Enhancing Civic Learning and Engagement

Photo by Carl Socolow '77

Photo by Carl Socolow '77.

$650,000 Grant to Fuel Investigation of Critical Civic Issues

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded Dickinson a $650,000 grant to launch a four-year initiative to enhance civic learning and engagement on campus and in the global community. The initiative seeks to help faculty members identify critical civic issues within their own fields, undertake investigation of these issues, and develop innovative teaching methods and course materials to engage students. A complementary goal is developing more sustained connections between the college and its community partners.

The funding allows Dickinson to create a new faculty position in philosophy and expand its course offerings on moral and ethical reasoning as a key dimension of meaningful civic engagement. Additionally, incentives will be offered to all faculty members, and especially those in the arts and humanities, to incorporate civic learning and engagement into their courses and to ensure that their programs advance Dickinson’s character as an inclusive community.

Associate Provost for Civic Engagement Shalom Staub said the grant-funded initiative will speak to the core of Dickinson’s mission to make liberal-arts education a foundation for engaged citizenship. “There is indeed a broader movement that recognizes higher education is not just to prepare students for careers, but also to prepare students for lives as active citizens and community members,” Staub said.

Since December 2007, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded Dickinson $3.6 million in support of the establishment of the Center for Sustainability Education; collaborative education between liberal-arts colleges and military institutions of higher education; digital projects in the humanities; and college presidential leadership.

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Published July 18, 2016