Here is this week’s news of grants and gifts that may be of particular interest to women in higher education.
Indiana University in Bloomington received a grant from the Indiana State Department of Health to provide funding to furnish the university’s 60 wellness rooms with lactation supplies and resources. The goal is to make informational materials more readily available to nursing mothers, as well as create an environment that is clean, calming and conducive to nursing mothers’ needs. Hand sanitizers, pump sanitizers, surface wipes, baby wipes and more will be placed in each room to help maintain cleanliness. Greenery, white-noise machines and soft lighting will be placed in each room to help create the peaceful, low-stress environment needed by nursing mothers.
The University of Utah received a $300,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women. The grant funds will be used to develop better coordination of services and comprehensive prevention strategies aimed at reducing violent crimes against women and promoting victim safety. Sonia Salari, a professor in the department of family and consumer studies in the College of Social and Behavioral Science, will be a co-leader of the grant project. “The data makes it clear that violence against women is a significant problem in Utah and the majority is perpetrated by a current or former intimate partner,” Dr. Salari said. Professor Salari holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University at Albany of the State University of New York System.
Spelman College, the highly rated liberal arts educational institution for women in Atlanta, received a $500,000 grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and a $500,000 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation for programs aimed at the development of its faculty. “Faculty are the heart of a liberal arts education. Heavy teaching loads often get in the way of professional development, time for research and/or creative production. Yet, time for these activities not only keeps faculty current in their fields, but provides undergraduate research opportunities for our students,” said Mary Schmidt Campbell, president of Spelman College.