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By Darin Stone
Arizona Daily Wildcat
September 16, 1996
The Arizona International Campus of the UA recently received three federal grants totaling $205,206 to help develop the campus' faculty, students and curriculum.The first grant AIC received was from the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Sustainable Development and Intergovernmental Affairs. The NOAA's $15,000 grant will train faculty and provide instructional materials and field equipment, such as computers designed to teach the sustainable development goals of AIC's core curriculum.
According to an AIC press release, the Department of Commerce has defined sustainable development as "a new framework of thinking," rooted in the belief that "community and economic viability, environmental quality, and social equity are interrelated."
Celestino Fernandez, AIC executive vice president and provost, said the NOAA grant will help spur the growth of AIC's library.
Edwin Clausen, academic house adviser and professor, said the NOAA issued the grant to AIC because of its unique approach to teaching and curriculum.
"They (NOAA) liked our idea of introducing quality of life issues into our core curriculum for students," Clausen said. "No other college in the country does this."
Clausen said that with the funding, the university can design courses and procure materials to enable all students to learn about quality of life issues.
Fernandez said the NOAA funds will also give AIC faculty the opportunity to expand their knowledge of issues relating to the quality of life, such as introducing the idea of sustainable development to the community and using resources effectively.
AIC received a second grant of $15,600 from the NOAA, designed to introduce sustainable development ideas to the Arizona-Mexico Commission.
"This idea of this grant is to undertake a project to introduce the Arizona-Mexico Commission members to the idea of sustainable development and to develop baseline data on their knowledge of and attitudes toward sustainable development," said Quinn Owen, AIC's development officer.
With the grant, Owen said, AIC will provide a speaker to the commission, but the date and the speaker have yet to be determined.
The final grant was from the U.S. Department of Education's Fund for Improvement in Postsecondary Education.
FIPSE awarded AIC $174,606 to develop an awards system to measure how well faculty meets the pre-determined outcomes for students.
Fernandez said it was no easy task to receive the FIPSE funds.
"There were hundreds of applicants," Fernandez said.
"(The federal government) made one review then asked us to submit a larger proposal. The competition was tough," he said.
Clausen said the extensive, final proposal for the FIPSE grant was 25 to 30 pages. AIC was in the pool of 3 percent who received FIPSE grants out of approximately 1,800 applicants, he said.
Fernandez said the grant will encourage the faculty to develop measures directed toward student achievement.
"If we as an institution can develop basic competencies in our core curriculum, it's the result of the faculty delivering," Fernandez said.
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