Funding Approved for Blair Center

The U.S. Department of Education has approved $2.55 million to establish an endowment to fund the Diane Blair Center for the Study of Southern Politics and Society at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. The appropriation was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives in December and signed by President Bill Clinton.

The center, which has a start date of April 15, will be part of the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.

Blair was a political science professor at the UA for three decades before her death last June from lung cancer.

After Blair’s death, faculty in the UA’s Fulbright College presented a proposal to establish the center. Todd Shields, a UA associate professor of political science, and Don Bobbitt, UA associate dean for research and sponsored programs, later presented a formal proposal to establish the endowment and outlining how it would fund the center.

Initial funding for the center was included in the 2001 Labor/Health and Human Services appropriations bill. The appropriation for the Blair Center will be used to support students and faculty studying Southern politics, history and culture. Full funding for the Blair Center will require an endowment of $7 million to $10 million, which the UA is trying to raise.

Initially, funds will be allocated to the Arkansas Poll in Political Sciences (a statewide survey that gives the people of Arkansas a forum for voicing their opinions to public officials), to the English and history departments for graduate assistantships in Southern history and literature, and to the three departments to launch a distinguished speakers series. Also to be filled is the Diane D. Blair Professorship in Southern Politics.

In addition to the Blair Center, the U.S. representatives also approved $921,000 to establish a Social Work Research Center in the Fulbright College.

“These centers will help our faculty and students conduct significant research in the social sciences, in areas ranging from Southern politics and culture to human service programs and welfare reform in Arkansas,” said Randall Woods, dean of Fulbright College.