Humanities in the Spotlight

The University has shown its dedication to the humanities as key to the future of higher education with the implementation of several recent initiatives.

Rochester, with Cornell and Syracuse universities, will create a “Central New York Humanities Corridor” with a three-year, $1 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The corridor is intended to connect teaching and research in the humanities among the institutions.

“The University of Rochester began as a liberal arts school focusing on the humanities. The humanities remain a core of our University,” says President Seligman.

In addition, Seligman, working with Peter Lennie, the Robert L. and Mary L. Sproull Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering, has committed $100,000 from the President’s Venture Fund for the creation of a Humanities Fund in 2006–07 to support work by Rochester faculty in philosophy, the arts, languages, and other humanities disciplines.