The New York Six Liberal Arts Consortium, of which Colgate University is a member, has received a $600,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support collaborative programs in the areas of library collections, information technology, faculty and student development, and diversity.
The three-year grant will provide significant funding for the consortium’s MediaShare Project, a joint library-information technology initiative designed to facilitate the sharing of media collections and technologies, leverage resources, and enhance services through cooperation and coordination.
It also will create the New York Six Network, a series of activities designed to help faculty, staff, and students on the six campuses to explore and develop useful, productive collaborations.
These programs emerged from a one-year planning initiative, also funded by the Mellon Foundation.
“We’re excited about working with our consortium partners to leverage these great resources and make them available to our campus communities,” said Colgate President Jeffrey Herbst. “Utilizing technology to its fullest potential is an important component of our academic mission here at Colgate.”
In addition to Colgate, the consortium comprises five other upstate New York liberal arts institutions: Hamilton College, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, St. Lawrence University, Skidmore College, and Union College.
Colgate recently hosted the consortium’s first Student Diversity Leadership Conference, at which student leaders from the six schools had a chance to make recommendations on what their schools’ administrations and faculty can do to enhance the overall college experience for multicultural and international students.