Union College and three other
upstate New York institutions – Skidmore College, Hamilton College and Colgate
University – will share a $600,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
to support faculty career enhancement.
Over the next two to three years,
the grant will help fund an assortment of new initiatives, including an
innovative process for post-tenure faculty development to assist faculty at
mid-career with their teaching and research; a program of faculty exchanges
among the schools in the Mellon grant group; and the chance to implement other
collaborative programs, including a speakers bureau.
“The funding provided to the Four
College Consortium not only offers Union faculty the opportunity to work with
their peers at sister institutions but also enables us to initiate a unique
program for senior faculty development that will further enrich both the
teaching and the scholarship of Union's greatest resource: our faculty,” said
Christina Sorum Union's dean of faculty.
The $600,000 grant follows an
$80,000 Mellon Foundation gift awarded in 2002. The earlier grant funded a
yearlong study by the four schools in which a number of common concerns were
identified. The new grant will help fund some of the key goals arising from
that study including planning and support for research and teaching after faculty
receive tenure, typically at the start of their seventh year at a college or
university.
The grant will also fund a faculty
exchange initiative designed to revitalize faculty by allowing them exposure to
a different set of colleagues and a different academic and institutional
culture. Each year, two faculty members from each of the four schools will be
able to teach a course at one of the other schools. Visiting faculty will offer
new perspectives and perhaps a new course to the host institution, and will be
expected to share their experiences with their home school upon returning.
Additionally, funds will be
available for smaller-scale collaborations among the campuses, such as a
four-college speakers bureau, seminars, and conferences.