Religious Studies Program at Utah State Receives $600,000 Grant

The Tanner Charitable Trust has granted Utah State University’s new religious studies program $600,000 to create an endowment for purchasing library materials in support of the religious studies degree programs. 

 

Expected to begin in 2006, the religious studies program will draw on existing courses in history, anthropology, sociology, philosophy and art in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. It will give students the opportunity to learn and understand the world of religion and its role in today’s changing world.

 

Created by O.C. Tanner, the Tanner Charitable Trust’s primary mission is to support the study of humanities. It has previously endowed a lecture series in Utah State’s department of languages and philosophy, the Tanner Symposium, in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, and the renovation of the Tanner Room in the College of Business. 

 

“The trust is an enthusiastic supporter of libraries, and we’re pleased they responded as they did,” said Norm Jones, department head of the history department. “I am particularly pleased because this grant allows the needs of the Religious Studies library to be met without drawing on the exhausted library budget.”

 

The religious studies program will soon fill the Charles Redd Chair in religious studies, endowed by the Redd Family Foundation, and the Leonard Arrington Chair in Mormon history and culture, which is supported by many donors, including the Arrington Foundation. The program is seeking endowments to support lectureships in Judaism, Asian religions, and Islam, as well as public lectures and fellowships.

 

Read more about the religious studies program in “Teaching About Religion,” from the Summer 2004 issue of Utah State Magazine.

 

Contact: Norm Jones, (435) 797-1293, njones@hass.usu.edu