FEAST Faculty

FEAST is a 2 semester course. Winter-Fall. You will provide a grade at the end of each semester as follows:

NEW Team members (First year working on the project):

At the end of the winter semester every new student should receive a “Y” – not a standard letter grade. “Y” is a code that is given for a course with work that is still in progress.

At the end of the Fall term you will grade all your current students for their work over the last two semesters (Winter/Fall). You will need to do this for all the students that newly joined your team and have been enrolled for two semesters. The steps are as follows:
Upload their letter grade(standard letter grade) for Fall at the end of the grading period.
Change the “Y” grade from the previous winter semester to that same letter grade (it is an overall grade for both semesters, so the same grade will appear in both places).
Check all levels and sections (UARTS 260, 360, 460, and 560) as students may have been enrolled in different levels in different semesters (though they are usually at the same level both semesters).

Continuing Students

Students who have already completed the 2 semester commitment and are continuing on your team for additional semesters should be given a standard letter grade at the end of each future semester of participation.

Single Semester Participation

Students may participate for one semester at your discretion. Issue a standard letter grade after their one completed semester.

Off- Cycle participation

Some students are recruited early to begin in the Fall rather than the Winter semester. These students still have a 2 semester commitment. Their course will run Fall-Winter. They will be graded in the same manner as mentioned above except the process will begin in the fall semester. Fall Grade=Y, Winter Grade – standard letter grade. (change Fall to the same grade, see instructions above).

How to enter grades

Directions for entering grades can be found on Wolverine Access here.

Funding

Each FEAST team receives up to a total of up to $4000 for expenses related to your project. This is typically distributed as $2000 each semester and maybe adjusted based on team duration and usage.

Winter =$2000
Fall =$2000

Additional funds may be available on a case by case basis. Email [email protected]

Purchasing

You may purchase items in the following ways:

Preferred method:

Whenever possible, allow ArtsEngine to purchase these items for you.

Include links to the items for purchase
We will send you an email when the items arrive in the ArtsEngine office.
You are responsible for picking up the items in the ArtsEngine office.
University purchases cannot be sent to a residential address, though we can send to a more local UMICH address if helpful..

Less Preferred Methods

Sometimes purchasing through our office is less convenient or not possible due to the nature of the purchase. You may:

Purchase the items using your shortcode or P-card:

When you or your department administrator reconciles your expenses in Emburse Enterprise (Chrome River), Select Deb Mexicotte as your approver.

Purchasing out of pocket

When purchasing out of pocket; keep your receipts. Submit them to ArtsEngine via [this form]. We will process the reimbursement through Shared Services (this may take up to 3 weeks for processing)

Types of Purchases

Items and services that are typically permitted to be purchased by the University units are also typically allowed for FEAST team purchases. The following items are examples of allowable purchases.

Physical or digital materials or supplies
Software licenses or subscriptions
Small equipment
Services of Others
Travel (check with ArtsEngine for appropriate kinds of travel expenses)
Guest artist visit costs (honorarium, travel, etc)
Printing/Web hosting

If you are not sure if an expense is acceptable, please reach out to us.

You may want to continue working on your project with a subset of students over the summer, however, FEAST is not typically offered as a Spring/Summer course.

Students can be employed to work on your project over the summer. Please use the following form to request student summer work by March 31. FEAST SUMMER WORK REQUEST

These expenses will be paid from your FEAST course stipends.

Students must be hired as hourly employees. Stipends are not offered. When hired, you will be listed as the supervisor and will be responsible for approving the hours, with as ArtsEngine staff member listed as a delegate.
Please keep track of the hours worked to ensure that you do not exceed your summer budgeted amount.

Managing your project

Canvas– You may request a Canvas Page through the university.
- A joint all-FEAST Canvas page is maintained by ArtsEngine’s Faculty Director, John Granzow (jgranzow), to which you will also have access.
  - Teams are asked to document their team progress on this Joint Canvas page both weekly and monthly
  - You may access this team documentation for your research or grading purposes, or you may in addition have your own reporting processes for your team.

