$100,000 grant to Luther College will help define the role of liberal arts curriculum

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded Luther College a $100,000 grant to further the understanding of a liberal arts curriculum.

The money will fund a series of academic offerings that will provide students and faculty with greater opportunities for collaborative research in the humanities.

Said Luther President Paula Carlson, "Receiving a grant from the Mellon Foundation is a significant honor for Luther College.  This project will further enhance opportunities for Luther students to develop the close intellectual relationships with faculty central to a residential liberal arts college and gain deeper appreciation for the meaning and value of liberal arts study."

The grant will fund:
•      Competitive summer research grants to support collaborative projects initiated by student/faculty teams
•      Development of new interdisciplinary January Term directed-studies courses
•      Faculty development workshops exploring models of collaborative research and multi-disciplinary inquiry
•      Dissemination of the results from these collaborative research projects to demonstrate the importance of academic rigor and help the larger college community better understand the meaning, value and possibilities of a liberal arts education.

Thanks to the Mellon grant, the college will increase summer research opportunities for students in the humanities, help current and incoming students better understand the importance of a liberal arts education and assist students in developing the skills necessary to publish written work.

Implementation of the grant will begin in 2015.