University of Nebraska Foundation awards grants to UNL

University of Nebraska-Lincoln programs focused on student diversity, undergraduate teaching and agricultural research are benefiting from grants totaling $430,000 from the University of Nebraska Foundation. The foundation's grants committee awards funds each year to campus projects.

About the grants, UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman said, "This funding provides the critical difference that assists us in making important strides toward our goal of becoming one of the nation's top land-grant research universities."

These are the items funded:

Multicultural Center ($250,000): In March, UNL students voted to approve expansion of the Nebraska Union to include a 30,000-square-foot multicultural center to be funded with student fees and private donations. The long-awaited center will be dedicated to diversity and multicultural programming and will include offices for faculty, staff and students, meeting rooms, tutoring rooms, computer lab and a multi-use area. The foundation's grants committee also committed to providing an additional $750,000 in future years.

Initiative for Teaching and Learning Excellence ($122,277): In its third year, this initiative provides targeted support to projects that enhance undergraduate student learning and advising. Dozens of academic projects have received a boost from the program, which also received a grant from the foundation last year.

Panhandle Research Feedlot Expansion ($55,000): This grant helped the Panhandle Research and Extension Center in Scottsbluff construct and equip a new feedlot, expanding its capacity and capability to conduct regionally relevant cattle feeding, herd management research and extension programs.

The NU Foundation's grants committee awarded 10 grants across the NU system totaling $1.05 million for 2006-2007. Much of the annual grant resources are made available from unrestricted donations to the foundation.

"We are very gratified with the enthusiastic responses from each of the campuses to our request for proposals," said grants committee chair Veronica Haggart, a University of Nebraska graduate and St. Paul native. "It is always rewarding to see how the boost to the programs selected for funding enables the university to further enhance the lives of so many people both on and off the campus."

The University of Nebraska Foundation is an independent, nonprofit organization raising private gifts to support the University of Nebraska for more than 70 years. More than $87 million was provided last year for students, faculty, academic programs, research and building and campus capital improvements. More information is available at www.nufoundation.org.

Contact: Robb Crouch, Director of Public Relations, NU Foundation, (402) 458-1142