranties are rarely necessary. If proposal writers decide to ask for an extended care package or warranty, they should expect to provide strong justification for why the expense is necessary and for how long the equipment is expected to be in use.

Replacement of Out-of-Warranty Equipment: The Committee has decided that the expiration of warranty alone is not a sufficient reason to replace old equipment. Proposal writers should either wait until the equipment is outdated and needs replacement or until the equipment is no longer functioning. In both cases the Committee will consider funding new equipment.

Software Upgrades: The Committee has found that in general software needs to be upgraded at the same rate as hardware for most of the equipment that the Student Technology Fee funds, and thus will usually not consider requests for software upgrades. If the proposal authors include a request for upgrading software, they should be prepared to demonstrate that the upgrade will significantly extend the lifetime of the equipment and should not expect the Committee to consider funding the replacement of the hardware equipment associated with the software in the next few years.

Physical Security Devices: The Committee only rarely decides to fund physical security devices for computers, laptops, or other equipment. Proposal authors who wish to have such items funded must demonstrate extraordinary need for this equipment if they wish for it to be funded.

Power Cables, Power Strips, and other Infrastructure: The Student Technology Fee Committee believes it is the responsibility of individual departments to provide the infrastructure necessary for the use of funded equipment. As such the Committee will not fund power cables, power strips, furniture, or other infrastructure requests outside of the specific technological equipment being funded.

Salaries: The Committee will under no circumstances fund salaries of any sort. The cost is fully the responsibility of individual departments.

Attending Student Technology Fee Committee Meetings

The proposal authors are strongly encouraged to attend the Committee meeting at which their proposal is discussed in order to be able to answer any questions that Committee members may have. The Committee will make every effort to contact proposal authors who are not present to answer questions, but if any concerns or questions remain about a proposal it will not be funded.

Contact Us

The committee wishes to help proposal authors in any way possible. The committee urges proposal authors to come forward with questions as early as possible in the process.
The Student Technology Fee Committee (STFC) can be reached in the following ways:
> Email: techfee@u.washington.edu
> Web: http://techfee.washington.edu
> Campus mail: Student Technology Fee Committee, Box 352238 SAO #29
Office: HUB 204 S

Welcome to the new Student Technology Fee Committee website! In creating this site, our goal was to maintain the traditional functionality that proposal authors are familiar with, while also adding features to enhance the user experience and to clean everything up visually. If you are a returning user, you can log in with your existing user name and password. If you are new, create an account and get started!

If you have used the previous STF website, poking around this new site should allow you to figure everything out relatively quickly. If you'd rather read up on what has changed, click the "About The Student Tech Fee" link at the top of the page and select the 2010 Techfee Handbook. In there, you can find a section about the new features contained in the site to help you learn your way around!

As always, should you have additional questions - please contact us.

The Student Technology Fee Committee will release our Request for Proposals next Friday (November 20) and will have our new website operational next week as well. While this creates some delay in the traditional time frame for proposal creation and submission, this will be taken in to account when the Committee decides upon the closing date for proposal submissions for this year.

Should you have additional questions, please contact the Program Coordinator.

We are preparing to transition over to our new website shortly. Dates regarding the proposal cycle will be decided upon soon as well, however please email the Program Coordinator in the mean time if you have any additional questions that need to be answered.