February 1, 2007, Hartford, Conn.—Trinity College announced today that it has been selected by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, based in New York City, to receive a challenge grant of $3 million contingent on the College raising additional matching funds of $9 million.
Trinity was one of 16 national liberal arts colleges invited to compete as part of the Foundation’s “Centers of Excellence” program. Seven schools were selected to receive awards. Trinity and Sarah Lawrence College received the first two awards, and were also among the four institutions selected to receive the maximum $3 million grant.
In inviting proposals from the selected colleges, the Mellon Foundation urged institutions to develop ideas that “address a major priority, leading to a long-lasting, positive educational and financial outcome.” Further, the Foundation encouraged schools to focus on an aspect of its program that had the greatest likelihood of producing meaningful change for the campus community. Trinity focused its proposal on its distinctive urban and global programs, identifying opportunities to improve linkages between the varied programs, secure their funding on a permanent basis, and to articulate their functional integration as a signature feature for Trinity. This is a new affirmation of the important relationship between Trinity and Hartford in the College’s academic mission and vision.
“Given the competition for top high school students among national liberal arts colleges and the demographic shifts expected in the next decade, colleges will need a clear, articulated focus on what differentiates one school from another, and one school from the national cohort of liberal arts colleges,” says Trinity President James F. Jones, Jr. “From our strategic planning has come the clear message that Trinity can, and must, distinguish itself as a liberal arts college in a capital city with links from our Hartford campus to cities around the world, thanks to our global sites.”
“The Mellon grant paves the way for a fundamental change in the way the College approaches liberal education and a transformation of campus culture to one that challenges assumptions about what learning means and how it takes place,” says Jones. “Over the next year, Trinity will devise a unique undergraduate model aimed at preparing our students for global citizenry. This generous grant from the Mellon Foundation is a significant vote of confidence from one of the most prominent foundations in the world that Trinity is on the right track,” Jones added.
Added Dr. Rena Fraden, the College’s Dean of the Faculty who has responsibility for recruiting a new Dean of Urban and Global Studies, “We’re committed to a model of the liberal arts that strongly incorporates off-campus engagement both in Hartford and abroad. A central task for the new dean will be to integrate the three interlocking intellectual spheres inhabited by our students: the classroom, the city, and the world.”
The College is currently engaged in a national search to recruit an accomplished scholar with demonstrated administrative expertise to fill the new position of dean of urban and global studies, with a mandate to provide overall vision and leadership for the program. Two contiguous Trinity buildings at the corner of Vernon and Broad streets will be renovated to create a physical presence for a new center for urban and global studies. When it opens, the majority of Trinity’s Hartford- and global-focused programs will be housed in this new complex.
Under the dean’s leadership, the Urban and Global Program will sustain and build linkages between Hartford, community and global programs, (community partnerships, urban engagements, academic internships, international programs, and community service and civic engagement) that previously existed separately. The College will integrate urban, local, and global concerns in a variety of ways: through the revision or creation of some courses, an increase in student research and internships in Hartford and throughout the world, and expanded student orientation programs that introduce students to the cultural, educational and experiential opportunities in Hartford. A new Cities Resource Center is expected to provide increased archival resources for students and researchers who are studying Hartford's history or seeking connections to ongoing work in cities across the U.S. and the world.
Trinity will launch an immediate campaign to secure the needed $9 million in private funding to qualify for the full $3 million challenge grant from Mellon. The College will pursue an intense 18-month effort to accomplish this goal. Virtually all the dollars raised will be permanent endowments to support these urban and global initiatives in perpetuity. Already, three donors have stepped forward to commit a total of $2.3 million in matching funds toward the Mellon Challenge.
Trinity College is an independent, nonsectarian liberal arts college that was founded in 1823 in historic Hartford, Connecticut. The College’s 2,300 undergraduates are drawn from all parts of the U.S. and nearly 30 foreign countries. The faculty includes recipients of the Pulitzer Prize, the MacArthur award, Guggenheims, Rockefellers, and other national awards. The College is home to the eighth-oldest chapter of Phi Beta Kappa in the country. With its long history of academic excellence, Trinity is consistently ranked among the country’s top liberal arts colleges.
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