Faculty and staff take note of innovation fund

By Jessica Strul

Dean Terry Hynes calls it the “Post-It-Note Fund.”

“I want someone to invent the equivalent of Post-It Notes for us,” she said.

The Al and Effie Flanagan Innovation Fund gives College faculty and staff that chance by allocating $50,000 annually to a creative, cutting-edge project. The amount is expected to increase in future years, Hynes said.

“We hope these funds will enable faculty and staff to take talents and skills they don’t use everyday,” she said, “and invest them in a project that will advance the College in a particular area. They have to complete the project within one year.”

The fund was made possible by Alumnus of Distinction Alvin G. Flanagan, TEL 1941. When Flanagan died in 1999, his $3.7 million estate came to the College. After consultation with the faculty, Hynes set aside a portion of the income from the estate for the Flanagan Innovation Fund, named in honor of Al and his wife Effie.

To qualify for the funds, College faculty and staff submit proposals to the College Administrative Council, which includes administrators from throughout the College and faculty representatives from the four departments. The council recommends to the dean, who makes the final decision.

The inaugural winner – a converged newsroom – is being implemented this year. It will enable students from various disciplines to share stories and resources.

“The industry is moving toward a multimedia news format, and we want students to understand that there are several ways to express an idea,” said Dave Ostroff, chair of the Department of Telecommunication and one of the creators of the winning proposal.  

Converged newsroom students will explore multimedia news formats through multi-part stories and in-depth coverage.

“If you just want today’s headlines,” Ostroff said, “this is not the place to go.”

Like the fund, the converged newsroom looks to the future.

“Eventually,” Ostroff said, “we want radio reporters to go out with cameras.”

Perhaps the College’s pairing of a radio reporter and a camera is like 3M’s union of a note and an adhesive strip.

3M Company engineers created the Post-It Note in 1968 as part of a program that encouraged 15 to 30 minutes of daily intellectual playtime.

“Disciplines are constantly being reinvented,” Hynes said. “It’s the right kind of mischief that makes people think in a new way.”