In April of 2001 the University of Minnesota Foundation and Elizabeth S. Blake announced the establishment of a University of Minnesota Morris Distinguished Visiting Professorship in the Liberal Arts, to be awarded for the first time when sufficient funds became available. The Visiting Professorship is made possible by combining a future legacy gift with a Foundation “match” and with designated endowment income and contributions.
Dr. Blake, professor emeritus of French, served as vice chancellor for academic affairs and dean at UMN Morris from 1979 until 1995. According to the establishing agreement, the Visiting Professorship was created “to celebrate and strengthen the success of the University of Minnesota Morris as an undergraduate liberal arts campus and to contribute to its continuing quest for high distinction in baccalaureate education.”
The purposes of the Visiting Professorship are
- To underscore the commitment of the Morris campus of the University of Minnesota to a program of undergraduate liberal arts
- To enhance the already rich intellectual life of the campus
- To increase the national and international visibility of the UMN Morris baccalaureate program.
The establishing agreement further specifies as follows:
The Distinguished Visiting Professorship in the Liberal Arts is to be held on a short-term basis by a faculty member from outside the University of Minnesota, preferably from beyond the State of Minnesota, who is a recognized authority in a liberal arts field within the arts, humanities, mathematical sciences, natural sciences, education or social sciences. The frequency of awarding the professorship, its duration, and its perquisites, shall be determined—according in part to the funds available, both from the endowment and from other sources—by the chief academic officer of the Morris campus in consultation with the Chancellor. The Visiting Professorship shall be awarded in rotation to each of UMN Morris’s four academic divisions:
- Humanities
- Science and Mathematics
- Social Sciences
- Education
or, if the divisional structure no longer exists, to the various disciplines in turn in a manner to be determined by the chief academic officer. An appropriate committee of faculty, staff, and students, named by the chief academic officer at least two years prior to the beginning date of the professorship, shall recommend candidates for the professorship to be invited by the chief academic officer or the Chancellor on behalf of the campus.