The GTU and its affiliates have benefited from the following gifts and grants:

Fletcher-Jones Grant On April 28, 1999, the trustees of the Fletcher Jones Foundation of Los Angeles approved $100,000 for the GTU's Financial Aid Campaign, "The Price of Wisdom." These funds will go directly toward GTU student aid for the 1999-2000 academic year, and represent an increase of aid above and beyond the GTU's grant-in-aid program. The goal for the direct support portion of the campaign for the 1998-99 fiscal year (ending June 30, 1999) was $150,000. The Advancement Office has exceeded the goal with $157,000 raised for the first year of the campaign.

Feminist Theology Grant In May, the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation approved a grant to support a GTU faculty position in Feminist Theology. The award totals $506,500 over the next five years. Dr. Rosemary Ruether will hold the position, which begins in fall 2000. Ruether and GTU Dean Margaret Miles will work towards developing a Feminist Theology program, envisioned as a broad-based, interdisciplinary curriculum incorporating the perspectives of feminism and gender analysis into doctoral and M.Div. studies.

Technology Planning Grant from Lilly The GTU has received a $50,000 planning grant from the Lilly Endowment to participate in a national technological initiative. With the grant, the consortium hopes to plan for consortial services which can support technological resources, plan for upgrading infrastructure throughout the consortium, and begin to rethink teaching practices in light of the new possibilities offered by technology. Training workshops for faculty to enable them to envision these new possibilities have been offered this fall, with great response. Successful completion of the planning grant should lead to a larger implementation grant next year. In addition to the grant to the GTU consortium, the San Francisco Theological Seminary is one of 40 schools to receive a separate $10,000 planning grant.

Flora Lamson Hewlett Library Receives $132,000 Grant The California State Library announced on September 16 that it had approved the library's request for $132,000 in federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funds for the continued retrospective conversion of its catalog. Among the titles to be converted are important works of 19th-century theology and titles on early California history. The library has just completed a successful pilot project, also funded by a LSTA grant, to convert 11,000 records. With this new one-year grant, the library will convert an additional 40,000 catalog cards for entry into the online catalog. This effort, together with in-house "recon" of 18,000 records each year, will move the library well along towards its goal of having bibliographic records for its entire collection available online by July 1, 2003.

GTU Endowed Presidential Scholarship GTU Board Chair John Weiser has pledged $250,000 for an endowed presidential scholarship as part of the endowment portion of the GTU’s Financial Aid: The Price of Wisdom campaign. Presidential scholarships are awarded to incoming doctoral students and cover two years of full tuition. In less than one year, the GTU has received a total of $763,937 toward its $2 million three-year goal for increasing the financial aid endowment.

Barbour Endowment to CTNS Ian Barbour, physicist and theologian and winner of the 1999 Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, has announced he will give $1 million of the award to the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences. The Templeton Prize is awarded to those who have made an original contribution to progress in religion that is primarily spiritual in nature. Barbour's work has focused on the religious implications of Big Bang cosmology. He has explored ways in which the traditional concepts of God and of human nature can be reformulated in light of evolutionary theory. Barbour's gift will endow the center's current work.

Templeton Grant to CTNS The John Templeton Foundation has granted the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences 3.5 million dollars to continue the "Science and the Spiritual Quest" project. This project gives leading scientists from different faith traditions the opportunity to explore connections between their scientific work and their religious beliefs and spiritual practices. Over the next four years, conferences in Silicon Valley, Boston, Paris, Jerusalem and elsewhere will give scientists the opportunity to engage in interdisciplinary dialogue about their research and religious questions. Visit www.ssq.net for more information about the project.