Subject: UVA receives $25 million to integrate IT & humanities
NINCH-ANNOUNCE (david@ninch.org)
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 12:12:27 -0400
Message-Id: <v04210116b614c78b2609@[192.100.21.22]> Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 12:12:27 -0400 To: ninch-announce@cni.org, bb-all@ninch.org From: NINCH-ANNOUNCE <david@ninch.org> Subject: UVA receives $25 million to integrate IT & humanities
NINCH ANNOUNCEMENT
News on Networking Cultural Heritage Resources
from across the Community
October 19, 2000
Halsey Minor Gives $25 Million to University of Virginia
To Create 21st-century Digital Academical Village
Includes funding for research center to foster meaningful
intellectual partnerships between computer scientists and humanists
http://www.virginia.edu/topnews/releases2000/minorgift-oct-18-2000.html
This news release from the University of Virginia is very encouraging.
David Green
===========
>Oct. 18, 2000 -- Halsey M.Minor, founder and chairman of CNET Inc.,
>will give $25 million to the University of Virginia
>to integrate digital technology with the humanities and social
>sciences in ways that promise to redefine a liberal arts education
>in the Internet Age.
>
>University President John T. Casteen III called Minor's gift
>extraordinary in its foresight. "His creative thinking and
>generosity will help us to infuse new ways of teaching and learning
>into our classrooms and our libraries so that we can play a key role
>in transforming higher education more broadly through innovative
>uses of digital technology," Casteen said.
>
>Minor's challenge gift is designed to encourage other donors --
>individuals, corporations, foundations and governmental entities -
>to match his commitment in both funds and support for the project.
>The gift is the largest ever to U.Va.'s College of Arts & Sciences,
>and will help create a 21st-century Digital Academical Village,
>modeled on Thomas Jefferson's original Academical Village, where
>faculty and students live and learn in proximity to one another.
>
>The Digital Academical Village will comprise:
> * a research center that will foster meaningful intellectual
>partnerships between computer scientists and humanists, as well as
>integrate technology into traditional forms of teaching and
>scholarship;
> * new multi-disciplinary undergraduate and graduate programs in
>media studies and digital media that emphasize the understanding and
>imaginative uses of new technology;
> * a cutting-edge academic facility to house these programs, other
>existing digital initiatives, and related academic departments and
>programs.
>
>"Our aim will be to make the University the world leader in using
>technology and in assessing its role in human affairs," said Melvyn
>P. Leffler, dean of the College of Arts & Sciences. "We have been
>pioneers in using digital technology for humanities research,
>teaching and outreach. This gift enables us to reach a new level of
>sophistication in our efforts to analyze, preserve, and transmit
>human culture."
>
>Minor, who graduated in 1987 with a degree in anthropology, has been
>fascinated with technology since his youth. This passion has
>inspired each of Minor's entrepreneurial ventures, from a database
>driven apartment-locating business in Charlottesville, to CNET
>Networks, today one of the world's leading new media companies.
>Minor founded CNET in 1992 to provide trusted information about
>technology and pioneered new ways to use the Internet and digital
>technology to deliver that information in more efficient, useful
>ways than had ever been done before. Today, CNET Networks is one of
>the top 10 destinations on the Internet, with award-winning Web
>sites, television and radio programming that reaches millions of
>people around the world every day.
>
>Minor hopes his gift will be a catalyst for the University to evolve
>and improve higher education through the innovative use of new
>technology. "Education will inevitably be transformed by the force
>of the Internet and digital technology. There is an opportunity now
>to propel that transformation with private philanthropy and generate
>a leveraged benefit. My goal is to facilitate the University's work
>in developing programs and practices that will become models for
>teaching and learning in the 21st century and will be shared among
>other institutions of higher learning, and ultimately in K-12
>classrooms here and around the world."
>
> Some of the ultimate goals of the project include:
> * establishing the University as a world leader in integrating
>computer and information sciences with the humanities and social
>sciences;
> * sharing new models of teaching and research with other
>universities and constituencies around the globe;
> * redefining a liberal arts education in America to reflect the
>impact of digital technology;
> * educating a new generation of young people who understand
>technology, its practical applications, and its social and economic
>implications;
> * promoting innovative uses of digital education to help close the
>digital divide;
> * disseminating Jeffersonian ideals in a global community of knowledge.
>
>
>The implications of these initiatives embody Jefferson's original
>vision for the University, Leffler said. It is the hope of all
>involved that they reach beyond the physical boundaries of the
>Academical Village to link the day's most advanced scientific and
>scholarly thinking to the civic and cultural life of democratic
>societies worldwide.
>
>Minor's gift offers unprecedented opportunities to help the
>University realize the aims of Virginia 2020, a long-term planning
>process that is focused on achieving higher standards of excellence
>in four key areas, including science and technology. It represents
>the first of a series of "bridge centers" at U.Va. envisioned to
>integrate technology into research and teaching throughout the
>University's curriculum.
>
> Minor's gift will be counted in the Campaign for the University of
>Virginia, which to date has raised $1.2 billion.
>
> FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: please contact the Office of University
>Relations at (804) 924-7116. Television reporters should contact the
>TV News Office at (804) 924-7550. SOURCE: U.Va. News Services
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