This year, departments that offered Extended Campus classes received a hefty "thank you" gift—$125,000 in shared professional development awards.

Based on a simple revenue-sharing formula, departments offering classes at Metro North or Metro South during the 2002-03 academic year received $10 for every credit hour produced from the popular program. For example, a three-hour class with 15 students garnered programs a $450 award for faculty professional development. The awards were dispersed last fall from Metro Education Ventures/Extended Campus.

Departments used these funds for myriad activities, which included helping faculty attend conferences and pursue research activities. The History Department, which earned a total of $16,000, used half its windfall to purchase an electronic archive of the colonial-era Pennsylvania Gazette for the Auraria Library. Music sent a faculty member to New York for conducting lessons, and sociology purchased a digital camera for classroom use.

"In these financial times when educators are asked to do more with less and professional development often gets cut, we wanted to help faculty stay active and excited professionally," explains Carol Svendsen, director of Extended Campus. "Without the departments and faculty we wouldn't have these programs. Plus we wanted to offer an incentive to the departments to encourage outreach off campus."

Though end-of-year numbers are still being tallied, Svendsen hopes to offer the same deal to departments that taught Extended Campus classes during FY 2003-04. She said an announcement will be forthcoming fall semester.

"In the long run," she says, "this helps us grow our program as well as form closer links to the main campus."