Grants or Gifts Relating to Women in Higher Education

Here is this week’s news of grants and gifts that may be of particular interest to women in higher education.

Yale University received a $3 million gift to establish the Mary Lake Polan M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H. Professorship in the department of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive sciences at Yale Medical School. Dr. Polan earned a master of public health degree, a medical doctorate, and a Ph.D. in molecular biochemistry at Yale. She was the first woman to complete a residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Yale. Dr. Polan served on the faculty at Yale and then was chair of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Stanford’s School of Medicine for 15 years.

The University of Southern California in Los Angeles received a $4 million gift from alumna Marilyn Beaudry-Corbett to establish a fund for scholarships for women over the age of 30 who are studying for an MBA at the Marshall School of Business. After graduating from the University of Southern California and earning a master’s degree in industrial sociology there, Beaudry-Corbett became the chief operating officer of Audience Studies Inc., a marketing and advertising research firm. She then returned to higher education to receive a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in archaeology at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she later taught at the university’s Costen Institute of Archaeology.

Barnard College, the highly rated liberal arts educational institution for women in New York City, received a $10 million donation from alumna Diana T. Vagelos and her husband that will be used to fund an endowment for financial aid. Diana Vagelos is vice chair of the board of trustees at Barnard and is a founding member of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. Her husband, P. Roy Vagelos is the former CEO of the pharmaceutical firm Merck & Co.

The University of Massachusetts at Amherst received a three-year, $235,964 grant from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to fund the university’s Center for Women and Community programs to combat sexual assault on campus.

The University of California, Santa Cruz received a $500,000 donation from the Peggy and Jack Baskin Foundation to fund an endowed chair in feminist studies. The donation will be matched by the University of California Regents to establish the Peggy and Jack Baskin Foundation Presidential Chair for Feminist Studies.

Ursuline College, the educational institution for women in Pepper Pike, Ohio, received a $147,734 grant from Cleveland Foundation to fund a pre-nursing program at the college to prepare incoming students for the rigors of the nursing curriculum. The program will be open to high school students in Cleveland who come from racial or ethnic groups that are underrepresented in the nursing profession.