Mellon Foundation grant to reshape Southwestern Paideia program
A $500,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will help Southwestern University expand parts of the Paideia program to all students.
Southwestern started its Paideia program in 2003 to give students additional opportunities to make connections between what they were learning in the classroom and the world around them, and to act upon their learning. In addition to their overall academic curricula, program participants fulfill requirements in civic engagement, intercultural learning and undergraduate research.
The new program, which is being informally referred to as Paideia For All, is scheduled to start in the 2014–15 academic year.
Grant aims to help low-income ACC students transfer to Southwestern
A three-year, $450,000 grant from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation will pave the way for nearly 50 low-income Austin Community College students to transfer to Southwestern University.
The grant will also allow each group of students enrolled over the three-year period to be supported by a network of services aimed at helping them earn a bachelor's degree, according to a news release.
Two groups of students will be selected in the 2012–13 school year.
The program will target students at ACC who are first-generation, low-income college students, said Virginia Fraire, dean of students at ACC's Riverside Campus and process holder for transfer services at ACC.
University receives EPA award
Southwestern University was named the top school in the Environmental Protection Agency's sixth College and University Green Power Challenge for 2011–12.
Southwestern University signed an agreement that will enable it to meet all its electric needs for the next 18 years with wind power. The agreement will help Southwestern toward its long-term goal of being carbon-neutral. The university is committed to carbon neutrality through the American College and University President's Climate Commitment, which formally commits campuses to eliminate their greenhouse gas emissions and net contributions to climate change.
For more information on the winners of EPA's College and University Green Power Challenge, visit www.epa.gov/greenpower/initiatives/cu_challenge.htm.
Southwestern University names Joe Austin head football coach
Joe Austin started with Southwestern University on Feb. 27 as the head of its football program.
Austin has a 13-year history of building college football programs from the ground up, according to a news release from the university. He most recently served as head coach at Hanover College, a liberal arts college in Hanover, Ind.
Prior to going to Hanover in 2008, Austin served as the offensive coordinator at the University of Dubuque in Dubuque, Iowa.
The new Southwestern football team is scheduled to play its first game against Texas Lutheran University on Sept. 7, 2013. Southwestern will play its home games at Birkelbach Field, 2275 N. Austin Ave. The university is building new practice fields and an athletic fieldhouse on land it owns on the east side of its campus.
Southwestern announced in October 2011 that it would reinstate football in the 2013–14 academic year after a 62-year hiatus. Southwestern previously played intercollegiate football from 1908 to 1951 and was a charter member of the Southwest Conference.
