Unlike earlier NEH initiatives such as the Bicentennial of the Constitution and the Columbian Quincentennary, the regional centers will have separate funding. Over the last few days, Mr. Ferris has met and discussed his millennial plan with members of the National Council on the Humanities and, at his request, with the boards of the Federation of State Humanities Councils and the National Humanities Alliance. Mr. Ferris emphasized that he hoped to continue to receive suggestions and comments from board members and other interested scholars including suggestions about the content of requests for proposals and the process for selecting centers. The centers are seen as collaborative with a major institution such as a university at the center but with formal ties to other regional institutions such as libraries, museums, historical organizations, state humanities councils, regional preservation centers and so forth. The centers would work with, not supplant existing humanities activities.
Major research is integral to the initiative.
The plan also calls for the regional centers to be linked through technology with other scholarly centers both nationally and globally. The centers will move rapidly toward becoming self-sustaining. After they are weaned of operating funds, the center would compete for NEH grants along with other organizations. The centers will not detract from the need for a National Endowment for the Humanities and the national presence that NEH represents. The proposed budget presents the array of programs NEH will support including activities that will require an increased appropriation.