Annual Report 2000
Donors of invention
"Fellowships are an extraordinarily wonderful invention!" says Department of French and Italian chair Maria Brewer. Citing their power to attract top graduate students to Minnesota and to stimulate academic opportunities, Brewer explains that new fellowships can improve the standing of the entire department.
Thanks to the University of Minnesota's 21st Century Graduate Fellowship Endowment, the impact of fellowships has just doubled. The endowment will match private fellowship gifts of $25,000 or more dollar-for-dollar in earnings.
College of Liberal Arts (CLA) donors are capitalizing on this chance to give back. Building on the long tradition of fellowship giving, recent donors are echoing familiar reasons to give to the college: They give in order to attract future intellectual leaders to Minnesota. They value the College of Liberal Arts as a major research institution. Their own lives have been enriched by higher education and they want the same for others. They believe that supporting education is the best investment for the future.
Looking out for students
"Even though I've lived in California for fifty years," says Gardner Roth (B.A. '45, music education), "I still cheer for the Golden Gophers." His cheers reverberate here in CLA, where a graduate student in music soon will be awarded the Katherine and Gardner Roth Fellowship.
Roth credits much of his own success to the kindness of others. "I was especially fond of Donald Ferguson. He could talk to you as an individual even though his class was a large lecture. He'd walk right back to your seat, right through the aisles, to answer your question," says Roth.
Ferguson's respect and gracious attention to each individual student left an impression on the young music student. Now Roth is returning the compliment from a generation ago by looking out for current students.
Seizing the opportunity to double the impact of his gift with the Glaxo-Wellcome 21st Century Fellowship match, Roth created a fellowship for music education.
The fellowship not only honors Roth's cherished memories of playing quartets at the Scott Hall fireplace and "horsing around with the gang in the music school" but also pays tribute to his late wife, Katherine.
Roth sums up his giving simply: "I decided to give something back, and I enjoy doing it."
Preparing leaders of tomorrow
"Why a fellowship?" Sam Kaplan asks rhetorically. "We might have done something else, like a lecture series. Dean Steven Rosenstone was very direct in saying that's fine and it would make you feel very nice on the day of the lecture, but when it's over it's over. A graduate fellowship is much more of a long-term investment with greater rewards for the students."
"And he's right," says Sylvia Kaplan (B.A. '76, political science, M.A. '79, American studies).
Together, the couple recently endowed the Sylvia K. and Samuel L. Kaplan Graduate Research Fellowship in Social Justice--the first endowed fellowship offered by the Department of American Studies.
The timing was good, they say. The Kaplan children have all completed successful college careers (three at the U), and the grandchildren are too young to apply for admission. With the extra incentive of a 21st Century Graduate Fellowship Endowment match, the Kaplans realized this was a window of opportunity.
As the fellowship begins to attract the brightest students from around the world, the Kaplans have great confidence that the faculty of American studies will continue educating scholars with the experience and know-how to confront society's most pressing issues of social justice.
Concern for positive social change is nothing new to the Kaplans, who have supported numerous political and social causes. "There are a lot of injustices in this world and this country," Sylvia says. "We think it's important to invest in social change and to invest where those dollars are going to make a difference."
With its broad base of knowledge and its focus on principles and ideas, the College of Liberal Arts is just the place to start, says Sylvia, adding, "Wouldn't it be wonderful if more of our political leaders had this kind of training and vision?"
Focus on students
Whatever their reasons for giving, fellowship donors are united in their primary concern--students. They know that fellowships have a profound and lasting impact on the lives of graduate students who will be tomorrow's intellectual leaders. They bring the best and brightest to the University. And they demonstrate to recipients the value of philanthropy--perhaps inspiring them one day to support a new generation of students.
Eric Daigre, a Ph.D. candidate in English, is passionate about bridging academia and the community. "My focus is on literacy and political participation so people can use these skills to shape their lives," explains Daigre, who has won numerous teaching awards. In his freshman composition class on citizenship and public ethics, Daigre's students volunteer with children and adult learners to improve reading and writing. "It's a transformative experience for many of them," he says. A major fellowship for his final year at the U will allow Daigre to focus on his dissertation regarding literacy in 17th century England. "The fellowship gives me the time and funds to make sure my research is in sync with my teaching," says Daigre.
"When you get a fellowship, especially from alumni, you feel honored. It's like belonging to a family or a very close organization of people who look out for each other. I tell myself that I need to work hard to earn this."
For the love of a subject
Like the Kaplans, friends of the University often give from the heart to an academic field that supports values they care about. Some have built the foundations of their own careers in that department, others feel a kind of civic responsibility to support the discipline, and many simply have a passion for the subject.
Daniel Peterson (B.A. '47, liberal arts) loved all things French--the language, the food, the art, the architecture. Although he didn't major in French, Peterson thought highly of that department at the U and fondly remembered the thrill of immersing himself in Francophone culture when he studied abroad.
Peterson became fluent in French and traveled often to Europe throughout his Wall Street career, earning a living by helping others make wise financial investments.
Shortly before his death in January, Peterson trained his keen eye for smart investments on the University of Minnesota. He took advantage of the 21st Century match and created a graduate fellowship for the study of French.
"The Peterson fellowship is a wonderful asset to the department," says chair Maria Brewer. "Really, the reward does not benefit just an individual student, but attracting the best graduate students contributes to the whole faculty, the education of undergraduates, the quality of the department, and the larger research community of French studies."
In some of Peterson's last correspondence to the college, he wrote, "The University must strive to become a top-notch educational institution that all of Minnesota can be proud of." With help from the Peterson fellowship, the bar of excellence at the University just became a little higher.
Leaving a legacy
"It's crucial to keep the momentum of my work up," says graduate student Natalya Baldyga, two-time recipient of the Kenneth L. Graham Theatre Fellowship. "Sometimes I think, 'Does anyone care that I'm doing this research? Is my work important?' Then to have someone say, 'Yes, it's important enough that we're giving you this award, this monetary stipend, to help you continue'--that academic support and validation is invaluable."
The Graham fellowship exemplifies the far-reaching effect of supporting graduate students. Established in 1980, then augmented by friends and family upon Graham's death, the fellowship has grown to comfortably support two students each year. Attracting high-caliber students from across the country, solidifying the reputation of the department, and encouraging ambitious research, the fund also maintains a legacy of a man who dedicated his life to the stage.
Kenneth Graham grew up in a small town in Kansas where everyone else went to work at the foundry. He went into theatre.
His was the first children's theatre Ph.D. awarded in the country, from the University of Utah in 1947. "You might say he was the grandfather of children's theatre," says his daughter Sherry Nelson.
From 1948 to 1980, Graham was a professor at the University of Minnesota, balancing roles as department chair, director of University Theatre, and professional actor.
Graham actively participated in local theatre up until his death in 1996. Of a 1990 performance at the Cricket Theatre, the 75-year-old Graham quipped, "They wanted someone to play an old man with arthritis and Parkinson's disease. It described me to a T."
Graham's love for theatre was brought to life through his devotion to students. Retiring from the college in 1980, Graham left a graduate fellowship in his place.
Says Nelson, "The fact that it helps graduate students was very important to my dad. If this fellowship can help other people by giving them a little nudge to follow their dreams and to earn an advanced degree in theatre, then it's all worth it. It's wonderful to know that something he believed in so much is living on."