Northampton Community College 200 000 away from 1 6 million fundraising goal
Post on: 2011-08-30 By: admin
View full sizeExpress-Times File Photo | BILL ADAMSStudents walk across campus at Northampton Community College. Express-Times Photo | BILL ADAMSDespite launching its $1.6 million fundraising effort as the economy tanked, Northampton Community College is $200,000 shy of its goal and ahead of schedule.The $800,000 challenge grant was the largest the National Endowment for the Humanities awarded in 2008. At the time, college officials thought they could meet the goal in three years, ahead of the grant's five-year limit. The economy has meant the college had to get creative, but Northampton plans to meet the goal by June 30.“It has been surprising and it certainly hasn’t gone according to script, but what is nice about it is that people and companies have been stepping up,” said Sue Kubik, the college’s vice president of institutional advancement and executive director of the NCC Foundation.The money will be used to create a $2.4 million endowment allowing community members and public school and college students to join yearlong theme-based educational programs focused in the humanities. "The Meaning of Freedom: Civil War 1865 to Today” kicks off this fall. With the 150th anniversary of the Civil War this year, it seemed a natural theme, said Elizabeth Tyler Bugaighis, dean of education and academic success. Programming explores how the nation and the meaning of freedom have evolved, she said. Events will culminate in April with a visit from presidential scholar and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin. Goodwin’s current work, “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln,” is a book that President Barack Obama has deemed essential for the Oval Office.The endowment will allow Northampton to bring nationally known speakers such as Kearns Goodwin who the college otherwise could not afford, Bugaighis said.“Just about everything is open to the public and free,” she said. “That is kind of the whole intent.”The grant includes money to get programming started before the fundraising goal is met, Kubik said. It’s been surprising where money has come from, she said. Special events have brought in $500,000, half of which came from the college’s partnership with Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem for the Lehigh Valley FoodWine Festival, Kubik said.College employees have given $96,000 through payroll deductions, the Alumni Association gave $13,000, foundations and corporations gave almost $250,000 and close to $550,000 has come from individuals, she said.The endowment's interest earnings will fund programming, Bugaighis said.“It is there forever,” she said. “It is something very notable for a community college to have such a resource for the humanities.”The grant has a We the People designation, making it part of an initiative focused on strengthening the study, teaching and understanding of American culture and history.Events will include credit and noncredit courses, a film festival, book series, panels, podcasts and visits from speakers. Each year, the theme, which will find local angles to American events, will be selected from professor proposals by a committee of the program's partners.Northampton has partnered with the Bethlehem Area Public Library, Bethlehem Area School District, Eastern Monroe Public Library, Historic Bethlehem Partnership, Monroe County Historical Association and Stroudsburg Area School District. ***HUMANITIES MOVIESTheHistoryHollywood film series at Northampton Community College, sponsored by theNational Endowment for the Humanities, includes eight movies with a discussion or panel.The following films will be screened on the college's main campus in Bethlehem Township, Pa., in Lipkin Theatre, Kopecek Hall at 1 p.m.:Sept. 11, "Gone with the Wind"Nov. 13, "Gettysburg"Feb. 12, "Glory"March 25, "Birth of a Nation"The following screenings will be held at the Monroe campus in Tannersville in the Community Room starting 1 p.m.:Sept. 10, "The General"Nov. 12, "The Red Badge of Courage"Feb. 11, "Glory"March 24, "Cold Mountain"
Related topics: bethlehem township, pa., education, northamptom community college
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