Second-year Wisconsin Idea Endowment projects receive funding
Eight new outreach projects that touch on science, culture, community service, environmental issues and smoking prevention will be funded under the second year of the Ira and Ineva Reilly Baldwin Wisconsin Idea Endowment, with the goal of building partnerships, engaging communities, and transferring knowledge and resources to people across Wisconsin.
“The creative ideas and outreach activities arising from the teaching and research of our faculty, staff and students are tremendous,” says Provost Peter Spear. “The number, range and quality of this year’s proposals show the widespread interest in amplifying the Wisconsin Idea through the Reilly Baldwin endowment.”
From the 116 pre-proposals, the endowment committee invited 22 to be submitted as full proposals for 2004. Of those, eight new projects received $3,500 to $90,000 for one to three years.
“Once again we were thoroughly impressed with the ideas,” says Peyton Smith, assistant vice chancellor and endowment chair. “It is very exciting to see that one of our most cherished and long-standing core values, the Wisconsin Idea,
is so healthy across the campus.”
The $18 million endowment was established in 2002 to advance the Wisconsin Idea and extend university resources to the boundaries of the state and beyond. Eight projects were funded for the first time in 2003. Six of them will be funded for one or two more years.
For 2005, Smith says a call for proposals will be announced in September. For information, contact Smith, 262-8214, or visit http://www.provost.wisc.edu/baldwin/.
Baldwin investment paying off
Several of the eight projects that received 2003 Reilly Baldwin endowment funding have been recognized nationally for their efforts to address community problems.
“The Baldwins’ initial investment in outreach is already paying off through matching funds,” says Peyton Smith, assistant vice chancellor and endowment chair, “and by engaging people around the state in learning opportunities.”
The Education in Environmental Justice project, led by geology professor Herb Wang, has been recognized three times for its examination of how poverty, race and environmental pollution affect each other. Its summer field course received an award of merit as a creative and innovative credit program at the North American Association of Summer Sessions annual meeting last fall. It also received matching funds of $7,500 through the UW System Institute on Race and Ethnicity.
One of the project’s partners, “People for Community Recovery,” was one of 15 nationwide that received an environmental justice problem-solving grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The Law School’s new Economic Justice Institute, which operates at the Villager Mall on Madison’s South Side, received a prestigious Skadden Fellowship in 2003, which is awarded to a law graduate who partners with a public interest law group for two years. Vicky Selkowe, who graduated from the UW Law School in 2003, works on cases and projects involving Madison low-wage earners. The institute also received considerable grant funding of its new Elder Law Clinic, as well as a grant to fund Spanish-language interpreters.
Another first-year project, Dance and Community, brought several thousand K-12 students, teachers and community groups to lecture-demonstrations that are linked to concerts and performances by faculty, students and guests.