Campus News - Philanthropy

UW professor uses inheritance to help others finance the cost of college.

After her father died two years ago, Ellen Zweibel received an inheritance. She wasn’t quite sure what she would do with it, but the UW-Madison professor knew she would like to help others.

Her father, John Gould, had emphasized education. “He didn’t have a college degree, for a combination of financial and family reasons,” says Zweibel, who teaches and conducts research in physics and astronomy in the College of Letters and Science. “He fostered my curiosity, and he always encouraged me to be interested in science and the world.

“I wanted to do something to memorialize him in some way,” she says. “He was a refugee from Czechoslovakia during the Nazi era. I thought about helping refugees, but I was not really sure what to do.”

So Zweibel turned her thoughts to funding young people’s dreams. “I have been reading so much about how the cost of education is pricing so many people out of the market,” she says. “I’m very proud to be a faculty member here. I’m very proud of the education we can offer people. I want it to be as accessible as possible.”

She met with staff at the UW Foundation and discovered a new initiative that would match her gift dollar-for-dollar if it went to campuswide unrestricted, need-based student support. The foundation’s board of directors has made $20 million available to match such gifts. (Endowment funds of $25,000 or more for need-based scholarship gifts restricted to colleges or similar units are being matched fifty cents on the dollar.)

“I am in two departments, astronomy and physics, and my father liked chemistry,” Zweibel says. “So my first thought was a scholarship for a student in one of those fields, but when it was explained that there was this match, I made no restrictions. That was just too good to pass up.”

Soon thereafter, Zweibel set up the first faculty-supported, need-based scholarship endowment as part of the foundation’s recently launched initiative, “Great people. Great place.”

“I didn’t know whether the amount of money I was talking about would matter,” she says. “I didn’t know if you needed half a million dollars to walk through the [foundation’s] door. I was surprised to discover that a relatively modest amount of money can make a big difference. Would a $1,000 or $2,000 grant make a difference to a student, given that it’s less than tuition? I’m sure now that it does.”

She looks to her past for an indication of how financial times have changed. “My mother became a high school teacher shortly before I went to college,” says Zweibel, who grew up in New Jersey. “Her take-home pay was about three times the cost of room, board, and tuition at the University of Chicago, where I went as an undergraduate. That’s just staggering for a place that now, I think, costs close to $50,000 a year. The cost of education compared with wages and salaries has just gone up so much.

“Considering the kinds of jobs my parents had — my mother being a teacher, my father being a tool-and-die maker — with three kids, they could never have sent all three of us to private schools,” she says. “Education transforms people on the outside and on the inside. It makes such a difference in what you can do in life.”

Zweibel believes there’s another good reason for faculty members to support students. “I think it matters for students to know that [someone] cares about keeping them in school, especially a faculty member,” she says. “They see this other side of us, where it might seem to them sometimes that we’re creating obstacles for them. I believe it’s important for them to see that we care about making education accessible — regardless of means.”

As for her feelings about the use of that inheritance? “There certainly were other things I might have done with it,” she says with a smile. “Setting up this scholarship has brought me nothing but happiness.”

— Chris DuPré

Plans for this off-campus studio will make it an on-campus gem.

It’s not that the people at Tandem Press mind sharing space with Wisconsin’s state car fleet facility. Rather, being off campus makes Tandem Press’s mission of bringing together artists, master printers, and UW-Madison students, faculty, and staff more of a challenge.

According to East Campus Gateway plans, Tandem Press will be able to leave the fleet behind and take up residence in state-of-the-art space just east of the Kohl Center. This new home, located on the ground floor, will make it possible for people to sample many of the prints this nationally known fine-arts press has to offer.

“It has always been the dream of Tandem Press to move to campus, since we are currently three miles away,” says Paula McCarthy Panczenko, executive director. “To be on campus will enable us to increase our visibility to the university community, visiting alumni, and the Madison community at large.”

Panczenko, the board of directors, and friends of Tandem Press are working to raise $2.5 million for this important step in Tandem’s progress. Thanks to a $250,000 challenge gift from a couple who wishes to remain anonymous, the campaign was launched with a dollar-for-dollar match.

“We have been supporting Tandem for about five years. Their work is stunning. Moving Tandem closer to campus will help tremendously in giving them more exposure to faculty, students, and especially alumni,” explains one of the donors. “They will have the opportunity to display their work. This will be a natural place for alumni events. We want to see this happen, and when it does, it will enable Tandem to make an even bigger contribution to the growth of the arts community.

“As someone involved in the entrepreneurial world, I believe that in order to create a vibrant climate for entrepreneurs, we need a vibrant climate for the arts. Tandem Press is one of the university’s hidden assets.”

Founded in 1987, Tandem Press is a self-supporting printmaking studio affiliated with the Art Department in the School of Education. A wide range of what Panczenko describes as “blue chip” artists cycle through Tandem year-round.

Printmaking is a centuries-old process that begins with an artist’s design. Transferring the design to a final series of prints that reflect the artist’s vision is labor intensive and meticulous, but the results are spectacular works of art sought by museums and private collectors. Visit tandempress.wisc.edu for a look at new pieces and more information.

— Merry Anderson