We also suggest contacting other FEAST faculty for recommendations

Regular Meetings
- You should be meeting with your team at least once weekly or bi-weekly for 1-2 hours, and in addition students will typically have team and sub-team meetings. All these meetings are part of their weekly 6-8 hour expected course commitment.

IP Agreement

All students participating in FEAST sign an Intellectual Property (IP) agreement, as work that is done in a course more typically would belong to them – but that is not the case with faculty-led research projects. ArtsEngine monitors compliance with this requirement and students are informed of this documentation throughout the recruitment process.

Credit hours

Most students will be registered for 2 credit hours per semester (4 total credit hours for the full two-semester commitment) . They may register for more or fewer credit hours (based on their level of commitment) with your approval. For example, if you wish to add a May graduating student to your Winter semester roster, you may do so although they are only making a one-semester commitment.

Students may also spread the typical 4 credit commitment differently with professor approval (for example: 1 credit in the Winter, 3 credits in the Fall). New and continuing students may select between 1-5 FEAST credit hours with professor approval.

Course Substitutions

Because FEAST teams vary in their technical requirements and student skills, there are no pre-set course substitutions for FEAST participation. That being said, students have requested or petitioned to use their FEAST credits for a wide range of curricular requirements (capstone projects, FlexTech and PCP requirements, credit toward major/minor, etc.) Students are advised to contact their academic advisors for information on obtaining credit through course substitution.

Adding additional students to your team

You may add additional students to your team at any time – as teams recruited through the standard fall process may require additional skills or students may discover the opportunity outside the standard application window . In general these students should still be committing to participate for two full semesters, unless you have approved an alternate team commitment. These students may need to go through a Late/Add process, which may be found HERE.
Mid-semester check-in

It is recommended that professors have a brief one-on-one check-in with students team members at least once per semester (March, October). This is to head off problems, answer questions, or to address concerns for either party. It is in this Winter semester check-in we expect professors to encourage students in their work, address any issues with continuing on the team in Fall, any potential or interest in summer work, or other any expectations or observations. This is also when any difficulties completing the two-semester commitment may be addressed (see Non-completion of two-semester commitment).

At or before the Fall check-in (October), we expect professors to assess who of their current students might wish to continue past their December commitment to better fine-tune Fall recruitment and identify any replacement skill sets that might be needed.

Non-completion of two semester commitment

Students sign an agreement stating that they understand they are making a two-semester commitment to the team, as this best corresponds with the rhythms as needs of research work. Students, however, may want or need to leave a team after one semester, or the professor may wish to not continue working with a student under very specific circumstances.

We state in the agreement that leaving a team early may result in a poor or failing grade in the course, though we understand circumstances do change.

Students may typically leave FEAST after one semester without penalty if:

They were only expected to participate for one semester (with prior professor approval)

If they need to leave the course or the University for documented personal reasons

They receive an important position, residency, or internship that does not allow their continuation on the course

They have not, in the opinion of the professor, been able to meet the requirements for continuing on the research team in good stead (this cannot include, however, scheduling conflicts or other reasonable accommodations that could be met allowing their continued participation).

Ending your FEAST course/project

While we expect every FEAST team to run at least two full calendar years (Winter/Fall), teams may run indefinitely or complete project work and end at any time. Here are some guidelines for ending your FEAST team when needed.

Faculty have continued to run their FEAST teams during any needed leave/sabbatical breaks, but this is not always the case. Let us know of any upcoming leaves as soon as possible so we can plan your team’s continuation, hiatus, or completion.

Faculty will be contacted by ArtsEngine staff in late spring/early summer to affirm the desire for Fall team recruitment. Sometimes faculty forget that their student team will need refreshing to continue past the end of Fall semester (December), as most if not all students will move off the team at the end of the calendar year.

Project Showcase/FEAST Kick-Off

ArtsEngine plans a FEAST Project Showcase every year in early December. This is an opportunity for you and your students to briefly present on your FEAST research, see other team research, create presentation materials for further use, and celebrate the progress that has been made on each of the projects. ArtsEngine staff will contact you in late October to verify participation, aid in creating any needed postering materials or media, or otherwise advise on this team culmination event.

Selected projects will be re-presented at the FEAST Kick-off at the beginning of the first new team meeting in early January every year.