Announcements
December 5, 2008
At the last Faculty Senate meeting held December 4th, Van Symons (Freistat Chair of Studies in World Peace) and members of the Council of Advisors for the Freistat Center (Tim Bloser-Peace Studies, John Tawaih-Boateng-African Studies, Nirmala Salgado-Asian Studies, Adam Kaul-European Studies, and Mariano Magalhaes-Latin American Studies) introduced several programs being offered by a newly reconfigured Willaim A. Freistat Center at Augustana. With the full support of President Bahls and me, the Center is creating a range of new initiatives that will provide grants to faculty and students at Augustana to conduct research focused upon World Peace Studies or to undertake research, in country, in Africa, Asia, Europe or Latin America. Additional grants will be given for curricular and program development focused upon these areas.
The college administration is currently working to make all the financial resources gifted to Augustana in the Freistat trust available to the Center to fund these initiatives. During the current academic year, the Center has a budget of $20,000 for program support, and next year (2009-2010) the budget will be $30,000. We plan to increase the budget in $10,000 increments until the Center is allocating 5% per annum of the trust's full value, or about $70,000. Should another bequest come from the Freistat family, financial support for these programs could double, providing still further resources to enhance the scholarly activities of faculty and students and enhance are international and peace studies programs.
Augustana College is indeed fortunate to have a bequest of well over $1,000,000 to foster the study of World Peace, Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America. We are grateful to the Freistat family for their vision and ongoing support. We encourage each of you to examine the array of new program offerings being created by those working at the William A. Freistat Center to support research and curricular development.
Initiatives funded this spring and summer, during the 2008-09 academic year, include $10,000 to support intensive language study, generally in country, by Augustana students, and $9,000 to fund "In Country Research Grants" for Augustana College Faculty. $30,000 in grants will also be awarded this spring for programs that will be run during the 2009-2010 academic year. These will include, additional "In Country Research Grants," "Travel Awards to Present Research Papers at International Conferences," "Peace Studies Curriculum Development Grants," and for students, "Student Conference Presentation Grants." The "On-Site Language Study Grants" for students during the summer 2010 will be awarded during the spring of 2010. During the 2010-2011 academic year the Center plans to add a "Visiting Scholars Program" that will enable Augustana to invite international scholars to Augustana to lecture, meet with students in classroom settings, and interact with Augustana faculty, followed in 2011-2012 by a program that brings Peace Studies scholars to campus. In 2012-2013, a program will be introduced that enables Augustana faculty to take one or two students during the summer of 2013 to either Africa, Asia, Europe or Latin America to conduct undergraduate research. Modelled after ASIANetwork's "Student-Faculty Fellows Program," this is perhaps the most elaborate program being fostered by the Freistat Center, but as resources for the Center grow, it may have the greatest impact on both student and faculty participants.
Before Christmas break, all faculty will receive a newly published brochure about the Center and its programs. In addition, this spring the Freistat Center will complete the development of a website to keep everyone informed about the Center and its programs. Until then, Freistat Center programs will be posted on the "Augustana College Grants and Awards for Professional Development" website, or feel free to contact either Dr. Symons or the member of the "Council of Advisors" focused on your area of interest (Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America or Peace Studies) for further information.
Dean Abernathy