Ford Foundation Grant
A $250,000 grant to seed a Presidential Initiative Fund has been awarded to Dartmouth College by the Ford Foundation under the foundation's Venture Fund program. The grant provides that the money is to be used at the discretion of President Kemeny to make possible the prompt introduction of promising innovative ideas and valid educational projects not regularly budgeted.
President Kemeny welcomed the grant as importantly meeting "one of the great dilemmas of a new college president." He referred to the problem of generating new funds, beyond those budgeted, in order to give rein to imaginative new ideas in education" in the face of both economic austerity and the long-range commitment of institutional funds. "This fund," he said "will enable me to take and to support initiatives with potential for the enrichment of higher education in general and Dartmouth in particular-initiatives which otherwise might have been lost or too long delayed."
The Ford grant will be made available in four annual installments, starting with $100,000 in the first year and decreasing in size each of the following three years, under a matching fund provision aimed at assuring President Kemeny an Initiative Fund of $150,000 each year for ten years. Under the agreement, approved by the Trustees of the College, Dartmouth will undertake to add an increasing amount to the fund each year to make up the difference between the Ford Foundation money and the $150,000 sum targeted as a "minimum critical mass" to be effective. After four years, Dartmouth will provide the full amount each year at least through the end of fiscal year 1981.
Ford Foundation secretary Howard R. Dressner said in making the award that the foundation's objective is "to demonstrate that the availability to college administrators of discretionary funds for innovation can help them respond more flexibly and swiftly to opportunities for institutional change."
President Kemeny envisioned that the fund could be used for a wide range of purposes from underwriting major experimental projects until they prove their worth and can be covered under normal budgeting procedures, to relatively small sums for exciting short-run projects. In the latter category, he said, "there are many examples of student-initiated projects which typically arise after the budget has been frozen; sums of the order of magnitude from $1000 to $5000 could make the difference between a significant educational experience and frustration for these students."
