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Barnard
Receives Mellon Grant to Support Study Programs and Seminars
Outside Class Room
New York,
NY— The Andrew Mellon Foundation has awarded Barnard
College $100,000 in continuing support for innovative programs
outside the classroom, including first-year seminars in residence
halls and faculty-sponsored study trips for juniors and seniors.
"The Mellon Grant builds on Barnard’s strength in
academic advising and enhances the sense of community on campus,"
said Dean Marjorie Silverman, who administers the grant.
The new grant will provide funding for the two successful
programs initiated in 2000 – first-year seminars offered
in residence halls and faculty-sponsored trips for junior
and senior majors. In addition, the grant will support two
new pilot projects to strengthen advising, including web-based
materials for advisers and advisees and activities in residence
halls and off-campus for majors who lack a natural community
base.
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| Senior
Lecturer Joan Snitzer with art history/visual arts concentration
majors in front of Chrstie's auction house in London |
The other
components of the original program – interdisciplinary
advising clusters, sophomore seminars, and leadership training,
will be maintained with the College’s funding.
Since 2000, when the Mellon Foundation provided an initial
grant of $122,000, Barnard developed 11 residentially based
first-year seminars for 176 students; sophomore seminars to
introduce the humanities and social sciences; faculty-sponsored
trips for junior and senior majors; and faculty-led discussions
on leadership.
"We have found these seminars to be highly successful
both academically and as a way to build community," said
Dorothy Denburg, Dean of the College. "They provide closer
connections between students and faculty and between students,
sparking discussion outside the classroom and encouraging
extensive conversations at dinners and on field trips."
A January 2003 trip to London for seniors with art history/visual
arts concentration majors led by Senior Lecturer Joan Snitzer,
is a good example of the success of these programs.
"During our intensive one-week visit, we were able to
compare European heritage to the current art climate in New
York and had an opportunity to visit the most eminent artist
studios and museums. We were even given a private tour of
the auction house Christie’s, hosted by a Barnard alumna,"
said Snitzer.
The latest grant will provide support for web-based advising
materials and residentially based programming for students
with three types of "isolated" majors, including
special, independent majors; majors in departments housed
at Columbia; and majors in small departments.
Four new web-based advising projects will be initiated to
help advisors work more efficiently with students, including
electronic surveys, a comprehensive course library; information
sheets on the general education requirements, and computerized
audits of majors.
To solve the issue of the "isolated" majors, the
goal of the new grant is to provide programming to enhance
the sense of community, including brainstorming sessions between
students, faculty and the junior class dean; dinners twice
a semester to bring together the majors in these groups; clustering
of majors in small departments into larger groupings; student-professor
lunches; and opportunities for seniors to present their cap-stone
projects at the end-of-the-year symposiums set in residence
halls.
"This grant is going to further enhance Barnard’s
strength in advising. In fact, among our peer institutions,
and among our students, we are known as the "advising
institution," said Dean Silverman.
Contact:
Petra Tuomi, Office of Public Affairs, 212-854-7907
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