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A List
8/20/07
SLU GETS GRANT FOR RHETORIC, COMMUNICATION PROGRAM
CANTON - St. Lawrence University has been awarded a $250,000 grant from The Andrew W.
Mellon Foundation, for use over five years to support a new program in rhetoric and
communication.
Integral in a liberal education, student fluency in writing, speaking, research
and information technologies requires not only the technical abilities to perform
these skills, but also the ability to analyze the use of a variety of modes of
communication in an effective and sensitive manner. As technology has taken a
progressively greater role in communication, liberal arts colleges - including
St. Lawrence - are challenged with how best to prepare students to be both
effective and responsible communicators.
A response to that challenge is the development of a program in rhetoric and
communication that links the academic support students require for the acquisition
of information literacy skills with the curricular context necessary for their
reflective and responsible use. In the University's program, student academic
support services will be merged in a centralized location, and a multi-year
program of faculty and curriculum development will be integrated across disciplines.
The grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will provide start-up funds to create
a new faculty position to direct the initiative, and to implement programming in its
support.
In the long term, the new faculty position will be supported by a recent gift from
the Maurer Family Foundation, which established the Maurer Professorship of Speech
and Rhetoric. Associate Professor of Performance and Communication Arts Kirk W. Fuoss
has been appointed to the position.
St. Lawrence University President Daniel F. Sullivan stated, "In my years as a college
president, I have implemented, overseen and observed many curricular initiatives,
but none with the long-term, transformative potential of the rhetoric and communication
program. On behalf of everyone at the University, I want to thank the Foundation
for their support for this opportunity to partner once again to enact curricular
innovation with lasting results."
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has provided St. Lawrence with a number of
generous grants over the past three decades, all of which have enabled the
University to think creatively about how to enhance the curriculum in new
and innovative ways. Examples in recent years include grant support for
the Center for Teaching and Learning; the Technology for Teaching Project;
and the Cultural Encounters Program. The Foundation also supported the pilot
for the University's acclaimed First-Year Program, which recently celebrated
its 20th anniversary.
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More information: Corporate
and Foundation Relations
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