The Department of Special Collections and Archives in University Libraries will be named for Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus M.E. Grenander on Friday, Sept. 27, at 11 a.m. in the Special Collections Research Room, ULB 3. Grenander, a leading authority on Ambrose Bierce who taught in the Department of English from 1948 through 1989, has committed an endowment of $250,000 to the University to support its special collections and archival programs.

Through its income the endowment will support the purchase of books, manuscripts, out of print works and other research materials on such noted authors as Bierce, Thomas Szasz, Roger Sperry and Charles Warren Stoddard, all of whom Grenander has conducted extensive research on.

President Thanks Class for Gift

The Class of ’96 Senior Class Gift Project will solve an enduring mystery: what are the mounds out by Collins Circle there for?

The class, in cooperation with the Class of ’46, will finance the landscaping of the mounds at the entrance to the Uptown Campus with replacement trees and perennial flowers.

“This is an absolutely inspired gift to memorialize the contributions of the Classes of 1996 and 1946,” President Hitchcock wrote to 1996 Class President Jill Rigney. “I know that this gift will be noticed and appreciated by the thousands of visitors to the University each year and the thousands of us who study and work on campus each day.”

The President added that the project “is especially noteworthy because it is a cooperative venture with the University’s alumni Class of 1946, a unique bridge between the University’s stellar classes-separated by five decades of time but united by a single commitment of loyalty and generosity to their alma mater.”

Department of Anthropology Endowment

In an effort to encourage research by graduate students, William Fenton, professor emeritus in the Department of Anthropology, has begun an endowment to encourage the department’s graduate students to undertake their first research projects.

Printer Ribbon Donation

Nicole Pierce, a graduate student, recently donated five boxes of printer ribbons to the Reference Department of University Libraries as a way of saying “thank you” to the library for providing electronic reference services in support of her studies.

Aware of the Libraries’ need for supplies to support printing, Pierce donated 30 new printer ribbons at a cost of approximately $125 - 150.

“Nicole told me that the money came from her student loan, and that she wanted to use it to give back something to the library for all of our help,” said David Tyckoson, head of the Reference Department. “It’s a wonderful act of unsolicited generosity.”

Easton Bequest Enhances CESTM

The University has now received the major portion of the bequest to it from the estate of Jessie Englehardt Eaton ’34. The total to date is $210,000, which will be directed toward the new Center for Environmental Systems and Technology, currently being constructed at the corner of Fuller Road and Washington Avenue. Mrs. Eaton, who died in March of 1994, was a member of the Heritage Circle Society, which recognizes those making generous bequests aimed at enhancing the future of the University.