C.W. Post Awarded $2 Million in Federal Education Grants
Will fund collaborations with Nassau BOCES, NYU & CUNY

Brookville, N.Y. - The C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University has been awarded more than $2 million in federal grants for partnerships with Nassau County BOCES, New York University and the City University of New York involving librarianship and the teaching of American history.

The funding will cover three programs:

• C.W. Post and Nassau BOCES will use $999,999 to provide professional development for 135teachers of American history from 11 Nassau County school districts over the course of three years. The C.W. Post School of Education will sponsor development sessions featuring nationally renowned historians to help history teachers develop a deeper understanding and appreciation of U.S. history.
  
• The goal of this project is to demonstrate how local education agencies and universities with expertise in American history can collaborate over a three-year period to ensure that teachers develop the knowledge and skills necessary to teach traditional American history in an exciting and engaging way, said Iftikhar Ahmad, an associate professor of social studies at C.W. Post and director of the project.
  Funding for the program comes from the U.S. Department of Educations Teaching American History Grant Program.
  The Palmer School of Library and Information Science, a unit of the C.W. Post College of Information and Computer Science, and New York University have been awarded $700,133 for their innovative dual-degree scholar-librarian program.
  
• The program, launched in September 2006, prepares students for careers in academic institutions, research institutes, cultural organizations, and other settings by conferring two masters degrees - one in a liberal arts subject from NYU's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and one in library and information science from the Palmer School.
  The grant, from the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program of the Institute of Library and Museum Services, will provide scholarships of up to $24,000 for Palmer School tuition to a total of 20 students over the next three years.
  
• The Palmer School will use another grant from the 21st Century Librarian Program in partnership with the City University of New York, placing 30 specially trained interns in the special collections departments of CUNY over a three-year period to assist with digital projects to expand access to CUNY's historical, cultural, and aesthetic materials. The Palmer School will also expand its curriculum by at least one course to teach up-to-the-minute skills suited to CUNY's needs.
  The grant for this program was $316,967.

Posted: August 28, 2007