Manor receives $50,000 Ameritech grant (03/15/98)

Manor receives $50,000 Ameritech grant

JENKINTOWN, Pa. - Manor Junior College has received a $50,000 Ameritech Distance Collaboration grant, awarded by the Foundation for Independent Higher Education (FIHE).

The grant, which is awarded by Ameritech, is one of five collaboration grants - totaling more than $248,000 - awarded to 17 of FIHE member colleges and universities. The grants are funded to encourage the use of communications technologies in ways that stimulate collaboration and innovation among FIHE member colleges.

The project, called Diversity Link, is a multi-institutional, team-taught college composition course with a cultural diversity theme, linking students from an urban campus, Manor Junior College; a rural campus, Holy Cross College (Notre Dame, Ind.); and a campus based on an Indian reservation, Presentation College (Aberdeen, S.D.). Students from each of the three colleges will be able to take Composition I and Composition II with students from all three institutions linked via compressed video or televideo.

"All course work for the composition courses will be based on cultural diversity and will focus on the ethnic backgrounds of the students," said Dr. Madeline Seltzer, the project director at Manor Junior College, the lead applicant for the Ameritech grant.

"Diversity Link will join students who are separated by great distances, using technology to give a face and a voice to unfamiliar people from unfamiliar cultures," said Dr. Seltzer.

Manor Junior College is a member of the Foundation for Independent Colleges Inc. of Pennsylvania, the local affiliate of the Foundation for Independent Higher Education. The Foundation for Independent Higher Education awarded the Ameritech grants as part of its Partnership for Private Colleges campaign, a four-year initiative to raise $16 million for the development of innovative, collaborative technology programs that benefit higher education.

"Productive, long-term collaborative efforts like these will help private colleges continue to thrive," said Ron Blake, president of Ameritech Small Business Services and a FIHE board member. "We commend Manor Junior College and its partner colleges for their enthusiasm, teamwork and commitment to the work that's being funded. This project is a wonderful example of how colleges can work together and use technology to solve tough problems."

To qualify for the Ameritech Distance Collaboration Grants Program, colleges were required to create a consortium that included at least three FIHE-affiliated institutions, one of which had to be a college within Ameritech's Midwest service area. Eligible collaborations comprised colleges in two or more states for which physical exchanges of student, faculty and administrators is not feasible.

The Ameritech Distance Collaboration Grants Program is funded by the Ameritech Foundation and represents continued and increased support for private higher education - particularly in the Midwest, where Ameritech has contributed more than $2.4 million in the last three years to the state independent college associations in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin.

Ameritech, which serves millions of customers in 50 states and 40 countries, provides a full range of communications services, including local and long distance telephone, cellular, paging, security monitoring, cable TV, Internet services and more.

Founded in 1958, the Foundation for Independent Higher Education is a national organization that works on behalf of 38 state and regional independent college funds and their affiliated 635 private colleges and universities. More than $1 billion has been secured through the collaborative efforts of the independent college funds for scholarship programs, the education of public school teachers, the enhancement of science and mathematics education, student voluntary service and minority education achievement.