Part 1: TPD Costs

Video. A Ticket to Ride: Sponsorship and Funding (transcript)

Tuition for CIWIC, CIWIC-NM, or DMAC in any historical iteration is reasonable and less than or equal to the cost of a 3-hour graduate seminar. However, as our experience suggests, certain participants will “pay” more than others. As Rik attests, TPD is a risky expense and a budget stretcher for graduate students. He made, at a vulnerable time in his career, arguments to a faculty advisor who in turn created "credits" for the institute. His arguments for credits, and thus for professional growth, did not translate to funding, and thus CIWIC-NM cost Rik in terms of long-term student loan responsibilities that he still faces. As a faculty participant, Alanna was able to secure funding from her institution, but as untenured faculty, DMAC cost her in terms of engaging in work that didn’t “count” towards our profession’s capital: promotion and tenure.

Professional development research repeatedly highlights the importance of resources and funding. Indeed, DMAC instructors Cindy Selfe and Scott DeWitt regularly make specific funding suggestions in the institute's publicity materials. Our range of costs, from Moe and Les’s sponsored attendance to Rik’s self-funded participation, offer evidence that any vision of sustainable TPD must consider the range of participants' material positions--as students, contingent faculty, tenure-track faculty, tenured faculty, and within hybrid positions.

Video. Running Away from School: TPD as Sponsorship (transcript)

Woven through each of our experiences are the traces of TPD sponsorship, and it is sponsorship of vastly different degrees. Alanna was able to attend because of an institutional-instructional grant. Rik relied on his department’s vetting of the course so that it would count towards his degree. Les attended CIWIC and CIWIC-NM as an adjunct only because he had an influential faculty sponsor who both encouraged and funded his attendance. Finally, due to being a graduate student at Michigan Tech, Moe was sponsored as a graduate assistant to both attend and support CIWIC and CIWIC-NM.