National Endowment for the Humanities Awards Hartnell College $263,000 in Exclusive CARES Act Grant Program

SALINAS, Calif. ― Hartnell College is one of just 300 educational and cultural institutions across the United States to share in $40.3 million awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities from federal CARES Act funding for COVID-19.
Hartnell is the only California community college to receive the award.
The college will use its $263,000 grant, announced June 22, over the next six months to strengthen online teaching in its humanities programs, which include languages, the arts, ethnic studies and philosophy, as well as social sciences such as psychology and political sciences. The college also offers a liberal arts degree with 12 different areas of emphasis.
The only other Californian higher education institution to receive one of the grants was the California College of the Arts in San Francisco, and Hartnell was one of only a handful of community colleges selected, among such well-known recipients as Cornell University, the University of Pennsylvania and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. A total of 2,300 applications were submitted.
The award is Hartnell’s first-ever grant from the NEH, whose funding is always highly competitive and “extremely prestigious, considering that only 14 percent of applicants received an award,” said Michele Peregrin, director of grants development in the college’s Office of Institutional Advancement. The good news came just one month after the application was due.
“We submitted a thoughtful proposal that showed we were going to support and strengthen humanities offerings and teachings and thereby improve humanities education for our students,” Peregrin said.
Dr. Cathryn Wilkinson, vice president of academic affairs, said the grant will help Hartnell “guide our students in critical reflection about our human circumstances,” including COVID-19.

“I am so proud of our faculty, staff and administration who sprang into action when this grant opportunity was announced, even though we were all making adjustments to working together remotely,” she said.

With a requirement to spend the money during the 2021 fiscal year, which begins July 1, Hartnell will focus the new resources on providing humanities faculty with technical skills training for teaching and supporting students learning online, rather in a face-to-face environment.

To protect the safety of students and employees and promote public health during the COVID-19 pandemic, the college switched to all-online instruction in March and plans to continue with virtual learning through at least the summer and fall 2020 semesters.
One of the strategies highlighted in the grant application was establishment of a group of lead humanities faculty who will research and share best practices in humanities-based online teaching. Newly developed resources, such as a subscription to the virtual collection of a museum or video-hosting software, will then be shared with all humanities faculty to incorporate into their courses.
“The training will be offered to all humanities faculty, and we will have learning communities piloting and testing these trainings, while creating a continuous improvement cycle,” Peregrin said.
The NEH funds will also be used to fund adjunct faculty positions that would otherwise not be filled because of reduced state support as a result of COVID-19’s economic impact. In addition, participating faculty will receive stipends to support their additional research and training, and other funds will go for instructional supplies and materials, video production and other needs.
Along with enhanced online teaching, students will experience the impact of the grant through humanities-oriented learning connected to COVID-19, such as the societal impact of the pandemic.
Hartnell offers 31 majors and nine certificate programs in humanities fields, most of which enable transfer to a four-year university. Humanities faculty total 77 out of a total of 360. The Hartnell Library & Learning Resource Center contains 60,000 volumes and 300 periodicals, two-thirds of which are related to the humanities. With more than 3,000 of its approximately 17,000 students majoring in the humanities, the college annually awards about 1,600 degrees and certificates in those disciplines.
Aurelio Salazar Jr., president of the Hartnell Community College District Governing Board, hailed the NEH grant as a tribute to the college’s overall academic excellence and its commitment to student learning, achievement and success.
“The humanities are fundamental to our mission of serving the education and workforce needs of our district,” Salazar said. “This grant will help our students connect their learning to the historic experience of COVID-19 and its significance in our ever-changing environment.”