Faculty First

Faculty working with students.

The GameAbove "Faculty First" initiative was created thanks to a $2 million pledge from GameAbove to support a broad range of faculty activities that will enhance and highlight the quality of EMU’s academic programs. 

Faculty First funds have been used to support initiatives such as:

  • Reassigned time from teaching for scholarly, creative, and innovative endeavors
  • Conference presentations (including travel)
  • Hiring of research assistants
  • Purchasing special equipment for teaching or scholarly research
  • Launching innovative programs to promote student persistence
  • Developing a grant proposal for external funding
  • Developing innovative academic programs
  • Other similar initiatives

Future calls for funding will occur in Fall 2023 and can be found on this website.

See below to learn more about previous initiatives that were funded by GameAbove’s Faculty First program

Previous Faculty First initiatives

Thanks to the generous support of GameAbove, the Faculty First program has already supported numerous faculty initiatives, including:

  • Student-faculty interaction workshops hosted by the Faculty Development Center
  • Active Learning / Equitable Teaching (AL/ET) practices in the Math Department
  • The EMU Marching Band recorded and historically documented a variety of pieces that can also support student recruitment
  • Data analysis to support publication of a book about suburbanization processes and outcomes of Black Americans in metropolitan areas
  • Research about the melting and retreating of the Laurentide Ice Sheet from the Great Lakes Region in advance of a National Science Foundation grant application
  • Fee to publish an article in the peer-reviewed journal Brain and Behavior
  • Complete and publish an article in Heritage, with support from a student researcher
  • Research and travel for faculty and students participating in the Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project, an initiative funded by NASA
  • Research regarding how chief justices of state supreme courts deliver their annual State of the Judiciary addresses, leading to a presentation at a professional organization conference