The University Record, April 15, 1997
Weisbuch to head Woodrow Wilson Foundation
English Prof. Robert Weisbuch has been named the fifth president of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. A member of the faculty for 25 years, Weisbuch will assume the new post July 1.
“I know I speak for all of us at Woodrow Wilson when I say how happy we are at Dr. Weisbuch’s election,” said Eleanor Elliott, chair of the board of trustees. “From our first meeting we were impressed, not only with his excellent r ecord and his concern for today’s challenges in higher education, but also with his spirit, optimism and fervor. This promises to be another progressive era for the Foundation under his leadership.”
At the U-M, Weisbuch has served as chair of the Department of English, associate vice president for research, associate dean for faculty programs and as interim dean of the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies. For the past three years he also has served as regional director of the Andrew W. Mellon Fellowships in Humanistic Studies, administered by the Wilson Foundation.
While at the Graduate School, he established a fund designed to improve the mentoring of graduate teaching assistants, created humanities and arts awards for faculty, and made diversity an integral criterion in evaluating program quality.
Of the Foundation, Weisbuch said: “We want to be the place where educators will bring their most adventuresome and thoughtful ideas. We’ve always extended opportunities to terrific students so that they can reach their potential. Now, with a changing American population, we can work to ensure that no group of people is left out, that we get the best from all for the good of the whole culture. And more than ever, we will be a no-compromises voice for excellence in education.”
Weisbuch also noted that he’s “been very fortunate to have been at Michigan for a quarter century. Every few years I’ve had a chance to work in some way that opened out on a new perspective of the University. But it is the most basic joy, o f working with Michigan students, that I most will miss—that and my colleagues in English and Rackham, something of an extended family to me. I’ll always remain a patriot of this place and I will be returning often,” he added.
The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to excellence in education through the identification of critical needs and the development of effective national programs to address them. Its programs include fellowships for graduate study, professional development for teachers, educational opportunities for minorities and women, relating the academy to society, and national service.
