Chairs of Honor

As new buildings reshape Pomona's campus, new professorships quielty reconfigure parts of Pomona's academic environment.

While new and remodeled buildings have been reshaping Pomona's physical landscape, professorships endowed during The Campaign for Pomona College have been quietly reconfiguring parts of the College's academic environment.

The latest professorship, the Fred Krinsky Chair in Jewish Studies, is the seventh endowed by donors since the Campaign began in 1997. In some cases, the endowments have allowed the College to create faculty positions that address newly developing fields of inquiry; in others, the gifts have reinforced existing strengths in the curriculum.

Endowments that support professorships benefit the College in several ways. "Endowed chairs ensure that Pomona's faculty will always be able to teach and advance knowledge in important fields of study," says Peter W. Stanley, president of the College. "The honor attaching to an endowed chair can be a powerful incentive in attracting new faculty to the College, or a grand way to acknowledge the distinction and dedication of existing faculty."

The Fred Krinsky Chair, named in honor of the late professor of government at Pomona, is envisioned as part of an interdisciplinary approach to Jewish studies that will draw upon the resources not only of Pomona, but also of the other colleges in the Claremont University Consortium. It has not been determined in which department the position will be placed, but it will focus on the broad reach of Judaic culture rather than on religion alone.

"This chair is designed to strengthen Jewish studies in the area outside of religious texts," says Gary Kates, vice president and dean of the college. "It's really about highlighting the contribution that Judaism has made to Western civilization. What we're looking for, first and foremost, is an outstanding classroom instructor. Depending on the person's specialty, the appointment could be in the social sciences, the arts or the humanities."

As a field of inquiry, Jewish studies has gained increasing prominence in the past two decades at U.S. colleges and universities. West Coast institutions in particular have been adding programs in the field, which is more established in the Northeast. At Pomona, donors Robert E. Price '64 and Paul F. Eckstein '62, a College trustee, have led the fund-raising initiative. Substantial gifts have been received from John '64 and Thomas '66 Bartman, through the Bartman Family Foundation, and from the Rivkin family. Others have contributed generously as well.

Fred Krinsky, says Kates, "was a dynamic, charismatic, fabulous, well-published government professor who brought a Jewish spirit onto the Pomona campus even though his research and teaching areas did not focus on religious texts. I think this chair is envisioned as continuing that spirit."

Krinsky, a rabbi and a leader in Southern California's Jewish community, died in 1997. He served on the Pomona faculty for 20 years before retiring in 1992. He had also taught at Syracuse University and at the University of Southern California. At the time of Krinsky's death, Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak, formerly of the Office of the Chaplain at Claremont University Center, said of him: "Fred Krinsky was not two people--the professor of government at Pomona College and the rabbi in the pulpit. Krinsky was one person talking to two different kinds of audiences, addressing them with a message that might best be summarized as ิthe wisdom of love.'"

The teacher-scholar recruited to the new professorship will help develop a sequence of courses in Jewish studies, to serve as the nucleus of additional offerings throughout The Claremont Colleges. Pomona is adopting an uncommon approach in the search for candidates.

"We felt that the best way to get a great teacher was to open up the search, and not to say at the outset that it's going to be a position in politics or sociology, for example," says Kates. "We are going to open the applicant pool to an array of disciplines, then screen candidates through an interdisciplinary committee," chaired by Lynn Rapaport, associate professor of sociology, and J. William Whedbee, Nancy M. Lyon Professor of Biblical History and Literature, and professor of religious studies.

"When we have narrowed the list down, we will take those candidates to the departments that reflect their specialties and ask our faculty in those departments to take a look at the candidates. It's a very unusual way of searching, but we believe it will maximize our prospects for getting the right person to fill this position," Kates adds.

Professorships endowed earlier in the Campaign also have contributed substantially to the strengthening of the College's faculty and curriculum. Last spring, a gift from John and Mary Vanderzyl on behalf of their daughter Mary Ann, a 1956 graduate, established the Dr. Mary Ann Vanderzyl Reynolds Professorship in English. Although Mary Ann Reynolds was a science major at Pomona, she wanted the endowed position to be in English because of her belief in that subject's importance as part of a broad liberal arts education. The professorship is held by Steven C. Young.

An anonymously endowed professorship in economics, with a focus on China, contributes not only to that department but also to Pomona's reputation for excellence in Asian studies. A professorship endowed in connection with the Pacific Basin Institute is another interdisciplinary link to the College's long-standing program in Asian studies, one of the oldest and one of the most renowned among the nation's liberal arts colleges.

The Roy Edward Disney Professorship in Creative Writing is an especially significant addition, having been established in part because of a specific request by students and faculty for increased emphasis on creative writing. Endowed through a gift from Roy Disney '51, the professorship will be held by David Foster Wallace, a noted novelist and the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship.

The Stephen M. Pauley '62, M.D., Professorship in Environmental Analysis, endowed through a gift from the Edwin W. Pauley Foundation, reflects Stephen Pauley's deep concern for environmental preservation. Environmental studies is another of the burgeoning fields, including cognitive science and international studies, in which cross-disciplinary approaches have superseded more traditional academic specializations. The new professorship is held by Richard Hazlett.

The first faculty position endowed through a gift to the Campaign was the Richard Steele Professorship in the Social Sciences, held by Jill S. Grigsby, professor of sociology. It was endowed through a bequest from the estate of Richard Steele '41.

The Fred Krinsky Chair in Jewish Studies, College officials say, extends the Campaign's success in ensuring long-term financial support for faculty in important academic disciplines.

"This appointment will help to make our curricular diversity even more distinctive at Pomona," says Kates.

--Michael Balchunas