Carnegie Foundation Honors Maryville
10/18/07
Maryville University has joined a select group of colleges and universities around the world, including Purdue University and the University of Manitoba, by becoming only the 11th higher education institution to be chosen as an affiliate of the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CASTL).
“Being able to say we’re affiliated with CASTL is a prestigious honor and it will enhance our academic reputation among other universities,” said Mary Ellen Finch, Ph.D., Maryville’s associate vice president of academic affairs, who spearheaded the University’s application. “This gives us access to resources at Carnegie that we otherwise would not have.” Finch said CASTL is an arm of the Carnegie Foundation, whose mission is to promote the ongoing professional development of university professors. “They believe that anyone who teaches in higher education should be a scholarly teacher,” she remarked.
Finch shares that view, which is why, in 2005, she founded at Maryville the Center for Teaching Excellence, now called the Center for Teaching and Learning. The Center encourages ongoing analysis of teaching and learning in the integration of liberal and professional studies. “By the end of 2007, 30 faculty members from a wide range of academic disciplines will have participated in the scholarship of teaching and learning, studying their teaching and the learning of their students,” Finch said…
She hopes Maryville’s new status as a CASTL affiliate will unlock doors leading to additional resources that will allow the Center to expand and serve more Maryville professors. “We have a superb faculty; we need to support and nurture them,” she said. Since 1998, more than 200 institutions have been affiliated with CASTL. Many remain active through the organization’s Institutional Leadership Program and Affiliates Program.
Maryville University is a private institution offering approximately 50 undergraduate, seven master’s and two doctoral degree programs to 3,422 students. Ranked by U.S. News and World Report as one of America’s Best Colleges, Maryville University prepares its students for successful and meaningful careers. Among Maryville’s most recent graduates, 94 percent are employed or attending graduate school. Approximately 15,000 alumni work and live in the St. Louis region.