October 4, 2018
Officials at Mayville State University have been notified that the U.S. Department of Education has awarded the university a $2,249,009 Strengthening Institutions Program (SIP) grant. The grant will be distributed over five years and was available as of Oct. 1, 2018. The purpose of the SIP program is to help institutions of higher education to become self-sufficient and expand their capacity to serve students by providing funds to improve and strengthen the academic quality, institutional management, and fiscal stability of eligible institutions.
“We are thrilled to have been awarded this substantial funding that will help us to make improvements and strengthen Mayville State,” said MSU President Dr. Brian Van Horn. “We are enjoying a time of great accomplishment at Mayville State University, and this injection of federal funding gives us an opportunity to realize even greater levels of success.”
Funded by the grant, Mayville State will establish a system of faculty support for improving pedagogical practices for teaching students who are underprepared and with diverse needs. Data collection, management, and reporting will be centralized, to become an integral and systematic function of the institution across divisions and departments for systematic planning. The third grant-funded activity is to establish a cohesive advising and student success model that coincides with academics, student life, and student supports.
Mayville State’s grant-writing team was led by Allison Johnson, MSU’s Executive Director of Institutional Effectiveness, who will serve as the project director for the grant. Other writing team members were Dr. Erin Lord Kunz, Assistant Professor of English and writing program administrator; Dr. Andrew Pflipsen, Vice President for Student Affairs; Steven Petherbridge, Instructor of Liberal Arts; Teri Wright, academic advising coordinator; Dr. Dina Zavala-Petherbridge, Director of Cultural Diversity and Inclusion and Instructor of Education; and former Mayville State faculty member Dr. Sarah Sletten.
“We are fortunate to have been awarded this grant,” said Allison Johnson. “The process of awarding SIP grants is quite competitive as hundreds of institutions apply for these grants and only a small number are awarded. This is an outstanding opportunity for Mayville State University and its students.”