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FORD FOUNDATION SELECTS THE UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA ANCHORAGE AND ALASKA PACIFIC UNIVERSITY FOR $100,000 GRANT By: University Advancement Staff Dec 12, 2005 New York, NY – After a national competition in undergraduate education that drew more than 675 proposals, the Ford Foundation has selected a partnership between the University of Alaska Anchorage and Alaska Pacific University as one of 26 recipients to receive $100,000 grants for projects that promote academic freedom and constructive dialogue.
The grants are part of Ford’s Difficult Dialogues initiative, created in response to reports of growing intolerance and efforts to curb academic freedom at colleges and universities. The goal is to help institutions address this challenge through academic and campus programs that enrich learning, encourage new scholarship and engage students and faculty in constructive dialogue about contentious political, religious, racial and cultural issues.
“The partnership between UAA and APU shows that higher education institutions can pool resources to improve student learning and constructive discussion about important racial and cultural issues,” said Jorge Balán, a Senior Program Officer at the Ford Foundation.
The overall goal of the project is to improve the learning climates on both campuses, making them more inclusive of minority ways of knowing and safer places for learning and the free exchange of ideas. Specifically, the project’s objectives are to prepare faculty and staff to encounter controversy more effectively and to engage a broad base of faculty, staff, students, and community members in coordinated explorations around a common controversy or theme. (See attachment for more information on the project.)
Over the course of the two year initiative, the Difficult Dialogues grantees will be invited to share their experiences and ideas at regional conferences coordinated by the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression in Charlottesville, Virginia. The Center will also host a Web-based forum for project directors to share ideas online.
Examples of other projects that will receive funding include: at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, new courses, faculty seminars and campus roundtables on religion and religious conflict; at Queens College in New York, the development of a new curriculum for promoting understanding and informed discussion about the conflict in the Middle East; at Mars Hill College in North Carolina, training for faculty and student leaders to foster productive discussions of race, sexual orientation and religion; and a project at Yale University that will examine whether courses about controversial issues increase tolerance and respect for different viewpoints among students.
“Colleges and universities are uniquely suited to expand knowledge, understanding and discussion of controversial issues that affect us all,” said Susan V. Berresford, president of the Ford Foundation. “The selected projects illustrate the thoughtful and creative ways institutions are promoting intellectually rigorous scholarship and open debate that is essential to higher education.”
The Ford Foundation launched Difficult Dialogues in April 2005 by inviting proposals from all accredited, degree granting, non-profit institutions with general undergraduate programs. A panel of external higher education experts reviewed the preliminary proposals and selected 136 institutions to submit final proposals.
Difficult Dialogues is part of a broader, $12 million effort by the Ford Foundation to understand and combat anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and other forms of bigotry in the United States and Europe. It builds on the foundation’s history of supporting efforts by colleges and universities to foster more inclusive campus environments and to engage effectively with the growing racial, religious and ethnic diversity of their student bodies.
For more information on the Difficult Dialogues initiative and a complete list of awardees, visit: http://www.fordfound.org/news/more/dialogues/index.cfm
The Ford Foundation is an independent, nonprofit grant-making organization. For more than half a century it has been a resource for innovative people and institutions worldwide, guided by its goals of strengthening democratic values, reducing poverty and injustice, promoting international cooperation and advancing human achievement. With headquarters in New York, the foundation has offices in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, and Russia.
More coverage of this grant is found at the Chronicle for Higher Education http://chronicle.com/temp/email.php?id=po4yw54ooqgh7xk2s0m0i0ovd8a5wfpq
Contact:
Joe Voeller, Ford Foundation
(212) 573-5128
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