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- Tuesday,
- March 16, 1999
Volume 45
- Number 24
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Endowed Chairs for Dr. LaFleur and Dr. Leichty
One of the newest and one of the oldest of SAS's prestigious endowed
chairs have been filled by current members of the faculty, Dean Samuel H.
Preston has announced. Dr. William LaFleur is the inaugural E. Dale Saunders
Professor in Japanese Studies, and Dr. Erle Leichty is the new holder of
the 96-year-old Clark Research Professorship of Assyriology.
Saunders Professor: Dr. LaFleur,
who joined the University in 1990 as associate professor of Japanese studies,
received his B.A. from Calvin College, his M.A. in comparative literature
from Michigan, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Chicago's history of religions program.
He taught at Princeton and UCLA before coming to Penn.
Dr. LaFleur has also served on the Senate Executive Committee.
Dr. LaFleur's work revolves around the relationship between Buddhism
and culture in Medieval Japan, and the relationship between religious and
social issues in modern and contemporary Japan. It has been supported by
the National Endowment for the Humanities and by a Sasakawa Grant for the
study of philosophy in Modern Japan, and has led to awards such as the American
Academy of Religion Prize and Japan's Watsuji Tetsurô Prize for scholarship.
He was the first non-Japanese ever to win the latter prize.
Now head of the cross-disciplinary Japanese Program in SAS, he is presently
in Japan working on a book on that country's debates on the propriety of
organ transplants. His most recent work is Freaks and Philosophers: Minding
the Body in Medieval Japan. Additional books include Mirror for the
Moon: A Selection of Poems by Saigyô (1118-1190); The Karma
of Words: Buddhism and the Literary Arts in Medieval Japan; Liquid Life:
Abortion and Buddhism in Japan; and Buddhism: A Cultural Perspective.
His reviews, articles, and essays have appeared in a range of publications
from The Los Angeles Times to the Chanoyu Quarterly. In addition,
Dr. LaFleur has published original poetry in such publications as Poetry
L.A. and The Silverfish Review.
The Saunders chair is named for a distinguished scholar who was a member
of the SAS faculty from 1955 until his death in 1995, at the age of 76.
He was emeritus professor of Japanese when his generous bequest to establish
this chair was finalized in 1993. Widely known for his writing and teaching
in Japanese Buddhism, Classical Japanese Literature, and East Asian Civilization,
he was the author of Mudra: A Study of Symbolic Gestures in Japanese
Buddhist Sculpture, Mythologies of the Ancient World, and Japanese Buddhism.
Clark Professor: Dr. Leichty joined
Penn in 1968 as asssociate professor of Oriental Studies, and is currently
curator of Akkadian Language and Literature and curator of tablet collections
at the University Museum. He is also a collaborator on the Penn Sumerian
Dictionary Project . His own books include volumes 6-8 of the Catalogue
of Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum and The Omen Series Summa
Izbu.
Dr. Leichty received his B.A. and M.A. from Michigan and his Ph.D. in
Assyriology from Chicago. Winning a Guggenheim Fellowship among other honors,
Dr. Leichty is a trustee of the Institute of Semitic Studies, and a member
of the American Oriental Society, the Archaeological Institute of America,
the British School of Archaeology in Iraq, the American Schools of Oriental
Research, and Oriental Club of Philadelphia.
Even though the Clark Chair was established in 1902, Dr. Leichty is only
its third holder. Dr. Åke Sjoberg was the Clark Professor from 1968
until his retirement in 1996, although he is still active as director of
the Sumerian Dictionary Project, and before him Dr. Herman Hilprecht, professor
of Semitic philology and archaeology, was the inaugural holder of the chair--whose
initially specified "duty" was to decipher inscribed tablets and
to study "all the antiquities in the possession of the Babylonian and
General Semitic Section of Penn's Department of Archaeology." This
research was intended to lead to purposes "useful to science, religion,
history and society at large." The donors, Edward White Clark and Clarence
H. Clark, were two prominent financiers of turn-of-the century Philadelphia
who developed a deep devotion to Penn and to archaeology and ancient studies.
Clarence served for a time as director of the Department of Archaeology
at Penn, but also had an active career outside academia. Later in life he
became president of the Horticultural Society of Philadelphia, a University
Trustee, and a member of the Free Library board. Edward Clark was also a
Trustee of the University who, inspired by a visit to Damascus in 1853,
developed a lifelong interest in archaeology and helped to found the University
Museum.
COUNCIL March 24 Agenda
Wednesday, March 24, 1999, from 4 to 6 p.m.
McClelland Hall, The Quadrangle
(Observers call the Office of the Secretary, 898-7005)
I. Approval of January 13, 1999 minutes: 1 minute.
II. Status Reports: President, Provost, and Chairs of Steering, GAPSA,
UA, PPSA, A-3 Assembly. 20 min.
III. Report on Safety: 15 min. presentation; 20 min. discussion
- A. Follow-up on December Open Forum issues
- B. Public Safety's practices and policies regarding arrests of Penn
faculty, staff or students
- C. Report of minority representation by rank in the Department of Public
Safety for the last five years
IV. GAPSA Report on Graduate Housing Survey: 7 min. presentation; 8 min.
discussion
V. Ad Hoc Report on Recruitment and Retention of Minority Faculty and
Students: 10 min. presentation; 20 min. discussion
VI. Library funding and future renovations: 10 min. presentation; 5 min.
discussion
VII. Adjournment by 6 p.m. |
Endowment Milestone: $3 Billion
Penn's endowment crossed the $3 billion mark on June 30, 1998 (at $3,059,401,000),
and its increase of 20.7 percent over 1997 was the fourth highest increase
rate among the 20 best-endowed institutions.
In 1998 figures recently released by NACUBO-the National Association
of College and University Business Officers-Penn continues at twelfth in
total endowment ranking (ninth if the California system and two multi-institutional
systems in Texas are excluded). Only 31 institutions now have billion-dollar
endowments-and of these, only a dozen have $3 billion or more. The top five
(in billions of dollars) are Harvard (13), the Texas system (7.6), Yale
(6.6), Princeton (5.6) and Emory (5.1). Next come Stanford (4.5), California
(3.7), MIT (3.6), the Texas A & M system (3.5), Washington/MO (3.45),
Columbia (3.42), and Penn. |
Ending Center City Mortgage Program
The Office of Community Housing announces that the Center City version
of the Guaranteed Mortgage Program will be ending. The last date the office
will process applications with a valid agreement of sale is March 31, 1999.
The will be no change to the West Philadelphia/University City programs.
--Diane-Louise Wormley Managing Director, Community Housing |
Almanac, Vol. 45, No. 24, March 16, 1999
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ISSUES | MARCH at PENN
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