BLOOMFIELD COLLEGE SELECTED AS SITE FOR BARD COLLEGE CLEMENTE COURSE
January 24, 2001 -- Bloomfield College has been selected as one of five institutions across the country to serve as a project site modeled on the Bard College Clemente Course in the Humanities.
This national program, based at Bard College and funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), is designed to help institutions bring a college-level learning experience to residents of disadvantaged neighborhoods. The Bard College Clemente Course in the Humanities is offered in partnership with neighborhood organizations and was established in 1995 to create a bridge to higher education for low-income individuals by providing them with free college-level instruction in the humanities.
Dr. Cheryl Evans, Assistant Professor of Teacher Education, will serve as the Program Director at Bloomfield College. Bloomfield College’s first course for the project is scheduled to begin in the fall.
Other participating institutions include Reed College in Oregon, Trinity College in Connecticut, Northeastern College in Massachusetts, and the University of Alaska at Anchorage. This dissemination project will bring the benefits of these courses to approximately 300 low-income individuals and serve as a guide in creating a model program for other colleges and universities across the country.
“This is a very exciting project,” said Martin Kempner, who is the director of the Bard College Clemente Course. “First, it allows us to bring the benefits of this successful program to a much larger population. Second, it allows us to develop a training program that will, in a few short years, help dozens of other colleges and universities offer humanities programs in low-income communities near their campuses.”
The Clemente Course began in 1995 as a pilot project in lower Manhattan. Students who qualify for the course receive one year of college-level instruction in humanities disciplines including American history, moral philosophy, history and theory of the visual arts, literature and poetry, and critical thinking and writing. Tuition, books, child care and transportation are provided by philanthropic and governmental organizations.
Students earn a certificate of achievement for completing the course and may earn six college credits for participating at a superior academic level. In addition to the primary goal of creating a bridge to higher education for its students, the program has a secondary goal of promoting their intellectual development and preparing them for fuller participation in the economic and political life of society.
Of the 514 students who have enrolled in the Clemente Course since its inception, 286 have completed the course of study, 240 have earned college credit, and 203 students have gone on to attend college or plan to do so in the near future.
Bloomfield College is an independent, four-year, co-educational institution offering 1,900 full- and part-time students programs in the liberal arts and pre-professional studies. The College has earned a national reputation for its innovative academic and co-curricular programs and for its mission - to prepare students to attain academic, personal and professional excellence in a multicultural and global society.
