Class of 1954 Fund for Academic Enrichment

For our 25th reunion in 1979, we established the 1954 Fund of Academic Enrichment. Unlike many class gifts (the "Cyclops eyes" that lighted the entrance to the Thompson Hall driveway come to mind) ours has fed directly into the classroom, and it has kept giving, year after year.

2007 update

Jack Driscoll sends along a report from the UNH Foundation about our Class of 1954 Endowed Fund for Academic Enrichment, which at the end of June 2006 had reached the astonishing value of $372,262, thus doubling the actual cash value of our contributions to the fund. All hail to a robust economy and a rising market! (My late father-in-law used to say, "Never confuse a rising market with investment acumen.")

The fund spun off $12,647, which the university used to support:

* Campus visits by "leader philosophers", sadly unnamed, who took part in senior seminars and a colloquium hosted by the Philosophy Department in November

* Professor Michael Reed of Duke University, lecturing on mathematical biology, hosted by the Department of Mathematics and Statistics in October

* Campus visit by two Russian actresses and the play "The Roads We Did Not Choose", hosted by the History Department in November

* Jonathan Karp, publisher of Warner Twelve Books at Times/Warner Publishing, lecturing on the publishing industry and the business side of writing, hosted by the Department of English

Speaking of roads not chosen ... Did you ever imagine, in June 1954, that fifty-odd years later you'd have a connection with a mathematical biologist and a pair of Russian actresses?

2005 report

As of June 30, 2004, the fund had a market value of $320,418 and spun off $11,550 in "distributable investment earnings." UNH faculty used that money for the following programs:

* The English department brought poet Cheryl Savgeau and journalist John Christian Holmes to campus for a program of Native American Professional Writers. Savgeau and Holmes gave readings of their work and held student workshops on campus.

* The political science department sponsored a lecture series on "The Choice for War" in Iraq. Speakers included former ambassador to Sudan, Donald Peterson, speaking on the war; Colonel Lionel Ingram, on other options; Dr. Andrew Smith on public opinion in the state and nation; and Professor Stacy VanDeveer on trans-Atlantic differences.

* The plant biology department sponsored a lecture on the biochemistry and genetics of plant color by Dr. Robert Griesbach of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Beltsville MD research lab.

* The theater and dance department is bringing Arthur Lessac, author and teacher on the human voice and body, to campus this spring.

* The ambitiously-named Institute for the Study of Earth, Ocean, and Space (I mean, gee whiz, what have they left out?) is holding an equally amibitious lecture series: "Linking Human Health, Econonics, Energy, and Environmental Policy." Dr. Devra Davis of the University of Pittsburg will speak on "When Smoke Ran Like Water: How the Environment Shapes Lives, Sex, and Death." (I'm not going to miss that one!) And Dr. Richard Morgenstein, formerly of the EPA and an advisor to the State Department during negotiations on the Kyotol Protocol, will speak on "New Approaches on Energy and the Environment: Policy Advice for the President."

1982-2002

Earlier the Alumni Office provided a list of grants over the past 20 years. What an amazing legacy! You can be proud of where your class gifts have gone.

(Some grants were full funding, some were partial, and dollar amounts aren't available for recent years. Generally, the year shown is the fiscal year, with FY 2002 being roughly the same as the academic year 2001-02.)

1982: Political science lecture $3,000

1983: Channel 11 ballet production by Edward Villella $3,000

1984: Women's studies lecture $250; performance of Hayden's "The Creation" $2,530; health studies lecture by Kenneth Cooper $3,000; stress conference $3,000

1985: Women's studies lecture $1,000; Universities in the 20th Century conference $6,000

1986: Seminars and lectures on musical instruments $600

1987: German & Russian lecture $675; French & Italian lecture $500; Organization of American Historians lecture $1,000; math lecture $1,400; chemistry lecture $1,425; women's studies visit $1,300

1989: Biotechnology lecture $4,700; German lecture $825; health studies visit $4,000; music visit $500; philosophy lecture $708; Spanish lecture $807; women's studies lecture $900; economics lecture $2,000; Actors from the London Stage master class and performances $2,861; UNH Writers' Series $2,000

1990: Philosophy symposium $840; communications disorders visit $500; Center for Health Promotion & Research lecture $710; biochemistry visit $500; zoology visit $500; UNH Writers' Series $2,500; Russian visit $883; School of Health & Human Services presentation $700; Women's History Month visit $2,000; physics visit $564; Films of Japan $500; French and geography visit $325

1991: Seminar series on genome mapping; artist seminar series; humanities speaker; German and communciations film and lecture; German lecture; Department of Communciations Disorders seminar

1992: Philosophy conference; zoology seminar

1993: Philosophy conference; genetics seminar; art lecture

1994: History lecture; English lecture; Gay Spirituality in Literature symposium; Girls' Health Conference; Institute for Policy & Social Science Research speaker; philosophy lecture; art lecture; slide show and lecture by Jane Goodall; French & Italian storyteller performance; performance by Eric Rosenblith with UNH Symphony Orchestra; resource economics lecture; history lecture

1996: International Poetry Conference; Changes in Health Care conference; watershed management lecture; Celebrity Series master classes (American Brass Quintet, soprano Benita Valente, pianist Cynthia Raim, violinist Stephanie Chase)

1997: Performance of the Samuel Beckett play "La derniere bande"; biochemistry lecture

1998: American Sign Language lecture

2000: American Society for Eighteen-Century Studies conference; "Fantasy and Reality" exhibit of works by 18th-century Venetian printmakers

2001: visit by Hussein Sosovele of Tanzania at a Thompson School seminar; Commission on the Status of People of Color lectures

2002: visits by American Studies scholars; lecture series in Mathematics and Science Education; University-wide symposium on Teaching and Learning; Whittemore School lectures; Native American Women lecture; Undergraduate Experience Task Force lecture