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The University News

The Student News Site of Saint Louis University

The University News

The Student News Site of Saint Louis University

The University News

SLU Receives $150,000 Grant For Project SLU2000 Pedagogy Enhancement Program

Last week Saint Louis University received notice that it would be receiving a grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Program.

In mid-January University President Lawrence Biondi, S.J., had requested $150,000 over two years from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Program for the assessment, evaluation and dissemination of the Project SLU2000 Pedagogy Enhancement Program.

The money from the grant will help make Project SLU2000 a $96 million reality.

SLU2000 initiatives include adding 100 more introductory classes and 32 more faculty. It will also give undergraduate students a more involved education by funding additional field trips for students and providing opportunities to speak with teachers on a one-to-one basis more often.

“The Pedagogy Enhancement Program (PEP) will directly impact 1,400 undergraduate students annually by establishing 100 new inquiry courses to be taught by experienced and highly motivated senior full-time faculty,” Biondi stated in a letter to Raymond F. Bachetti, program officer for The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

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The grant will “establish a permanent resource within the University’s Paul C. Reinert Center for Teaching Excellence in order to assure that Pedagogy Enhancement Program is successful and that the best practices resulting from the program are broadly disseminated both within and outside the University,” stated Provost Sandra Johnson in the proposal to the Foundation.

The University hopes that the grant will help the project in two main areas: first, a faculty development program, to assist in the flow of ideas among faculty members; second, to measure the excellence of teaching and student ability.

The second area may seem like a difficult task, though the University plans to attempt measuring this through examinations, portfolios, attitudes and activities.

“(The grant) gives us that little extra that helps the faculty develop their skills and helps the faculty help the faculty,” Johnson said.

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, located in Menlo Park, California, created a program seven years ago in support of general education in research universities seven years ago.

Over 50 schools have received the grant since its inception. Some of those schools are Brown University, UCLA, University of California, Santa Cruz, Stanford, NYU and Washington University.

The grant is offered to research schools all across the country and is considered a major assistant in improving universities.

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