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Colleges receive millions in grants

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Three colleges in Atlanta, Ga. announced recently that they are the recipients of $3 million in grants from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, The Rockefeller Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support the development of faculty on their campuses. The student success stories at Historically Black Colleges and Universities ( HBCUs) depend on pedagogical originality, which call for faculty who are active and creative and provide students with the right tools to think critically and independently.

The grants enable the colleges to supply a disposition of faculty support structures and call for the three schools to showcase their best practices among the large HBCU community.

The selected colleges were Morehouse College, Prairie View A&M University and Spelman College, which received $1 million each.

“Faculty are the heart of a liberal arts education. At Historically Black Colleges and Universities, heavy teaching loads often get in the way of professional development, time for research and/or creative production. Yet, time for these activities not only keeps faculty current in their fields, but provides undergraduate research opportunities for our students,” Spelman President Dr. Mary Schmidt Campbell said. “We are grateful for the foresight of the Carnegie, Rockefeller and Mellon foundations in making this historic gift to Spelman, Morehouse and Prairie View. We anticipate using a portion of the funds as well to document and disseminate the innovative teaching strategies that have accounted for the academic success of Spelman students.”

Throughout their history, HBCUs like these three colleges have employed exceptional faculty, who are devoted to the unique approach of their institutions to educate, dedicated and gifted students in a minority population. However, in the past 10 years, market pressures made it challenging for HBCUs to enroll the best faculty and to support their development after hire.

“Our founder Andrew Carnegie was concerned about the lack of educational opportunities for African-Americans. As a result, in 1900 he made a grant of $20,000 to Tuskegee University to fund the construction of its library, the first of 13 grants to the institution,” said Carnegie President Dr. Vartan Gregorian. “Throughout its history, Carnegie Corporation of New York has continued to invest in a range of organizations serving African Americans, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities; civil rights organizations; the National Urban League since 1921; the United Negro College Fund since 1946; as well as more recent grants to support reforms in K-12 and higher education. We are pleased to help ensure the future health and welfare of the faculties of our country’s HBCUs through these latest grants.”

The support of these foundations will help the new faculty development programs invest in the schools’ success history, and prepare African-American students to become scholars and leaders.

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