August 29,
2005
UCSD On Track To Become 1st U.S. University With
Endowed
Faculty Chairs In All Three Major Eras Of Greek History
Over $1 Million From San Diego’s Greek Community
To Endow Chairs In Ancient Greek History, Byzantine Greek History;
Funding Nearly Complete For Modern Greek History Chair
By Judy
Piercey
The
University of California, San Diego is poised to become a world-class
leader in Greek studies, thanks to the generosity of the local
Greek community.
The campus
recently created the Gerry and Jeannie Ranglas Chair in Ancient
Greek History and the Alkiviadis Vassiliadis Chair in Byzantine
Greek History with donations totaling more than $1 million. Gerry
and Jeannie Ranglas and Carol Vassiliadis each presented leadership
gifts for the two UCSD endowed faculty chairs, while contributions
from members of San Diego’s Greek community and cultural
organizations provided the remainder of the funding.
With funding nearly complete, UCSD also expects to establish an
endowed chair in Modern Greek History. When the $500,000 goal
for the chair is met, UCSD will become the only university in
the U.S. to have endowed faculty chairs for all three major eras
of Greek history. Money raised for the UCSD Greek History chairs
contribute to UCSD’s $1 billion fund-raising initiative,
The Campaign for UCSD: Imagine What’s Next.
The key driver
behind the establishment of the three endowed Greek history chairs
is Georgios Anagnostopoulos, interim dean of UCSD’s Division
of Arts and Humanities.
“Knowledge
of any part of history is important,” said Dean Anagnostopoulos,
“but that of Greek history has very valuable lessons for
us all. The recognition of this has led many to claim that the
Greek experience is the world experience.”
“Referring
to the leader of the Spartans in the Battle of Thermopylae (480BC)
and its enormous consequences for the course of Western society
and its democratic institutions, the well-known British author
William Golding remarked that ‘A little of Leonidas lies
in the fact that I can go where I like and write what I like.
He contributed to set us free.’ Today, there is a revival
of interest in Greek history because of the timeless nature of
what it teaches us.”
“Many
universities own a chair somewhere in the field of Greek history,”
said Daniel Vickers, chair of the UCSD History Department, “but,
nowhere in America will there be a concentration of eminent historians
in one department to match ours.”
Dean Anagnostopoulos
added, “The active and very generous Greek community in
San Diego is providing UCSD powerful tools to attract and retain
distinguished faculty in Greek History. We are most grateful to
them for their support.”
UCSD’s
new endowed chairs will cover:
At the University
of California, endowed chairs are teaching/research positions
occupied by distinguished scholars. The university provides the
teaching/research position and pays the salary of the person appointed
to the endowed chairs. The permanent endowed fund created by philanthropic
gifts provides perpetual annual income in support of the teaching
and research activities of the person holding the chair.
Individuals
interested in helping to fund the UCSD endowed faculty chair in
Modern Greek History are invited to call UCSD’s Arts and
Humanities division development office at (858) 822-6618.
Media Contacts:
Judy Piercey, (858) 534-6128
Shannon Casey, (858) 822-2485
