Chancellor Richard Byyny of the University of Colorado at Boulder and President Michael Lomax of Dillard University in New Orleans have announced that the two schools are forging a new educational technology partnership in conjunction with CU-Boulder's ATLAS initiative.
The two institutions each bring significant strengths and aspirations to the project, according to Bobby Schnabel, associate vice chancellor for academic and campus technology and the faculty director for ATLAS, the Alliance for Technology, Learning and Society.
Dillard University is a private, historically black, liberal arts undergraduate institution that is realigning its core curriculum around global competence and awareness, language and literacy and undergraduate research. CU-Boulder's ATLAS initiative seeks to prepare students of all disciplines for lives and leadership careers in the networked information age.
The partnership has been bolstered by a $550,000 grant from the Carnegie Foundation of New York. The grant establishes a 15-month demonstration project on "Liberal Arts Curriculum in a Technological Age."Ìý
"It's been very exciting to witness the cross-country planning and creative thinking that have emerged from the collaborative effort between Dillard and CU-Boulder," said Lomax. "Once we've completed the project, the gained knowledge will prove highly beneficial."
Lomax has been a catalyst in the ATLAS relationship and in providing dynamic new leadership at Dillard. He was appointed by President Bush to the 21-member Historically Black College and University Advisory Board, and is the former chair of county commissioners of Fulton County, Ga.
According to Byyny, the ATLAS-Dillard relationship will not only strengthen technology programs for non-technical and technical students at both institutions, but could very possibly serve as a pilot for higher education across the country.
The joint project will create new liberal arts course materials in calculus and humanities that will be shared and delivered by faculty on both campuses. Web-based technologies and videoconferencing will be used in the course modules to improve student learning.
Additionally, the project will lay the groundwork for the creation of a faculty training program at Dillard in educational technology and will strive to increase the number of Dillard graduates attending graduate school, hopefully at CU-Boulder. Faculty and student exchange programs also will be launched.
Two Dillard students are participating in CU-Boulder's Summer Multicultural Access to Research Training, the SMART program, and two Dillard faculty members may participate in CU-Boulder's Faculty Teaching Excellence Program this summer.
CU-Boulder's ATLAS program has been supported with major private gifts from Jim and Becky Roser and from AT&T Broadband.
For more information on the ATLAS initiative at CU-Boulder see .