CU-Boulder Chancellor Richard Byyny and Tuskegee University President Benjamin Payton will sign an agreement on Monday, Oct. 16, that will join the two campuses in an exchange of students, faculty, curriculum and technology.
The agreement will be signed at the Kellogg Conference Center on the campus of Tuskegee University.
"The goal of our program with Tuskegee University is to enhance the quality of teaching, learning and research at both institutions, with special emphasis on information technology programs for non-technical majors," said Byyny. "Our agreement will establish an academic exchange, which also will help inform the larger academic community about how ethnically different populations teach and learn in a technology-assisted academic program."
The agreement includes undergraduate student exchanges, facilitation of a graduate student pipeline from Tuskegee to CU-Boulder and faculty exchanges.
The partnership has already prompted the award of a National Science Foundation grant to CU-Boulder and Tuskegee. Among other areas of study, the NSF award includes a study of the use of technology with K-12 teachers in predominately black Macon County, Ala.
"This exchange agreement will significantly enrich the experiences available to our students as well as expand the areas of study open to them," said Tuskegee's Payton. "This collaborative agreement will not only prepare students of all disciplines for lives and leadership careers in the new networked information age, it will also enhance cultural and racial diversity on both campuses. Coping with diversity in this technology-driven, global society is one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century."
CU's Alliance for Technology, Learning and Society (ATLAS) initiative is a focus of the exchange on the Boulder campus. ATLAS' most prominent feature to date is its Technology, Arts and Media (TAM) Certificate, which will be part of the curriculum available to exchange students and will be developed further as a facet of the NSF award.
Initially, the program will feature the exchange of 6-10 undergraduate students in both directions, most probably for the spring semester of 2001. Those exchanges will last for one semester, with an equal number of students participating each academic year. Participating students will pay tuition and fees at their respective home institutions and take courses without charge at the partner school. Housing will be provided in campus residence halls.
Faculty exchanges are scheduled to commence in the fall of 2001, and may vary in duration from several days to an academic year. Each institution will fund salaries of participating faculty and provide university sponsored housing. Again, the goal will be to provide an equal number of faculty to each school each academic year.
The graduate student pipeline will provide both institutions the opportunity to participate in graduate student recruitment and postdoctoral activities.
Tuskegee University was founded in 1881 by Booker T. Washington, and currently enrolls 3,000 students from 48 states and 36 foreign countries. Tuskegee has a distinct concentration of strength in the biomedical sciences, engineering, life and physical sciences, agriculture and the food sciences, education and business.
The university ranks first in the country in graduating African-American aerospace science engineers, and it is one of only two universities funded by NASA to develop technology for growing food in space during human space missions. Tuskegee is also a national leader in graduating African-American chemical, electrical and mechanical engineers.
Seventy-five percent of all African-American veterinarians in the world are graduates of Tuskegee's College of Veterinary Medicine.
This signing will be the culmination of several visits by students, faculty and staff to both campuses in an effort that is anticipated to be academically and culturally rewarding for both institutions.