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October 2007
“A Shot in the Arm” for Public Universities
UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau speaks at the Berkeley
grant press conference. Hewlett Board Chair Walter Hewlett (center),
Hewlett President Paul Brest (right), and Berkeley Vice-Chancellor
Scott Biddy (far right) sit beside him. (Photo courtesy of Steve
McConnell / UC Berkeley NewsCenter)
Association of American Universities President Robert Berdahl says a recent lunch with a vice president from the University of Minnesota was typical.
Whenever two or more leaders concerned with the country’s major public universities gather, it seems inevitable that the discussion will turn to their uphill fight with the nation’s top private universities to hire the best academic talent.
This time, though, there was a bit of good news.
Berdahl’s lunch companion, Steven Rosenstone, vice president for scholarly and cultural affairs at UM, was telling alumni at the lunch that The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation had just given the University of California, Berkeley, a $113 million challenge grant to endow 100 faculty chairs throughout the university. Read more... | | |
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Singing the Praises of Arts Education
There’s a row of chairs outside Principal Marsha Guerrero’s office, and if you’re a student at Morrison Elementary School on the outskirts of Los Angeles, it’s not where you want to be. But week after week, that’s exactly where ten-year-old Andres often found himself.
The fourth-grader’s disciplinary problems were nothing special, says Guerrero, a twenty-year veteran as an elementary school principal. “He just needed to find something positive to belong to.”
So when Andres, out of the blue, told her he wanted to play the violin like the kids in another class, the principal quickly agreed. That was months ago. Guerrero hasn’t seen Andres in the chairs since. Read more...
Principal Guerrero received this violin from Morrison Elementary students as a symbol of their appreciation for her commitment
to arts education. (Photo courtesy of Morrison Elementary School)
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“Foundations”
A Q&A with Susan Bell,
Vice President and Philanthropy Program Director
“Foundations” is an occasional series of informal question-and-answer sessions with employees of The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to give them an opportunity to explain their work.
Susan Bell, vice president of the Hewlett Foundation, also directs its Philanthropy Program, which works to improve the Foundation’s grantmaking and makes grants to improve philanthropic practice and the effectiveness of nonprofit organizations. A key element of that work is to improve the information available to philanthropists when making decisions about where to give. With the assistance of the consulting firm McKinsey & Company, Hewlett’s Philanthropy Program currently is exploring how to create such a “social marketplace” of information.
Before joining the Foundation, Susan Bell spent more than fourteen years in strategic planning, development, alumni relations, and communications for Northwestern University, the Sierra Club, and Stanford University. At Stanford, she also helped direct the Environmental and Natural Resources Law & Policy Program.
How do philanthropists, large and small, currently make their decisions, since the most helpful information often isn’t available?
Unfortunately, philanthropists who are thoughtful about the changes they’d like to make happen don’t have good tools to guide them. So they make decisions based on word of mouth, gut feel, or where they already have existing affiliations. It’s pretty clear when they come to us for advice that they don’t have an easy way to make sound decisions. Read more... | | |
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The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
2121 Sand Hill Road
Menlo Park, CA 94025
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