FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Doug Stone
Barbara K. Laskin
July 30, 2003
(651) 696-6203

MACALESTER COLLEGE RECEIVES $800,000 GRANT FROM THE MELLON FOUNDATION

St. Paul, Minn. - Macalester College has received an $800,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in New York for use toward hiring new junior or intermediate faculty members in the humanities and social sciences in advance of faculty retirements.

Over the next several years, many of Macalester's senior faculty members, hired in the 1960s to meet the demand of the baby boom generation, will be eligible to retire. In certain academic departments the percentage of eligible faculty is dramatic: over 70 percent in History and Philosophy; 50 percent in German/Russian Studies; 40 percent in Spanish; 38 percent in English; and
29 percent in Psychology and Economics. The grant, which starts with the 2003-04 academic year and runs about seven years, will enable these retiring professors to develop mentoring relationships with their younger colleagues who succeed them and ensure that Macalester continues to be responsive to newly emerging areas of scholarship.

"This grant is extremely beneficial for Macalester since it provides the college with the resources necessary to allow senior faculty to plan for their retirement and for new faculty to be mentored by their talented senior colleagues," said Dan Hornbach, dean of the faculty and provost.

"One cannot overestimate the growth that takes place in new faculty members during the first few years in their transition from graduate student to liberal arts college faculty member. This growth can be facilitated by mentoring and team-teaching with experienced faculty. The Mellon grant will help us especially during this time of unprecedented turnover in Macalester's faculty," Hornbach said.

Macalester College, founded in 1874, is a national liberal arts college with a
full-time enrollment of 1,795 students. Macalester is nationally recognized for its long-standing commitment to academic excellence, internationalism, diversity, and service to society.