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Corporation News
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Visionaries At Berkeley,
Syracuse Honored With Top Educator’s Prize
Robert Birgeneau,
Nancy Cantor, Champions of Excellence and Equity in Education, Win
$500,000 Carnegie Corporation Academic Leadership Award
New
York, New York, June 17, 2008—The 2008 Carnegie Corporation
Academic Leadership Award honors two innovators—Robert J.
Birgeneau, Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley,
and Nancy Cantor, Chancellor and President of Syracuse University—whose
commitments to equity, access to an affordable education, curricular
innovations and excellent liberal arts instruction are preparing
students to exceed in a global era. The awards were announced today
by Vartan Gregorian, president of Carnegie Corporation of New York.
The
Carnegie Corporation Academic Leadership Award annually celebrates
outstanding individuals whose uncompromising commitment to academic
excellence and bold, visionary leadership are establishing new standards
for U.S. higher education. Honorees are reviewed and approved by
a committee of Carnegie Corporation of New York’s board of
trustees. Berkeley and Syracuse will each receive a grant of $500,000
to be used for the express purpose, and at the discretion, of the
respective winners to fund work that contributes to each one’s
academic priorities.
“With intellectual ferocity, creativity and sheer will, Robert
Birgeneau and Nancy Cantor have created for their students an even
deeper, more engaging academic experience aimed not just at sustaining
America’s world-class system of higher education, but transforming
it to equip students for success in a global knowledge economy,”
said Vartan Gregorian. “Recognizing that higher education
is for many families the gateway to the American Dream—the
principal means of achieving social mobility—Birgeneau and
Cantor have each implemented programs in their respective communities
to improve college readiness.” Gregorian also added that this
year’s winners continue to advocate for increased access to
quality higher education regardless of socioeconomic status.
The Award recognizes leaders of institutions of higher education
who have an abiding commitment to liberal arts and who have initiated
and supported curricular innovations, including development of interdisciplinary
and multidisciplinary programs that aim to bridge the gulf between
the theoretical and the practical. In addition, the award honors
leadership that actively supports K-12 school reform, strengthens
teacher education and emphasizes community outreach.
2008
Academic Leadership Award winners:
Nancy
Cantor, Chancellor and President of Syracuse University,
has elevated the national reputation of Syracuse University through
her ambitious “Scholarship in Action” campaign to build
upon the school’s scholarly distinction; access and support
the best students from all socio-economic and cultural spheres;
and better engage with the surrounding community, the nation and
the world. Her efforts have played a key role in improving relations
with the surrounding community and spearheading badly needed economic
development in Central New York. A recognized scholar in social
psychology and an advocate for racial justice and diversity in higher
education, her accomplishments include helping to found Imagining
America, an initiative now hosted by Syracuse University that involves
a consortium of 80 colleges and universities whose mission is to
strengthen the public role and democratic purposes of the humanities,
arts and design. President Cantor’s commitment to diversity
in higher education was illustrated by her involvement, while at
the University of Michigan, in the defense of affirmative action
in the cases Gutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger,
decided by the Supreme Court in 2004. She has also been a key force
in the Partnership for Better Education, an alliance between Syracuse
University and the Syracuse City School District to assist area
high school students in pursuing higher education by providing new
opportunities for quality instruction in the arts, literacy, science
and technology, engineering and math.
Robert
J. Birgeneau, Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley,
an internationally distinguished physicist, is well known for his
commitment to student and faculty diversity and equity in the academic
community. Starting with a landmark study he commissioned when dean
of sciences at MIT, he has been a nationally prominent advocate
for improving opportunities for women faculty in the sciences. At
UC Berkeley, he has introduced important initiatives to focus on
international challenges such as global poverty, climate change,
and multi-cultural societies and has built strong links with the
surrounding community. Birgeneau has emerged as a leading spokesman
for public higher education and the importance of ensuring America's
young people have access to the best education available. He is
a champion for maintaining affordability —particularly to
families of limited means— noting that public universities,
which educate the majority of the nation’s undergraduates,
lack the substantial endowments and other financial resources available
to private institutions. In a related effort, Chancellor Birgeneau
has advocated on behalf of undocumented students who have completed
secondary education in U.S. schools but are barred from receiving
the financial aid necessary to continue their education. In a testament
to his efforts to equip public universities to compete effectively
with private institutions, the university received the largest grant
in its history: the $110 million Hewlett Foundation Challenge, designed
to ensure the development and retention of top-level faculty by
endowing eighty chairs and twenty “distinguished” chairs
spanning multiple academic areas. In addition, Chancellor Birgeneau
has helped to develop and expand several strategic programs aimed
at students from challenging backgrounds, including the incentive
awards program, which provides a full scholarship as well as support
services to low-income students who have demonstrated leadership
potential and academic excellence. Other initiatives Chancellor
Birgeneau has spearheaded include cal prep, a new charter school
collaborative between the Berkeley campus and aspire public schools,
designed to immerse students in a culture of high academic expectations,
improve their preparation for college and develop a model teaching
curricula for college readiness.
The annual Carnegie Corporation Academic Leadership Award, established
in 2005, was initially awarded every two years. Previous winners
are: Jared Cohon, President of Carnegie Mellon University (2005);
Henry S. Bienen, President of Northwestern University (2005); Don
Randel, former President of the University of Chicago (2005); and
Matthew Goldstein, Chancellor of the City University of New York
(2007).
The
Academic Leadership Award is not simply an award: it is also an
investment in leadership by the Corporation and builds on the foundation's
long tradition of developing and recognizing leadership in higher
education. In the Carnegie Quarterly of April 1959, published
during the presidency of John Gardner, the strength of the Corporation's
grants program was described as seeking to be “as responsive
as possible to the expressed concerns of college and university
leaders” and to “lend itself to the kinds of giving
which will strengthen the institution in terms which the president
considers necessary.” The reestablishment of this award for
academic leadership renews and continues a Carnegie Corporation
higher education tradition. The selection process is initiated by
the Corporation and does not depend on external nominators or recommendations.
Carnegie
Corporation of New York was founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to
promote “the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding.”
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