The Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Development attempts to provide programmatic support for the enhancement of research. In addition, a Research and Special Projects (RASP) fund was established in 1977 in an amount approximately equal to one-half of one percent of the total salary budget. While generally small, RASP grants are intended to encourage faculty members to conduct research or projects in their academic discipline on a regular basis. See Research and Special Projects Fund (section IV.R.5). for information on the application and selection process for RASP grant awards.

In addition, some funds are available for faculty who are able to involve promising departmental majors as co-researchers in the faculty member's research with the purpose of getting joint student-professor publications and of enabling the students to present their research results in some fully professional arena, such as at a disciplinary conference or, at the least, at an undergraduate research conference.