STATE UNIVERSITIES
Ferris State University center receives grants for the arts
The Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, an enterprise of Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University, has received two $50,000 grants, one from the National Endowment for the Arts and another from the Wege Foundation. Both grants will support the Grand Rapids DisArt Festival and its Art of the Lived Experiment exhibition in 2015, events celebrating works by artists with disabilities.
MSU alumni establish music scholarships
Michigan State University alumni Paul and Margaret Mistele of Ventura, California, have made estate plans to direct a charitable bequest to MSU’s College of Music, with an estimated current value of $1.05 million. When realized, this gift will provide approximately $50,000 in scholarship funds annually to support students of piano and brass.
SVSU foundation tops $1M milestone in resource grants
The Saginaw Valley State University Foundation has topped a major milestone in its support for students, passing the $1 million threshold in resource grants awarded to SVSU faculty and staff for special student-focused initiatives. Established in 1998, the resource grant program seeks to stimulate innovation and enriching opportunities for students by providing funds for programs, projects or travel. Proposals must be submitted by SVSU faculty or staff.
PEER INSTITUTIONS
NIH grants Indiana $1.4 million towards glaucoma research
Two Indiana University professors of optometry, William H. Swanson and Stephen A. Burns, will use a $1.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to advance innovations made in their respective labs toward overcoming longstanding barriers to the development of new treatments for glaucoma. Glaucoma is the second-leading cause of permanent blindness in the world.
University of Iowa president to retire in August
Sally Mason has announced she will retire on August 1, 2015, after serving as president of the University of Iowa for eight years. Mason became the University of Iowa’s 20th president in August 2007. Since then she has overseen unprecedented construction on Iowa’s campus and has also dedicated considerable attention to raising funds to support scholarships, research and facilities. Since 2008, the university has raised $1.4 billion.
