Today, the Teagle Foundation, which works to strengthen and broaden access to liberal arts education, announced $3,940,600 in new grants. These grants, awarded to a range of institutions across the country, from community colleges to research universities as well as nonprofit educational organizations, advance the foundation’s efforts to engage students of all backgrounds with the liberal arts. The grants are distributed through three initiatives: Cornerstone: Learning for Living; Education for American Civic Life; and Transfer Pathways to the Liberal Arts.
“Liberal education prepares college students to engage with the most challenging issues facing our society,” said Andrew Delbanco, President of the Teagle Foundation. “These grants will encourage more students to experience the humanities, build their knowledge of American democratic ideals and institutions, and, for students in community colleges who hope to earn a bachelor’s degree, help them realize that hope by facilitating transfer to a four-year liberal arts institution.”
Under the Cornerstone: Learning for Living initiative in partnership with the National Endowment for the Humanities, which aims to reinvigorate the role of the humanities in general education, 26 implementation and planning grants were awarded to create common conversations around transformative texts for incoming students and more coherent pathways through general education that connect the humanities with fields they are studying with an eye toward post-college careers. The initiative encourages students to tackle enduring questions and consider diverse perspectives on pressing problems. There will now be 23 campuses across the country implementing the Cornerstone program model. Almost half are federally designated minority-serving institutions and/or community colleges. For example, Clark Atlanta University, Tuskegee University and Virginia Union University–all Historically Black Colleges and Universities–are redesigning their first-year seminar required of all incoming students around shared texts. In total, 15,000 first-year undergraduates are projected to participate in a common intellectual experience and benefit from grant-supported reforms in general education at the participating campuses by fall 2023.
The Teagle Foundation is also providing three Education for American Civic Life implementation grants. This program helps undergraduate students connect big questions in governance, history, and law to the local history and current conditions of the community outside the campus gates. This year, grants have been awarded to the City College of New York, the Minnesota Humanities Center, and the University of North Carolina Wilmington, to provide students with comprehensive civic education that connects to local history and encourages public service.
In the latest cohort of the Transfer Pathways to the Liberal Arts program, jointly sponsored by the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, one planning grant and two implementation grants will be given to streamline academic requirements for transfer from two-year community colleges to four-year independent colleges with an eye to ensuring timely baccalaureate completion. This program is now scaling implementation of transfer pathways in 12 states, including efforts to roll out guaranteed transfer admission at participating independent colleges and guaranteed access to institutional grant aid to community college students who meet eligibility criteria in Oregon, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont.
Learn more about the Teagle Foundation’s major initiatives here and see the full grant database here.
###
The Teagle Foundation works to support and strengthen liberal arts education, which we see as fundamental to meaningful work, effective citizenship, and a fulfilling life. Our aim is to serve as a catalyst for the improvement of teaching and learning in the arts and sciences while addressing issues of financial sustainability and accountability in higher education.