MN Philosophy Endowments

University of Minnesota, Department of Philosophy

This page contains information about various endowments and initiatives that benefit the Department of Philosophy.

We welcome inquiries about, as well as contributions to, our endowments. Please address your correspondence to the department chair:

Professor Geoffrey Hellman
Department of Philosophy
University of Minnesota
831 Heller Hall
271 19th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55455-0310

tel.: 612-625-8201
email: hellm001@umn.edu

Endowments

Initiatives

John M. Dolan Professorship in Philosophy

Swenson Kierkegaard Graduate Student
Fellowship

Tom Lapic Graduate Student Fellowship in
Philosophy and Social Justice

Cattron/Woodbridge Undergraduate Major
Scholarship

May Brodbeck Library Fund

Department and College initiative to enhance philosophy graduate student fellowhip support

John M. Dolan Professorship in Philosophy
John M. Dolan	Purpose: This endowment encourages faculty scholarship and research by supplying research funds to faculty, assisting them, for example, in taking a sabbatical leave. Asher Waldfogel, B.A. '79, founded the endowment to honor his mentor John M. Dolan, Professor in the Department since 1971, whose wise council at critical moments gave direction to Asher's career and life.

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Swenson/Kierkegaard Graduate Student Fellowship

David Swenson
David F. Swenson
(1876-1940)

Purpose: This endowment now provides every semester a semester of financial support without teaching responsibilities to two graduate students at the dissertation writing stage of their career. Lillian Swenson, wife of David Swenson, the Department Chair from 1935 to 1940, founded the endowment, by a bequest in memory of her husband's lifelong dedication to the study of the philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard.


Spring 2008 Swenson/Kierkegaard Fellows
Monica Berrier	Project: "Rethinking Aesthetic Concepts: Lessons from the Art of Classical Dressage"
Ian Stoner	Project: "Do the Virtues Benefit their Possessor?"

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Tom Lapic Graduate Student Fellowship in Philosophy and Social Justice
Tom Lapic	Purpose: This endowment provides summer fellowship funds for graduate students pursuing the study of ethics and its relevance to public practice. Tom Lapic, who was committed to social justice, civil liberties, and honesty and integrity in politics, died in the plane crash of October 25, 2002 that claimed the lives of Senator Paul Wellstone, Senator Wellstone's wife, daughter, and two other campaign aides. Trudy Lapic, Tom's wife, founded the endowment to honor her husband's ethical values, beliefs, and ideals. The Graduate School matches the interest on new principal for this fund from its 21st Century Graduate Fellowship Match.
B.A. in philosophy, 1976, Purdue; M.A. in philosophy, 1980, Illinois Champaign-Urbana

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Cattron/Woodbridge Undergraduate Major Scholarship

F.J.E. Woodbridge
1867-1940

Purpose: This endowment provides modest merit scholarships to some of our most outstanding and promising undergraduate majors, helping them to free up time from employment to study. Established to honor Frederick J.E. Woodbridge, Professor of Philosophy at Minnesota from 1894 to 1901 and teacher and advisor of David Swenson, the endowment originally received its funds from royalties from Swenson's translations of Kierkegaard's works for Princeton University Press but now receives them from generous gifts from our alumni and friends.

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May Brodbeck Library Fund
May Brodbeck 1917-1983	Purpose: The funds of this endowment, a memorial to May Brodbeck, help us to defray the costs of our prized journal library, a resource for Philosophy faculty and Philosophy students alike. May Brodbeck, Professor of Philosophy at Minnesota from 1947 to 1974, Department Chair from 1967 to 1970, and Graduate School Dean from 1972 to 1974, made philosophy of the social sciences a vital area of our Department's intellectual agenda by her teaching and research, a tradition of excellence we continue to nourish to this day.

Department of Philosophy Journal Library

May Brodbeck Reading Room

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Department and College initiative to enhance graduate student fellowship support

The College of Liberal Arts has agreed to help the Department of Philosophy increase our capacity to support graduate student education through endowment generated income. With the decrease in institutional support for graduate education at many public universities, it is vital we have the recurring resources endowments provide to enable us to maintain and strengthen our programs.

The Dean and CLA Development Office have committed themselves to working with us to seek to raise $100,000 in graduate student endowment principal for existing and new graduate student endowments over the next three years. The University's 21st Century Graduate Student Fellowship Match matches the income generated by graduate student endowment principal when that principal reaches $25,000. As a bridge to our fundraising goal, the college has generously pledged to fund two philosophy graduate student fellowships, one for an entering student in '05-'06 another for an entering student in '06-'07.

We welcome your inquiries about and contributions to our program to increase graduate student fellowship funds. We need your support. Please consider honoring your education with a gift that will help others in their educational pursuits. Please contact:
Department Chair Geoffrey Hellman, telephone: 612-625-8201, email: hellm001@umn.edu
or
External Relations Officer Colleen Donahue, telephone: 612-626-7642, email: donah071@umn.edu.

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Last modified December 17, 2007 .