Tech was recently given a $1 million grant by the Mellon Foundation towards the creation of a new learning center within the Ivan Allen College of
Liberal Arts (IAC).
The learning center, called the Digital Interdisciplinary Liberal Arts Center, will offer resources for group and project based learning within liberal arts curricula.
The center will also expand the digital areas of current programs within IAC and within the IAC’s School of Literature, Media and Communication (LMC).
The Mellon Foundation is a group that promotes higher education, the liberal arts and the contributions of the humanities and higher education to society.
They regularly give money to institutes of higher education in order to promote these goals.
The foundation has an endowment of approximately $6 billion.The Mellon Foundation has previously awarded grants to Tech, in the years 1998, 1999 and 2006 in amounts of $183,000, $240,000 and $282,000, respectively.
The Foundation has given a total of 64 grants in the Atlanta area to various organizations, totaling $25.5 million. These grants have been given to Emory, Agnes Scott, Oglethorpe, Morehouse and numerous others.
The grant to Tech is the largest the Mellon Foundation has given in the Atlanta area since 2013, when $1.5 million was given to LYRASIS in support of an open source collections management system for museums.
The Digital Interdisciplinary Liberal Arts Center will include a number of offices within the
center itself.
Dean Jacqueline J. Royster of the IAC and Professors Lauren Klein and Carl DiSalvo will create a Digital Humanities Studio to allow for practice-based research.
They will also develop a Civic Engagement Laboratory in order to allow outreach and application-based learning in the humanities.
This new project hopes to create more opportunities for IAC students and will allow them to engage in more project-based learning experiences.
Royster also thanked the Mellon Foundation in an official statement released through Communications.
“Mellon has our deepest gratitude for believing in our capacities to achieve, to produce and to make a meaningful difference both in facing global challenges.”
IAC also provides over 55 courses capable of fulfilling Tech’s global perspectives requirements for all Tech students.