Academics

The M/LS Endowment serves the educational needs of the Graduate Program in Liberal Studies.  These needs include scholarships for worthy students, supporting the participation of guest professors in graduate seminars, and other activities which foster interdisciplinary studies at the graduate level at Lake Forest College.  The endowment merges funds and continues the mission of the original M/LS Endowment, begun in 1985, and the Zilversmit-Gayle Fund that began in 2003.

The M/LS Endowment honors the work of Rosemary Cowler, Carol Gayle, and Arthur Zilversmit.

Rosemary Cowler, Hotchkiss Presidential Professor of English, Emerita, was Director of the Graduate Program from 1990 until 2005.  She joined the Lake Forest College faculty in 1955, after completing her doctorate at Yale University.  She was Chair of the English Department from 1976 to 1985 and the College Marshall from 1974 to 1995, when she retired from full-time teaching.  In 1987 the British Academy awarded her the Rose Mary Crawshay Prize for her work on the Prose Work of Alexander Pope. 

Carol Gayle, Associate Professor of History and Associate Director of the Graduate Program in Liberal Studies, has been connected with the M/LS program for many years, serving as advisor to M/LS students from their first inquiry about the program through their graduation.  Professor Gayle studied at Swarthmore College and Columbia University. Originally a specialist in Russian and European history, she has recently developed an interest in architectural history and in 1998 published a biography of James Bogardus, a pioneer of cast-iron architecture in America.

Arthur Zilversmit (1932-2005) founded the M/LS program in 1977, at a time when only a handful of graduate liberal studies programs were in existence, including those at Harvard, Dartmouth, and Johns Hopkins. In 1994 he won the first Joseph Katz Award for Distinguished Contributions to the Practice and Discourse of General and Liberal Education given by the Association of Graduate Liberal Studies Programs. Professor Zilversmit, an American intellectual historian with a special interest in the history of education, held degrees from Cornell University, Harvard University, and the University of California (Berkeley).

Arthur Zilversmit "How The MLS Program Began" QuickTime Video

Contributions to the M/LS Endowment are always welcome. For more information, call the Graduate Office (847-735-5083).

Pictures from the 2004 Donors' Dinner
(click on any image for a larger version)