University selected for Kauffman initiative

he University is one of 15 schools across the country selected to participate in a new program aimed at making entrepreneurship education a common and accessible campuswide opportunity.

Sponsored by the Ewing-Marion Kauffman Foundation, the new Kauffman Campuses Initiative builds on an emerging trend among colleges and universities to expand entrepreneurship education beyond business schools so that training and experiences are available across departments and to students of diverse disciplines.

"At Rochester, we understand entrepreneurship to mean the transformation of ideas into enterprises that generate value--intellectual, cultural, and economic," says President Jackson. "The University is George Eastman's university. Eastman's educational philanthropy--itself the fruit of his distinctive entrepreneurial genius--made it possible for Rochester to become a leader among American universities."

A $50,000 planning grant awarded by the Kauffman Foundation to the University will help fund development of a proposal to be presented in December. The foundation will award five to seven challenge grants of up to $5 million based on demonstrated ability to:

• Make entrepreneurship a common and accessible experience for all students.

• Infuse entrepreneurship into campus culture.

• Adopt a unique, innovative, and potentially break-away approach.

• Support top University leadership.

• Position the University to serve as a model for other colleges and universities.

The initiative could give the University an opportunity to expand entrepreneurship education, which many involved in the project say would benefit students and provide economic development to the community.

Those at the University contributing to proposal development include the College, the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and its Center for Electronic Imaging Systems, the Simon School, the Eastman School of Music, the Institute of Optics, the School of Nursing, and the Medical Center.

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