Norwich University has received a $121,760 grant from the Davis Educational Foundation to be used for faculty development.

In recent years there has been much discussion in higher education concerning the benefits of learning communities. Norwich’s Vision Statement declares that the institution “will be a learning community, American in character yet global in perspective; engaged in personal and intellectual transformation, and dedicated to knowledge, mutual respect, creativity, and service.” The University has taken several steps in recent years to nurture this broad definition of a learning community, with most efforts to date focused on students.

With the help of the Davis Educational Foundation grant Norwich will further strengthen its learning community by better preparing new tenure-track faculty. Specifically, the University is planning to develop and sustain its professional and collegial learning community by requiring all new tenure-track faculty to participate in a semester long blended seminar entitled Finding Your Edge, which will be available each fall. The Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs will encourage current faculty members to participate, with the total number of participants capped at twelve per year. The overarching goals of the seminar are to develop in all faculty a rich sense of understanding and the ability to implement best practices in teaching and learning, and to enhance faculty collegiality. The seminar will set the stage for continued interaction and growth.

The Davis Educational Foundation, established as a public charitable foundation in 1985, supports the undergraduate programs of public and private, regionally accredited, baccalaureate degree granting colleges and universities throughout the six New England states. Elisabeth K. Davis and Stanton W. Davis co-founded the foundation after Mr. Davis's retirement as chairman of Shaw’s Supermarkets, Inc. The foundation is an expression of the couple’s shared support and value for higher education and has provided over $75.8 million in grants to more than 139 institutions.