Following a donation by Allison and Thomas Franco, the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts (ISLA) has transitioned to the Franco Family Institute for Liberal Arts and the Public Good, which aims to increase public outreach in the humanities.
Thomas Franco is a 1974 Notre Dame alumnus, who graduated with a degree in the program of liberal studies. Allison Franco is an alumna of Queens College.
The institute formerly known as ISLA supported undergraduates, graduates and faculty through grants for research. The institute also hosted conferences, student mentorship programs and research development programs.
According to ISLA director Kate Marshall, these programs will remain but instead will shift from an internal to a community focus.
“When we changed our name to the Franco Family Institute for Liberal Arts and the Public Good, one of the presumptions of the institute is that the liberal arts are a public good. We're going to be working to support it,” Marshall said.
According to Marshall, the newly renamed institute will include additions such as a community outreach program, a spring research symposium and internships focused on media outlets. The additions seek to allow students and faculty to learn how to engage an audience with their research.
The institute will also fund interdisciplinary research collaboratives, which will involve coordination between groups of students and faculty on a project with a dual focus across fields.
“I think that it's really important to do this in an age where we are thinking very hard about what the ramifications of changes in computational technology are. Both culturally and for how we produce knowledge at a university too,” Marshall said.
On Friday, the Franco Family Institute for Liberal Arts and the Public Good will launch their website, replacing ISLA’s current one. With this, the institute will also announce its first cohort of humanity faculty fellows.
As other institutions face cuts in the humanities, Marshall noted that the institute is making sure the field is emphasized more.
“We're all ready to meet the expectations and the responsibility of being able to fund and promote the kind of work that we're doing,” she said.
According to Josh Tychonievich, the managing director of the institute, the Franco Family Institute is not a representation of something entirely new. Rather, the institute will enhance and add to the work that ISLA has been doing to reach a broader audience.
“I'm really excited that we can continue our long record of 40 years of supporting liberal arts research while also adding a new dimension that is focused on public engagement and making sure that South Bend partners with the local community,” Tychonievich said.
Student grants program manager Lindsay Paturalski said she is excited about the change as the institute will be able to offer more programming for current students.
“We don’t really offer student programming right now. We mostly just offer grants and research support. We have one program in the summer that is actually a program, so we're considering having more of that for both our undergraduates and our graduate students,” Paturalski said.
Paturalski would like for the institute to be able to offer more hands-on experience to students.
“I would really enjoy that, and hopefully it will contribute to the students being able to think of themselves as public-facing and as producing something for the public. Also, just fitting within the goals of the new Franco family,” Paturalski said.
