A $4.5 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will strengthen graduate education in four humanities departments in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
A $4.5 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will strengthen graduate education in four humanities departments in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The grant, announced today (March 26), will join $2.76 million in funding from the University – most to be raised in private dollars – to create the Mellon Graduate Fellowship Program. It will support graduate students in the departments of English and comparative literature, history, philosophy, and religious studies.
The Mellon Foundation grant will help fund the program’s first five years, as well as make up most of an endowment to provide permanent funding. Most of UNC’s contribution will go toward the endowment via a drive to raise $2 million in private support.
“Our ability to attract outstanding graduate students is absolutely essential to our academic reputation and prominence,” said UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp. “They inspire our faculty to do their best work and they produce first-rate scholarship in their own right. As teachers they enhance the quality of our undergraduate education. “So we’re very grateful for the Mellon Foundation’s generosity. Providing more support for graduate students ranks among our top priorities.”
Bernadette Gray-Little, executive vice chancellor and provost, said graduate student support is particularly critical for the humanities.
“In 2004, the last year for which we have national data, less than 9 percent of doctoral degrees went to humanities students,” she said. “That underscores the need for programs like this partnership we’ve undertaken with the Mellon Foundation.”
Starting in the 2009-10 academic year, the Mellon Graduate Fellowship Program will fund 12 fellowships in an initial five-year pilot phase, with four Mellon Graduate Fellows enrolling every other year. After that, five fellows will enroll every other year on a permanent basis.
The Mellon Graduate Fellowships will be shared evenly among the four supported departments. Each fellowship will be worth $33,000 per year for five years, including stipend, tuition, fees and health insurance. During their first year, Mellon Fellows will focus exclusively on coursework; during the last year solely on the dissertation. In years two, three and four, fellows will develop experience as undergraduate teachers while also pursuing their doctoral studies.
“This program will enhance our ability to compete for the best graduate students in the humanities from around the world,” said Bruce Carney, interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “We’ve been at a competitive disadvantage with some prominent universities because we didn’t have as many fellowships that offer relief from teaching duties during the crucial first and final years of graduate study. The Mellon fellowship program will go a long way toward addressing that challenge. In fact, I have told the department chairs to use the newly arrived funds to help with this year’s recruitment of the top students.
“At the same time, Mellon Fellows will teach in our classrooms, giving them valuable experience and exposing our undergraduate students to exceptionally bright young minds.”
Among UNC’s most respected academic programs, the departments in English and comparative literature, history, philosophy, and religious studies train a majority of graduate students in Carolina’s humanities disciplines – on average 375 annually. Most of their faculty members have won teaching awards, and 33 have earned the title of distinguished professor.
Headquartered in New York City, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation supports six core program areas: higher education and scholarship; scholarly communications; research in information technology; museums and art conservation; performing arts; and conservation and the environment.
For more information about The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, see http://www.mellon.org.
Development Communications contact: Scott Ragland, (919) 962-0027, scott_ragland@unc.edu
College of Arts and Sciences contact: Dee Reid, (919) 843-6339, deereid@unc.edu
News Services contact: Lisa Katz, (919) 962-2093, lisa_katz@unc.edu